EP0147711A2

EP0147711A2 - Spool winding system

Info

Publication number: EP0147711A2
Application number: EP84115105A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Elio Rocco
Original assignee: ARBE Srl
Current assignee: ARBE Srl
Priority date: 1983-12-13
Filing date: 1984-12-10
Publication date: 1985-07-10
Also published as: EP0147711A3; IT8330866V0

Abstract

The invention concerns a fine metal wire winding system, in particular for continuous electric welding wires; the system comprises a spool (3) having a central core (4) for winding up the wire (12), and lateral flanges (5), said core (4) consisting of angularly-spaced portions of cylindrical surfaces (4a). A chuck is also provided, having wire-supporting members (11) arranged concentrically and insertable between said surface portions (4a) of the core (4) so as to complete the cylindrical surface of the core (4) of the spool for winding the wire; the wire-supporting members (11) are provided, on the outer side (11 a), or wire-supporting side, with transversal grooves or scorings (13) with a helical flow, defining paths for winding the wire.

Description

This invention concerns a spool winding up system for fine metal wire, in particular, wires for continuous electric welding, comprising the combined use of a special wire winding spool, made entirely of plastic material, with a chuck having movable members for supporting the wire, capable of ensuring correct spiral winding, right from the first layer of wire wound onto the spool.
In continuous wire electric welding, especially in automatic welding apparatuses, the welding wire which is previously wound in several layers on a spool must be unwound continuously and regularly, that is to say, smoothly, in order to keep the quantity of deposited welding material constant. To do this, it is necessary to wind the wire onto the spool extremely accurately, turn after turn, with a constant winding pitch, in each sirgle layer, and substantially identical to the diameter of the wire to be wound. In particular, in preparing spools wound with wire, the initial winding phase of the first layer of wire is particularly delicate and essential for the correct winding of the subsequent layers of wire.
Spool winding systems are currently used, which make use of normal winding spools, with which considerable difficulties are encountered in winding the first layer of wire and, consequently in winding the subsequent layers; therefore, the winding systems and the spools in use at present very often call for the attention of an operator in order to arrange the wires which are not perfectly in line with the others, thereby limiting the production capacity of the winding units which require the constant assistance of an operator.
A scope of this invention is to provide a new type of spool capable of permitting a new coil winding system, which makes it possible to control the correct winding of the wire, from the first layer wound on, and at the same time reducing the operations carried out by the operator. In this way, it is possible to obtain coils of wire correctly wound onto the spools so as to ensure a regular subsequent unwinding of _° the wire itself during the welding operations.
This scope can be achieved by means of the spool and the coil winding system as claimed in claim 1.
The invention will be described in greater detail hereunder with reference to the example of the accompanying drawings, in which :

Fig. 1 shows a side view of the winding chuck constituting part of the system according to the invention;
Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the spool utilizable with the winding system of the previous figure;
Fig. 3 shows a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the device of fig. 1;
Fig. 4 shows a partial cross-sectional view along the line 4-4-of fig. 3.

