WOVEN CABLE HARNESS ASSEMBLY AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME

• US 3,627,903 A
• Filed: 09/28/1970
• Issued: 12/14/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Barclaysamerican/Business Credit Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Walter A. Plummer
• Inventors: Plummer, Walter A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Askin, Laramie E.
• Application Number:
  US05/076,096
• Time in Patent Office: 442 Days
• Field of Search: 174/71R,72R,72A,72TR,117R,117F,117FF,117M 29/461,624,628 156/47,49
• US Class Current: 174/72.00A
• CPC Class Codes: H01B 7/0045 Cable-harnesses
• CPC Class Codes: H01B 7/083 Parallel wires, incorporated in a fabric

Abstract

A wire harness assembly and method of making the same using one or more woven cables and groups of conductors along selected lengths thereof separated therefrom to provide branchout groups of conductors. A hot blade passed between a selective pair of conductors is effective to simultaneously sever the weft filaments of the woven cable and to bond the severed ends of the filaments together and/or to the plastic sheath of adjacent conductors. Cross connection between one or more conductors of different groups is accomplished by severing a selected conductor in each group at a point in the main trunk and interconnecting appropriate ones of the severed ends.

Claims

1. A wire harness assembly having a main trunk comprising a plurality of insulated conductors held assembled in at least one layer with the conductors held in side-by-side parallel relation by warp and weft filaments of thermoplastic material interwoven with one another and with said conductors, said main trunk including at least one branchout group of conductors separated from said main trunk conductors by severed weft filaments, said weft filaments embracing each conductor of said harness assembly and the portions thereof severed from said main trunk to form said branchout group of conductors being heat fused together as an incident of the hot severing thereof whereby the remaining conductors of the main trunk and the branchout group of conductors separated therefrom each remain secured together by weft and warp filaments interwoven with the conductors of each of said groups.

2. A wire harness assembly as defined in claim 1 characterized in that said assembly includes a plurality of said branchout groups of conductors branching out from different portions of said main trunk, and each of said branchouts having the conductors thereof retained securely bound together in flat side-by-side relation by heat-fused junctions between the ends of adjacent ones of the associated weft filaments.

3. A wire harness assembly as defined in claim 2 characterized in the provision of a crossover electrical junction between a conductor of one of said branchouts and a different conductor of said main trunk.

4. A wire harness assembly as defined in claim 3 characterized in the provision of a plurality of crossover electrical junctions between conductors of different ones of said branchout groups of conductors.

5. A wire harness assembly as defined in claim 1 characterized in the provision of a plurality of groups of main trunk conductors each of which groups comprises a single layer of conductors held assembled to one another by an independent set of weft and warp filaments interwoven with an associated group of main trunk conductors, and means holding said groups of main trunk conductors compactly together lengthwise of said harness assembly.

6. That method of converting a flat ribbonlike array of conductors individually sheathed in a thermoplastic jacket and held assembled in side-by-side parallel relation by weft and warp thermoplastic filaments interwoven with the conductors into a wire harness assembly having a main trunk portion and at least one branchout group of conductors which method comprises:

passing a heated thin blade lengthwise between a selected pair of said trunk conductors thereby to sever said thermoplastic filaments and heat fuse the same together and to the juxtaposed surface of the adjacent conductor jacket and providing a branchout group of conductors lying beside the remaining group of the main trunk conductors with each group separately held assembled by the associated weft and warp filaments interwoven therewith.

7. That method defined in claim 6 characterized in the step of similarly forming a plurality of independent branchout groups of conductors along selected portions of said ribbonlike array of conductors.

8. That method defined in claim 7 characterized in the steps of securing more than one of said ribbonlike arrays of conductors together lengthwise thereof to provide the main trunk portion of a wire harness, and separating portions of at least one of said ribbonlike array into branchout groups of conductors as desired and as expedient to accommodate the needs of a particular operating environment.

9. That method defined in claim 7 characterized in the step of electrically interconnecting certain of said conductors intermediate the endS of said ribbonlike array of conductors to provide an electrical path between different groups of said conductors.