WO2019039959A1 - Apparatus for measuring the mating and unmating force of connectors - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to measuring and testing equipment, and more particularly to devices for measuring the unmating force of connectors, inter alia multipin connectors. The technical result of the claimed invention is that of increasing the accuracy with which mating and unmating forces are measured, inter alia by enhancing accuracy of movement while simplifying the structure and increasing the reliability of both structure and measurements. An apparatus for measuring the mating and unmating force of connectors comprises a base, a fixed baseplate, a movable baseplate, two retaining members capable of receiving connectors, a stepper motor with a lead screw, a strain gauge, and a control module capable of storing information about the retaining members. The fixed and movable baseplates are disposed on the base and are connected by guides, wherein the movable baseplate is capable of moving along the guides. The movable baseplate and the fixed baseplate each have a retaining member mounted thereto by a pin connection. The strain gauge is connected to the fixed baseplate by a link mechanism, and the movable baseplate is connected to the stepper motor by the lead screw.

Description

 INSTALLATION FOR MEASUREMENT OF JOINT OF INTERCONNECTION AND DISTRIBUTION

 CONNECTORS

 5 The invention relates to measuring and testing equipment, in particular to devices for measuring the force of the dismemberment of connectors, including multi-pin.

 The closest analogue of the claimed invention is a technical solution, known from JP H10315063, which is a device for measuring the force of articulation and dismemberment. The installation consists of a base and two base plates, one of which is movable. Base plates are located on the same axis. The installation also contains a strain gauge sensor located on one of the base plates, and a controller of the location of the base plates. Installation allows for

15 measurement of the force of articulation and dismemberment of connectors in one test cycle.

 However, this design uses a sliding mechanism based on a hydraulic piston, which requires careful adjustment and sensitive, high-precision electronic adjustment, which requires

20 additional controls of the device, complicates the design and configuration of the device, as well as reduce its reliability.

 The technical problem to which the invention is directed, lies in the complexity of the design and the lack of reliability of the known installations for measuring the force of articulation and dismemberment

25 connectors.

 The technical result of the claimed invention is to improve the accuracy of measuring the forces of articulation and dismemberment, including by increasing the accuracy of movement while simplifying the design and increasing the reliability of the design and measurements.

This technical result is achieved due to the fact that the installation for measuring the force of articulation and dismemberment of connectors contains a base, a stationary and a movable base plate, two clips made with the possibility of housing connectors, a stepper motor with a lead screw, a strain gauge and a control module, performed with

35 the ability to store information about the clips, while still and the movable base plates are placed on the base and connected by guides, the movable base plate being movable along the guides, on the movable and fixed base plates placed on the cage by means of a pin fit, the strain gauge 5 is connected to the fixed base plate by means of a rockerboard, and the movable base plate connected to a stepper motor with a spindle.

 Installation can be equipped with a touch panel.

 The touch panel can be placed in a separate housing, mounted on the bracket.

 The touch panel can be configured to enter and edit installation parameters

 The touch panel can be configured to display the current values of parameters and modes of measurement.

15 The installation consists of a basic mechanical installation, consisting of a base, movable and fixed base plates. The movable base plate is driven by a stepper motor. The fixed base plate is connected to a strain gauge, the signal of which is used to measure the force of articulation and / or dismemberment of the 20 test connectors. The inventive installation allows you to measure and efforts of articulation, and the efforts of the dismemberment of the connectors in one test cycle, which contributes to improving the measurement accuracy.

 The location of the fixed and movable base plates on the same guides ensures high accuracy of movement of the movable base plate 25 relative to the fixed, connected by a strain gauge, which contributes to improved measurement accuracy.

 On each of the base plates, mobile and stationary, a specialized seat is installed - a clip corresponding to the type of connector under test. The use of a pin fit of the clips on the base plates ensures high accuracy (alignment) of movement of the clips together with the base plates, which provides an increase in the accuracy of measurements.

The connection of the fixed base plate with the strain gauge using the rocker mechanism allows you to compensate for the bending of the strain gauge when moving the base plates, which allows improve the accuracy of measuring the forces of articulation and dismemberment of test connectors.

 The use of a lead screw driven by a stepper motor to move the movable base plate can significantly improve the positioning accuracy and allows you to uniquely control the relative position and speed of movement of the movable base plate relative to the fixed one.

 Simultaneous control by the displacement process control module with control of the magnitude of the force by the strain gauge sensor allows the movement process to be stopped when the strain gauge locks the force value exceeding the maximum permissible values.

 The control module with the database of identifiers allows you to unambiguously set the required parameters for the measurements, including the speed of movement and the required clearances, for the corresponding type of connectors under test, which ensures the accuracy of compliance with the measurement modes.

 The best embodiment of the claimed invention is shown in figures 1-6, which depict:

 FIG. 1 - installation view from above;

 FIG. 2 - installation side view;

 FIG. 3 - cutout cut-out of the chassis body;

 FIG. 4 - installation view from the front end;

 FIG. 5 - a general view of the installation;

 FIG. 6 - rocker mechanism.

FIG. 1-6 positions 1-30 are shown:

 1 - base;

 2 - fixed plate;

 3 - movable plate;

 4 - a holder;

 5 - stepper motor;

 6 - strain gauge;

 7 - guide;

 8 - rocker mechanism;

 9 - coupling;

10 - fixed support; 11 - the holder;

 12 - limit switch bracket:

 13 - frame;

 14 - adjustable support;

 15 - stepper motor bracket;

 16 - limit switch;

 17 - the case of the measuring unit;

 18 - module with linear bearing;

 19 - spindle;

 20 - nut;

 21 - the body of the spindle;

 22 - cross member;

 23 - protective casing;

 24 - touch panel;

 25 - touch panel case;

 26 - touch panel bracket;

 27 - the first rocker arm;

 28 - second rocker bracket

 29 - rocker;

 30 is the axis.

 Installation for measuring the force of articulation and dismemberment of connectors contains the base ^ fixed 2 and movable 3 base plates, two clips 4, made with the possibility of accommodating connectors, stepper motor 5 and strain gauge 6.

 The fixed 2 and movable 3 base plates are placed on the base 1 and are connected by guides 7.

 The strain gauge sensor 6 is connected to the fixed base plate 2 by means of the rocker mechanism 8. The movable base plate 3 is connected to the stepper motor 5.

 In this case, a ball screw driven by a stepper motor 5 is used as the lead screw 19.

The choice of engine is determined by the maximum effort that needs to be developed and the ability to carry out controlled rotation with the required speed, direction and accuracy according to commands from the control module. If it is necessary to realize large efforts at articulation and dismemberment in order to eliminate possible “skipping steps” and thereby increase the accuracy of movement, an additional incremental sensor can be mounted on the shaft of the ball screw gear that fixes angular movements with high accuracy.

 In this case, one full turn of the 360 ° stepper motor 5 takes 3,200 steps, which ensures the displacement of the movable base plate 3 by 5 mm. The inventive device allows you to set different speeds of movement in different areas and to maintain its value with a sufficiently high accuracy. In this case, it is possible at the site before the measurements to set this speed to the maximum to accelerate the measurement process, and at the site of the measurements to maintain its value in accordance with the requirements of GOST or Technical Conditions for this procedure. When fixing the excess force, it is possible to stop the movable plate 3 or start moving back. At the same time, the position of the movable plate 3, that is, its current coordinate, where the excess force occurred, is precisely known. Thus, a stepper motor 5 or a servo drive in a specific implementation in combination with a ball screw transmission allows you to simultaneously guarantee compliance with the set speed and the movement at specified distances with high accuracy, in this case, about 5 micrometers.

 On each of the base plates, movable 3 and fixed 2, a specialized seat is installed - a holder 4 corresponding to the type of the tested connector. On the movable 3 and fixed 2 base plates of the holder 4 are placed by pin-fit.

 The base 1 is fixed on the frame 13 with adjustable supports 14. The stepper motor 5 is fixed on the base 1 by means of the bracket 15 of the stepper motor.

