US3428504A - Method and apparatus for continuously producing a continuous length of insulated wire - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 18, 1969 J, 5N. FIGG 3,428,504

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Filed May 11. 1965 Sheet of 11 Sheet 3 of 11 Feb. 18, 1969 N. FIGG 7 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Filed May 11 1965 mam me ubH/V 4! F/sa @QZMMQZL J. E. N. FIGG 3,428,504 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING Feb. 18, 1969' 4 of i1 A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Filed May 11, 1965 Sheet kllll NNQ mm mu Q mum 5 g Q 5W g P l'lllll 3 J Arrow/54s Feb. 18, 1969 .1. E. N. FIGG METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Sheet Filed May 11. 1965 Feb. 18, 1969 J. E. N. FIGG METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Sheet Filed May 11, 1965 J. E. N. FIGG I 3,428,504 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING Feb. 18,1969

' A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Filed May 11. 1965 Sheet wzwme Jam 15A! F766 I J. E. N. FIGG METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE 9 Filed May 11, 1965 Sheet, 0f 11 QMY IFlillllI Feb. 18, 1969 J. E. N. FIGG 3,428,504

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY PRODUCING A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Filed May 11, 1965 Sheet of 11 F59. /6f 565 w ATTOP/VB S J. E. N. FIGG 3,428,504 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CQNTINUOUSLY PRODUCING Feb. 18, 1969 A CONTINUOUS LENGTH OF INSULATED WIRE Sheet of 11 Filed May 11. 1965 MINI. we v l/ax/A/lf/llF/ae Jrranvgy United States Patent Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for continuously producing a continuous length of wire wherein wire is fed from a first supply to a continuously insulating means through an accumulator until the first supply is nearly exhausted. The feed from the first supply is then stopped and a wire from a second supply is welded to the trailing end of the wire .from the first supply; the continuously insulating means meanwhile being fed from the accumulator. Wire is then fed from the second supply until it is nearly exhausted when a further wire is attached from the first supply and so on. Means are provided for identifying the joints between consecutive wire lengths after the insulation is applied whereby the joints may be removed.

The present invention relates to a method of continuously producing a continuous length of insulated wire and an installation for effecting the same.

It is known to produce a continuous length of insulated wire by passing said wire to a conventional continuous wire insulating and vulcanizing unit, the wire being pulled through the unit by a capstan from a supply reel or spool which then passes the insulated wire to motor driven take up reels. However, when said supply reel is exhausted of wire, it is necessary to join the trailing end of the wire such as by welding and annealing to the leading end of the wire from a fresh supply reel or spool for passage through the unit. Heretofore this has entailed periodically stopping the continuous wire insulating and vulcanizing unit while the joining is effected, and subsequently restarting the same. This procedure however has the disadvantage that the unit if it is not run continuously has to be run-in until it reaches its optimum operating conditions, and until these conditions are reached the insulated wire passing to the take up reels is of an inferior quality a and usually has to be scrapped. It will therefore be readily apparent that on each joining of the wire fed to the unit, the shutting down of the unit causes a substantial length of the insulated wire usually of the order of 200 feetto be scrapped as well as losing valuable production time. The present invention provides a method and apparatus in which the wire is continuously passed to the unit from the supply reels even during the joining, e.g., welding and annealing of the wires from separate supply reels.

According to the present invention, this is achieved by means of an accumulating device adapted to take up wire from the supply reels during the normal running of the wire to the unit and to give up the accumulated wire during the time that the trailing end of the wire is formed to the leading end of thewire of a fresh reel, the accu mulating device being in cooperation with a clamping and welding device which is adapted to clamp the trailing end of the wire passing to the unit on substantial exhaustion thereof from itssupply reel. During the time the wire is clamped it is butt-welded to the leading end of the wire from a fresh supply reel which has previously been positioned in the welding jaws of the clamping and welding device, and on exhaustion of the wire from the ac- "ice cumulating device, release said welded wire so as to pass again to the insulating unit.

According to the present invention therefore, there is provided a method of continuously producing a continuous length of insulated wire comprising feeding a first wire from a supply to a continuous insulating means at a rate responsive to the demand of said insulating means, increasing the rate of feed of said first wire 'beyond the demand of said insulating means and collecting the resulting excess of said first wire in a reserve supply, terminating the feed of said first wire from said supply on substantial exhaustion thereof by clamping said first wire adjacent its trailing end and thereafter supplying said demand from the reserve supply, positioning said first wire in end-to-end relationship with a second wire to be joined to said first wire clamped adjacent its leading end, joining the ends of said wires together, and unclamping said wires on or prior to depletion of said reserve supply whereby said insulating means are again fed with wire from said supply.

