1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a crimping apparatus for fitting a terminal to a conductor of a flat circuit such as FPC (flexible printed circuit) and FFC (flexible flat cable).
2. Background Art
An automotive vehicle has various types of electrical equipment. The automotive vehicle is arranged with wiring harnesses to supply electrical power from a battery and to transmit control signals from control units to the electrical equipment. The wiring harnesses have electrical cables, connectors, etc. The connector has a housing made of an insulating synthetic resin and a terminal received in the housing. The terminal is fitted to an end of one of the electrical cables.
Recently, an automotive vehicle was requested having multi-functions. Thus, the automotive vehicle would have an increased number of electronic instruments. This increases the number of cables of the wiring harnesses so that the wiring harnesses tend to increase in weight and volume.
Thus, it has been proposed that flat circuits such as FFC or FPC are used for the cables of the wiring harnesses to achieve lightness in weight and compactness of the wiring harnesses.
The flat circuit has a conductor having a rectangular section and a film-type sheath to cover the conductor. The flat circuit is defined in a flat band. A plurality of conductors are extended straight and parallel to each other. The sheath insulates the conductors from each other.
Before a terminal is fitted to the flat circuit, the conductor is bent so as to fit with the terminal, for example, as disclosed in EP Application No. 1363362 B1(Document 1).
However, a terminal fitting process shown in Document 1 needs a metallic die for forming the conductor to fit with the terminal and another metallic die for crimping the terminal to the conductor. This increases the number of metallic dies, resulting in a cost increase.
Furthermore, as disclosed in Document 1, a flat conductor is directly fitted to a terminal without forming of the conductor so as to fit with the terminal. But, this fitting process can not reliably fit the terminal to the conductor, because the flat conductor tends to slide from the terminal.
Hence, an object of the present invention is a crimping apparatus that can reliably fit a terminal to a conductor of a flat circuit with a lesser cost increase.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds