GB958612A - Apparatus for continuously winding cable into coils - Google Patents

Abstract

958,612. Winding wire; doffing. O. H. ASTROM. Jan. 4, 1962 [Jan. 19, 1961], No. 423/62. Headings DID and D1T. An apparatus for continually winding up cable has a plurality of wind-up spools mounted on a holder 2, Fig. 2, that is indexed in steps to bring each spool in turn to a winding station A, characterized in that each spool is provided with at least one combined clamping and severing device 17, (Figs. 3 and 4), movable axially of the spool and so arranged that as one filled spool moves away from the winding station A, the combined clamping and severing device 17 on the next spool to be wound is actuated to clamp the cable and sever it from the filled spool. Each spool comprises four eccentrically mounted rollers 12 for supporting the wound cable, the rollers 12 having radially extending lugs 34 to retain the wound up cable on the spool. The rollers 12 are automatically turned through 180 degrees when the wound cable is to be doffed, such a rotation causing the lugs 34 to be directed radially inwards and the four rollers 12 to jointly move to a setting defining a spool of reduced diameter. In operation, a Maltese Cross 4 having five slotted arms (corresponding to the arms of the holder 2) is actuated each time a spool at station A has been filled, to index the holder 2 anti-clockwise as viewed in Fig. 2. An empty spool is thus caused to move from B to A past two fixed pins 24 that are struck, in turn, by a spider 23 coaxial with the spool to rotate the spider 23 through 180 degrees. This rotary motion of the spider 23, acting through a shaft 18 and gears 19 to 22, turns the four spindles 13 on which the four rollers 12 are mounted through 180 degrees so that the lugs 34 on the rollers 12 project radially outwardly and the four eccentrically mounted rollers 12 move to a maximum spaced apart setting. The rotation of the four spindles 13 of the spool also permits cam disc 15 and cam bearer 15a to co-operate in a manner allowing the spindles 13 to slide to the left, as viewed in Figs. 3 and 4 so permitting the cutting and clamping means 17 on the incoming spool to grip the cable T and sever it from the spool leaving the winding station. At station A a belt 26 drives a friction drum 25 to rotate the spool and wind the cable thereon, the winding being assisted by a traversing device 33. The filled spool leaves station A, loses its kinetic energy at station E and then moves to station D where pins 31 on the friction drum 25 engage a guide rail 32 to prevent further rotation of the spool. As the spool passes to station C its spider 23 strikes two further fixed stops 24 to cause the lugs 34 on the rollers 12 to move radially inwardly and the eccentrically mounted rollers 12 to move to a setting jointly defining a spool of reduced diameter. The wound cable can then be removed from the spool.