The shaft of the stepping motor 5 is connected to the lead screw 19 through the coupling 9. The lead screw 19 is fixed in the fixed supports 10. The nut 20, fastened through the housing 21 of the lead screw 19 to the movable base plate 3, is designed to convert the rotational motion of the shaft of the stepping motor 5 into translational. The possibility of sliding the movable plate 3 is implemented using modules 18 with a linear bearing along the guides 7 fixed in the holders 11. The stationary plate 2 also rests on the guides 7.

 The strain gauge sensor 6 is connected to the cross member 22 attached to the frame 13.

 The limit switch 16 is connected to the base 1 by means of a bracket 12 of the limit switch.

 The control unit of the stepper motor, the power source, the signal processing module and the controller of the stepper motor (not shown) with a strain gauge 6 are located in the housing 17 of the measuring unit.

 The protective cover 23 closes from direct access to the rotating elements of the installation.

 The touch panel 24 is inserted into the housing 25 of the touch panel, made of plastic and mounted on the bracket 26 of the touch panel, and is designed to control the measurement process. The control and indication module is made on the basis of the touch panel 24 of the SPK110 model.

 The rocker mechanism 8 consists of the first rocker bracket 27, the second rocker bracket 28, the scenes 29 and the axles 30.

 The device works as follows.

 The test connector is placed in the holder 4: a separate part for the plug and a separate part for the outlet. Then one holder 4, located on the movable base plate 3, is driven by commands from the control module, and the second part, located on the fixed base plate 2, transmits the force created by the coupling and dismemberment of the plug and socket to the strain gauge 6.

 The movement of the movable base plate 3 is controlled by the controller of the stepper motor 5 by commands from the control and display module.

The signal of the strain gauge sensor 6 is digitized by a specialized ADC, the results of which are processed by the control and display module equipped with a microprocessor. Depending on the current mode of operation and the received data on the amount of force, commands from the control and display module log the measurement results, change the direction and speed of movement. The power source generates a constant voltage of 24 V from a supply voltage of 220 V / 50 Hz.

 To reduce the effect of thermal EMF in the connecting wires from strain gauge b to input (measuring) circuits of the ADC, the strain gauge 6 is powered by an alternating signal, followed by digital filtering of interference from the industrial network with frequencies of 50.100 and 150 Hz.

 The interaction between the control and display module and the measuring module is carried out via the USB bus, and between the control and display module and the stepper motor controller via the RS-485 bus MODBUS-RTU protocol.

 When changing the type of test connector, i.e. a different mounting structure of the tested connector in the cage 4, the specialized seat is replaced with the corresponding type of the tested connector and the installation is initially calibrated.

 The clips 4 for each type of test connector have an identifier informing the installation of the characteristics of this type: the maximum allowable force, the movement speed when conducting control measurements of the force, the distance at which it is necessary to control the force, etc.

 These examples are special cases and do not exhaust all possible implementations of the claimed invention.

 It should be clear to a person skilled in the art that various variations of the claimed device do not change the essence of the invention, but only determine its specific embodiments.

Claims

CLAIM  1. Installation for measuring the force of articulation and dismemberment of connectors, characterized in that it contains a base, a fixed and a movable base plate, two clips configured to accommodate the cage connectors, a stepper motor with a lead screw, a strain gauge and a control module configured to storage information about the clips, while the fixed and movable base plates are placed on the base and are connected by guides, and the movable base plate is arranged to move along ravlyaetsya on the movable and fixed base plates taken on the pin holder by planting strain gauge is connected to the fixed base plate by a rocker mechanism, and the movable base plate is connected to the stepper motor through the lead screw.  2. Installation under item 1, characterized by the fact that it is equipped with a touch panel.  3. Installation according to claim 2, characterized in that the touch panel is placed in a separate housing mounted on the bracket.  4. The installation according to claim 2, characterized in that the touch panel is configured to enter and edit installation parameters. 5. Installation according to claim 2, characterized in that the touch panel is made with the ability to display the current values of parameters and modes of measurement.