Process for nondestructive evaluation of the quality of a crimped wire connector

1. A process for nondestructive evaluation of the quality of a crimped wire connector, comprising;

providing a crimping tool having an anvil on which a wire circumscribed by a terminal is positioned, an upper jaw movable relative to the anvil to compress the terminal between the anvil and the jaw, a transmitting ultrasonic transducer mounted on one of the anvil and the jaw, and a receiving ultrasonic transducer mounted on the other of the anvil and jaw;

moving the jaw relative to the anvil to close the distance between the jaw and the anvil, and thereby compress and crimp the terminal against the wire to form the crimped wire connector;

detecting the position of the jaw relative to the anvil during the movement;

recording the detected positions of the jaw as a function of time as it approaches the anvil;

transmitting ultrasonic waves from the transmitting ultrasonic transducer while moving the jaw relative to the anvil, such that the ultrasonic waves are propagated through the terminal and wire;

receiving ultrasonic waves at the receiving transducer while moving the jaw relative to the anvil;

recording the received ultrasonic waves;

detecting and recording amplitudes of the received ultrasonic waves as a function of time as the jaw is moving relative to the anvil; and

predicting the quality of the crimped wire connector based on:

a comparison of one or more of received wave properties to one or more reference wave properties corresponding to one or more reference crimped wire connectors, wherein the one or more reference crimped wire connectors have one or more known quality characteristics; and

a comparison of one or more detected jaw properties to one or more reference jaw properties corresponding to one or more reference crimped wire connectors.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the received wave properties utilized in the comparison include one or more of wave amplitude, wave energy, wave frequency, a curve plotted from any of these properties as a function of time, or a combination thereof.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting ultrasonic transducer, the anvil, and the receiving ultrasonic transducer are axially aligned transverse to a length direction of the wire.

4. The process of claim 3 , wherein the recorded jaw positions and detected amplitude are digitized and stored for subsequent evaluation by an algorithm operating on a computer.

5. The process of claim 4 , wherein jaw position and detected amplitude are continuously sampled, detected and recorded from at least initial mutual contact between the terminal-wire arrangement and the jaw, and between the terminal-wire arrangement and the anvil, to a time at which separation between the jaw and the crimped connection occurs.

6. The process of claim 5 , wherein the transmitted ultrasonic wave has a frequency in the range from about 5 MHz to about 70 MHz.

7. The process of claim 5 , wherein the transmitted ultrasonic wave has a frequency in the range from about 20 MHz to about 50 MHz.

8. The process of claim 5 , further comprising:

determining whether a pathology exists in the crimped wire connector, based one at least one of the comparisons, wherein the pathology comprises a pathology with wire tempering, terminal tempering, machine malfunction, wire thickness, missing wire strands, wire contamination with a foreign substance, or presence of an insulation section caught within the crimped connection.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the detected jaw properties utilized in the comparison include one or more of jaw position, jaw speed relative to the anvil, jaw acceleration relative to the anvil, or a combination thereof.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the predicting of the quality of the crimped wire connector occurs in real-time, during the formation of the crimped wire connector.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein the received wave properties utilized in the comparison are plotted as a function of time, and slopes of the plotted curves are compared.