GB866169A - The manufacture of insulated electric conductors - Google Patents

Abstract

866,169. Continuously winding on a succession of reels. STANDARD TELEPHONES & CABLES Ltd. July 17, 1959 [July 22, 1958], No. 23455/58. Classes 120(2) and 120(3). Insulated electric conductor supplied at substantially constant rate is wound continuously on to a succession of take-up reels by apparatus which includes means for automatically transferring the supply from a full to an empty reel, means for accelerating the empty reel before and after such transfer and means for automatically cutting the conductor between the full and empty reels after the transfer of supply. Insulated conductor 1 from an extruder 2 passes over a capstan 3 which operates counting mechanisms 65; 65A which initiate other operations in the machine, over dancer pulleys 4, 5 which vary the take-up speed of reels 8, 9 in accordance with the speed of supply and increasing reel diameter by varying through a slider 45 and belt 47 the setting of a potentiometer 41 controlling pilot motors 39, 40 which, through induction regulators 37, 38 control the main motor 10. From the dancer pulleys the conductor is traversed on to one of the reels 8, 9 by a pulley 6 reciprocated by a cylinder 51 in which is a piston 54 to opposite sides of which hydraulic fluid from a header tank 34 is alternately supplied. The counter 65 is set for a reading less than the total length of conductor wound on a reel, and is used to start a motor 36 driving a pump 35 building up pressure in the hydraulic fluid from a header tank 34 to an accumulator 34A, and also to engage the clutch of a clutch and brake assembly 19 associated with the empty reel 9, to drive the reel 9 at the same angular speed as the almost full reel 8. A little later, the counter 65A, which is pre-set to the total length wound on a full reel, operates a piston valve 58 to increase the speed of the traverse cylinder 51 and ensure that the traverse is moving towards the empty reel 9. A delayed signal from the counter 65A operates a valve 68 to cause a piston 7 to transfer the conductor passing over the pulley 6 to the empty reel 9, and to switch control of the motor 10 from motor regulator 39 37 to 40, 38. As soon as conductor is being laid on the " empty " reel 9, the motor 10 is caused by its control motor 40 to run at full speed. The conductor between the reels 8, 9 is severed by a knife 70 actuated by a piston valve 74, piston 72 and cylinder 73 in response to a delayed signal from the counter 65A. As the knife 70 returns to its inoperative position it operates a switch to cause clutch and brake 13 to declutch and brake arbor 11 and to operate piston valve 29 to move crank arm 27 and bring reel 8 into doffing position, when the arm 27 operates a switch to cause piston valve 25 to supply hydraulic fluid to the arbor 11 and move a piston against the action of a compression spring to contract segments of the arbor and permit withdrawal of the reel 8. After applying a new reel, a manually operated switch causes the arm 27 to return to the reeling position and to expand the segments of the arbor to hold the reel thereon. Interlock switches prevent lowering of an arm 27, 27A while winding on a reel 8, 9 thereon.