Abstract: Crimping press comprises an anvil and a die which is movable towards and away from the anvil. The anvil is moved by a rotating shaft having a crank-type coupling to the die. The shaft is capable of limited movement in the direction of movement of the die towards the anvil. The shaft is supported against such movement by a yieldable shaft support that is calibrated to resiliently yield upon development of a predetermined reaction force in the die during the final stages of crimping. When a terminal is crimped onto a relatively small diameter wire, the shaft will not be moved at all or will be moved by only a slight amount if the predetermined force is reached. When a terminal is crimped onto a larger diameter wire, the predetermined reaction force will be developed before the die reaches the limit of its travel towards the anvil and the shaft will move away from the anvil to accommodate the remaining movement of the crank pin.

Abstract: The contact positioning apparatus comprises a plurality of contact holding portions (11, 11') adapted to receive a series of contacts at a first pitch and to deliver the contacts to a second, different pitch. The portions (11, 11') are arranged in spaced parallel coplanar relation and are supported from a carriage (19) on respective cranks (13, 14) individually rotatable by respective pinions (16, 16'). Arms (13, 13') of the cranks are of progressively increased length and elements (55, 23) provide for bringing the pinions (16, 16') into engagement with a common rack (27), traversable to rotate the cranks and bring the contact holding portions to the desired different pitch. The carriage is suitably supported on an XYZ positioning mechanism to move the contacts between receiving and discharge stations.

Abstract: A wire holding head (13) reciprocable between a wire supply and a wire terminating station (11) includes a wire guide (62) pivoted on the front of a wire clamp (61) and an abutment (20) carried by a wire insertion ram (14) which moves the guide towards a connector support (15) to align leading ends of wires with contacts in a connector (17). The connector supports (15) are mounted on indexed turrets (19) and wire locating combs (51) are engageable with the wires between a severing and stripping station (12) and the terminating station (11).