As shown in the figures, the system comprises a winding chuck 1 provided on a shaft 2 which is made to rotate by means of a suitable motor, not shown; the system comprises moreover a particular wire-winding spool 3, shown in the perspective view of figure 2 and in the cross-sectional view of figure 3. The wire-winding spool 3 is substantially made of moulded plastic material, and comprises a central core 4 defining a cylindrical wire-winding surface of a pre-established diameter; the central core 4 is provided with two lateral flanges 5 for containing the wound wire. The spool 3 is completed, in the example shown, by an internal tubular hub 6 secured to the wire-winding core 4 by means of radial spokes 7.
In particular, as shown, the wire-winding core 4 is defined by portions of cylindrical surfaces 4a in correspondence with each spoke 7, the surfaces 4a being arranged concentrically to the axis of the spool and angularly spaced from one another, in a circumferential direction, and delimited on either side by parallel edges 8 leading off from apertures 9 in the two lateral flanges of the spool. The angular width of the portions 4a of the core and of the apertures 9, that is to say in a circumferential direction, may be of any desired dimensions whatsoever, according to the specific requirements and to the diameters of the layer of wire to be wound. In particular, for the scopes of this invention, it is preferable for the.circumferential distance between the opposing edges 8 of two adjacent core portions 4a to be, for example, two or three times greater than the circumferential width of each core portion 4a, for the reasons explained further on.
As shown in figure 3, the chuck 1 forming part of the winding system claimed herein, comprises a first flange 10, rotary supported by the control shaft 2, to which flange 10 are hinged members 11 for supporting the wire to be wound which are in the form of elongated members which fit laterally into the spool 3, passing through the lateral apertures 9 in a flange 5 of the spool situated on the corresponding side.
In particular, each member 11 supporting the coil 12 of wire is hinged onto the outer side of the fixed flange 10, and penetrates towards the inside of the spool 3 through radial apertures 10a in the flange 10, having an upper edge 10b defining a stop means for positioning the wire-supporting elements 11, so as to rotate in a radial plane comprising the axis of the spool 3. Each wire supporting member 11 is provided moreover, on its outer side, with a portion of cylindrical surface 11a of suitable width, having the same bending radius as the surface of the core 4 of the spool, which comes to rest between the opposing edges 8 of two adjacent core portions 4a (fig. 4), so as to define a continuous surface for winding up the wire; the wire-supporting members moreover define a sort of radially expansible chuck, which is operable from a contracted condition in which each member 11 is turned towards the shaft 2 for fitting an empty spool or for removing a spool full of wire, to an expanded condition, shown in figure 3, in which the members 11 retain an empty spool.
The members 11 supporting the coil of wire wound onto the spool are also provided, on their outer surface 11a, with a succession of transversal scores or small grooves 13, having a spiral pattern, in which spiral groove 13 has a width equal to the nominal diameter of the wire 12 to be wound, barring the usual tolerances and a depth equal to or less than half of the aforesaid diameter, so as to permit an initial path for the regular winding of the first layer of wire on the core 4 which, in turn, will permit a regular and controlled winding, turn against turn, of the subsequent layers of wire wound around themselves. This feature, that is to say, the spiral scoring on the movable elements 11 supporting the wire, proves to be fundamental in winding the wire 12 correctly on the spool and for the subsequent use of the wire itself, which unwinds smoothly and regularly during its use. The spiral scoring or grooves 13 must therefore present a pitch substantially equal to the diameter of the wire to be wound.
The expansion of the sectors 11 defining the wire-supporting elements which can be inserted and removed from the spool 3, may be achieved in any desired way; for example, in the case illustrated in which the expansible sectors 11 are hinged at 15 to the fixed flange 5, at the opposite end to that of the hinge they may be provided with cam surfaces 15a which are inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of the elements 11 themselves, which comes into contact with an inclined surface of corresponding cams 16 provided on the inner side of a movable flange 17 situated on the side of the spool opposite the fixed flange 5. The various cams 16 consequently present a circumferential disposition concentric to the axis of the spool 3 and of the shaft 2, by arranging their inclined surfaces in a cone, the apex of which is situated on the shaft 2 and points towards the fixed flange 5. The movable flange 17 is provided on a sleeve 18 sliding axially on the shaft 2 which may be locked in its operative position for example by means of a split ring 19 or in any other suitable way.
On the outside and coaxially to the sleeve 18 is a ring nut 20 which is axially movable in a controlled manner with respect to the sleeve, for example by means of micrometric threading 21 so as to bias a disc 22 arranged on the outer side, of the movable flange 17 and provided with shoulder elements 22a which protrude from corresponding apertures 23 in the movable flange 17 and come to rest astride the corresponding lateral apertures 9 in the flange 5 of the spool, for fine adjustment of the width of the band of wound wire between the two flanges 5 of the spool.
The winding system operates as follows: assuming that the ring 19 has been loosened and that the movable flange 17 and should disc 22 assembly has been removed from the shaft 2 and that the sectors 11 supporting the wire are allowed to rotate in their contracted condition towards the shaft 2; in these conditions, it is possible to insert an empty spool 3, bringing it to rest against the fixed flange 10. At this point, the movable flange 17 and disc 22 assembly is fitted onto the shaft 2 again, unfil the cams 16 come into contact with the inclined cam surfaces 15a of each sector 15. As the movable flange 17 is pushed further forward, the cams 16 act upon the inclined surfaces 15a to expand the sectors 11 until they are made to rotate into the condition shown in figure 3, coming to rest against stop means defined, for example, by the upper edge of the aperture 5a, in which the peripheral cylindrical surface 11a of each sector 11 comes to rest flush with the surfaces of two core portions 4a of the spool, thus completing the wire -winding surface. In this way, the aforesaid surface will be made up, in a circumferential direction, of a series of alternately scored and smooth surface bands, in which each spiral groove of a scored surface continues along a matching groove, belonging to the same helix, on the adjacent scored surfaces. After having positioned the movable flange 17, the split ring 19 is retightened locking the chuck in its expanded condition with the spool 3 firmly secured to it.
At this point, the threaded ring nut 20 is turned either in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction to adjust the position of the lateral shoulder elements 22a; this adjustment can be made easier by providing a fixed reference means and notches 24 on the adjusting nut 20.
At this point, the shaft 2 of the chuck 1 and spool assembly 3 can be made to rotate to wind up the wire 12, starting by winding on the first layer of wire, the spirals of which will fit correctly into the grooves 13, one beside the other, thus avoiding errors and preventing the spirals of the first layer from lying too close or too from from one another, which could negatively affect the winding of the spirals of the subsequent layers of wire. The subsequent layers can therefore continue to be wound onto the spool, one over the other, completing the entire winding of the wire 12 without danger of the spirals overlapping or shifting which, with the known winding systems, are cause of frequent production rejects due to the faulty execution of the coil winding.
Upon completion of the winding, the movable flange 17 and the disc 22 are released and removed from the chuck shaft 2 in order to replace the full spool with another empty spool.
It is understood therefore that other solutions or embodiments of the chuck and wire-winding spool are possible within the scope of this invention, without prejudice to the principles set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. Coil winding system for winding, turn against turn, fine wires, in particular metal wires for continuous electric welding, comprising a spool (3) having a central core (4) for winding the wire, secured to lateral flanges (5), characterized by the fact that the central core (4) of the spool (3) is peripherally delimited by portions (4a) of surfaces, angularly spaced apart, in a circumferential direction, said core surfaces (4a) being provided with lateral edges (8) leading off from apertures (9) in the flanges (5) of the spool (3), and by the fact that a chuck (1) is provided for supporting the spool (3), having wire-supporting members (11) which can be removably inserted between the surface portions (4a) of the aforesaid core (4); each wire-supporting member (11) being externally provided with a cylindrical surface portion (11a) designed to complete the surface of the core (4) on which the wire is wound, said surface portion (11a) of each wire-supporting member (11) being provided with transversal grooves (13) having a spiral pattern, defining a winding path for the wire itself.

2. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that the wire-supporting members (11) are hinged on one end to a flange (10) secured to a control shaft (2), and are provided on the opposite end with sloping cam surfaces (11a) co-operating with cam means (16) on a flange (17) which is axially movable in opposition to the first flange (10), and locking means (19) for locking the movable flange (17) against a spool (3) with the wire-supporting members (11) in their expanded condition.

3. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 2, characterized by the fact that said cam means are made up of a set of protrusions (16) each provided with a sloping front surface, said protrusions (16) being situated on one side of the movable flange (17) with a circumferential arrangement concentric to the control shaft (2).

4. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 3, characterized by the fact that said sloping surfaces of the cams (16) controlling the wire-supporting members (11), are arranged according to the surface of a cone having its apex facing towards the fixed flange (10) of the chuck.

5. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that said wire-supporting members (11) are movable in radial planes comprising the longitudinal axis (2) of the chuck.

6. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that stop means (10b) are provided for holding the wire-supporting members (11) in their expanded condition.

7; Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that the grooved surfaces (11a) of the wire-supporting members (11) succeed one another, alternating circumferentially with the core portions (4a) of the spool.

8. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that the spiral grooves (13) on the wire-supporting members (11) are equal in width to the nominal diameter of the wire to be wound, and equal or smaller in depth than one half of the aforesaid diameter.

9. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 8, characterized by the fact that said spiral grooves (13) have a pitch equal to the nominal diameter of the wire to be wound.

10. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by the fact that shoulder means (22a) for laterally supporting the wire to be wound are provided, and by the fact that means (20, 22) are provided for adjusting the position of said shoulder means (22a) in the direction of the axis of the chuck.

11. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 10, characterized by the fact that said shoulder means comprise shoulder elements (22a) arranged concentrically on a movable disc (22) in correspondence with apertures (9) in the lateral flanges (5) of the spool.

12. Coil winding system as claimed in claim 11, characterized by the fact that said shoulder supporting disc (22) is situated on the outer side of the movable flange (17), and by the fact that said shoulder elements (22a) protrude on the opposite side of the flange (17) through apertures (23) in the movable flange itself.

13. Spool for winding metal wires for continuous electric welding, comprising a central core (4) supporting the wire and lateral flanges (5), characterized by the fact that said core is made up of core sectors (4a) angularly spaced apart in a circumferential direction, said core sectors (4a) being delimited by flat lateral edges (8) leading off from apertures (9) in the flanges (5) of the spool.

14. Spool as claimed in claim 13, characterized by the fact that the distance between the opposing edges (8) of two adjacent core sectors (4a) is equal to two or three times the circumferential width of the core sectors (4a) themselves.