GB1010167A - Improvements in or relating to centerless machines for the helical winding of tapes and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

1,010,167. Coiling. C. GUITON. April 3, 1964 [April 10, 1963], No. 13873/64. Heading B3E. [Also in Division F2] In a machine for the continuous helical winding of a tape 8 wherein the tape is paid out from a feed spool 11 mounted on a fixed support and wound in the form of concentric convolutions 8a, 8b on rollers 7 carried by a rotary annular plate 1 before being wound as a helix on a mandrel in the central portion of the plate, the rollers are mounted on crank arms 5 movable on the plate in the direction of the centre of the plate in order to vary the perimeter of the polygon of which the rollers constitute the vertices and along which the different concentric convolutions of the tape are wound. A device is provided for moving the rollers outwards under normal operating conditions and thus tensioning the tape and is adapted to cause the simultaneous displacement of all the rollers towards the centre of the plate 1 when a feed spool has become exhausted and the free or trailing end of the tape has to be joined to the leading end of a refill spool without stopping the machine. As shown, the plate I is mounted on rollers 30 and rotated by a motor 32, and the arms 5 are carried on spindles 3 which mount sprockets 4 connected by a chain 12 attached at one end to a pneumatically-operated pistoncylinder assembly 13 and at the other end to a tension spring 14. In operation, the tape 8 is wound to form concentric convolutions on the rollers 7, the innermost layer 8a passing over an adjustable and pivoted tensioning device 15, or a braked roller, and wound helically on to a mandrel 10. Before the trailing end of the tape leaves the spool 11 an electromagnetic device is operated to cause the jaws of a clamp 24 to become interlocked on the tape, the clamp engaging in notches 21, in plates 19a carried by an annular member 17 which is then carried along by the plate 1 until it is desired to hold the outermost convolution 8b of the tape against motion when a brake 22 is actuated to lock the member 17; air pressure is applied to the piston cylinder device 13 to cause the spring 14 to exert a tractive effort on the chain when the rollers 7 pivot towards the mandrel to allow the inner convolutions of the tape to be wound on the mandrel while the trailing end of the tape is connected to the leading end of a new spool of tape. The clamp 24 is then removed. The tapes may be joined upstream or downstream of the clamp and alternatively, the electromagnetic device is dispensed with and a clamp provided on the feed spools 11. The machine may be used for winding tape convolutely.