GB1126671A - Manufacture of wire strands - Google Patents

Abstract

1,126,671. Making wire strand; creels. BRITISH ROPES Ltd. 20 Dec., 1965 [22 Dec., 1964; 2 June, 1965], Nos. 51983/64 and 23558/65. Headings D1J and D1T. A method manufacturing a wire strand, comprises supporting a plurality of supply packages 2, Fig. 1A, of round wire on means 5 in stationary attitudes, leading wires I from the packages 2 to a plying point 6, pulling a resultant plied strand away from the plying points while the strand rotates, restraining rotation of each wire I at a first point 4 between the package 2 and the plying point 6, and positively rotating each wire about its own axis at a second point 7 between the first point 4 and the plying point 6 at a speed so related to the speed of rotation of the strand at the plying point 6, and the rates of pulling of strand away from the plying point 6, that each wire undergoes elastic and plastic tortional deformation on passing the first point 4, and undergoes at least partial elastic recovery on passing the second point 7. As illustrated the means for positively rotating each wire about its own axis at the second point 7 comprises two pulleys mounted in a rotating carrier, the wire being wrapped around each pulley and the groove of each pulley being in a plane containing the axis of rotation of the carrier. In a modified construction there is only one of these pulleys per wire. The means at the first point 4, for preventing the twist in the wire from travelling back to the package 2, comprises at least one pulley tangential to the axis of rotation of its associated carrier at the second point 7. The or each of these pulleys rotate about a fixed axis and the wires are wrapped round these pulleys. In Fig. 1A, the core wire 18 is supplied from a separate package 44. In a preferred form of the method each wire undergoes between two and ten twists per length equal to 100 times the diameter of the wire. Each wire between the first point and the second point may have an unsupported length not exceeding 500 times the diameter of the wire. The apparatus includes a cage 26 which rotates and carries rollers 28 that nip the strand to make it straight and of uniform construction, and to neutralise tortional stresses. Fig. 1B, (not shown) shows the pulling means 10 for the wire. The pulling means comprises a drum 62 around which the strand 8 is wrapped several times, the drum rotating about its own axis as well as the axis of the strand 8 by means of a supporting frame 58 mounted in trunnions 56. Fig. 1B, also shows a take-up drum 94 mounted in a non- rotatable cradle 92 surrounded by a flier frame 12. The device 162 in Fig. 1A, is a tensioning device.