The present invention also provides in combination with a continuous insulating means arranged to receive a first wire from a first supply spool and pass the insulated wire to a take-up reel, an apparatus which includes clamping means arranged to clamp the trailing end of said first wire on substantial exhaustion of said first supply spool, means for joining said trailing end to the leading end of a second wire from a second supply spool, an accumulating device, disposed between the clamp and the continuous insulating means, adapted to take up excess wire when said first wire is passing directly from said first supply spool to said insulating means and further adapted to release the accumulated wire to said insulating means on clamping said first wire, and means for releasing said clamping means prior to exhaustion of the accumulated wire in said accumulating device.

The means for joining the wires suitably comprises a welding and annealing unit, and for this purpose it is desirable that the wires have the ends thereof, which are to be butt-welded together, squared so as to obtain a good welded joint. It is therefore a preferred embodiment of the present invention that the claimping means comprises a first clamp and a second clamp spaced from and upstream of the first clamp, and a cropper disposed between the first and second clamps and adapted to crop the first wire extending between the clamps subsequent to the clamping of the first wire whereby the cropped end of the first wire may be manually positioned in end-to-end relationship in the welding and annealing unit with the cropped end of the second Wire from the second supply spool. It will be readily apparent that after welding the Wires, the welded joint' will have a flashing thereon and therefore it isdesirable that the second wire pass through a deflashing unit including a pair of cutting jaws adapted to close upon the wire on actuation thereof and a pulling unit comprising gripping means which is adapted to pull the welded and annealed wire through the flasher unit to remove the flashing from the joint. Subsequently, the joined wire is released from the welding and annealing unit, the deflashing unit and the pulling unit and me welded wire is replaced manually between the jaws of the second clamp which has been released subsequent to the cropping operation. Operation of the clamps, cropper, deflashing unit, pulling unit and welding and annealing unit is suitably controlled and effected by a pneumatic system.

With respect to the accumulating device, this suitably comprises a pair of aligned pulley means arranged to move with respect. to each other and biased to positions remote from each other desirably by a continuous torque motor whereby on passage of the first wire directly from the first spool to the insulating unit, the pulley means move to the remote positions and as such accumulate wire, and on closing of the clamping means, under the pull of the capstan of the continuous insulating and vulcanizing unit, move towards each other so as to give up wire to the insulating unit.

As is well known, particularly with telegraph wires, it is undesirable to have a joint, e.g., a weld, in the finished cable and therefore it is a prefered embodiment of the present invention, subsequent to the insulation of the wire, to locate and identify the joint whereby the joint may be removed from he cable, e.g., by cutting therefrom. To this end, the installation is provided with a mutilating device which is disposed downstream of the insulating means and is adapted on actuation thereof to strip insulation from the wire. This mutilating device is associated with a footage counter which is arranged to actuate the multilating device on the passage of a predetermined length of wire therethrough, this predetermined length of wire being the length of wire between the joint, which for practical purposes is the position of the cropper, and the cutting jaws of the mutilating device. Thus on emergency from the mutilating device, the wire has strips of insulation cut away at the joints and these joints may thus be identified and cut out from the wire either before or after passage on to the appropriate takeup reels.

The present invention will be further illustrated by way of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGUREl is a schematic side elevation of a continuous insulating and vulcanizing installation according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of the clamping cutting and welding unit of the installation of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A in FIGURE 2 and is a side elevation of the right hand hydraulic clamp.

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B in FIGURE 2 and is a side elevation of the left hand hydraulic clamp.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line CC in FIGURE 2 and is a side elevation of the cropper.

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary right hand side elevation of the welding and annealing unit of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 7 is a plan view taken along the lines DD in FIGURE 6 showing the welding and annealing jaws.

FIGURE 8 is a plan view taken along the line E--E in FIGURE 6 showing the operating mechanism for the welding and annealing unit.

FIGURE 9 is a front View of the deflashing unit'as shown in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 10 is a right hand side elevation of the deflashing unit of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 11 is a detailed plan view of the puller unit of FIGURE 2 shown partially broken away.

FIGURE 12 is a side elevation of the puller unit shown in FIGURE 11.

FIGURE 13 is a detail showing the wire clamp of the puller of FIGURE 11.

FIGURES 14 and 15 represent a schematic layout of the pneumatic system for operating the apparatus of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 16 is a side elevation of the mutilator of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 17 is a view taken on the line FF of FIG URE 16. I

FIGURE 18 is a front elevation of the accumulator of FIGURE 1 and FIGURE 19 is a side elevation of the accumulator of FIGURE 1 taken at 90 to that of FIGURE 18;

With reference to FIGURE 1 the installation includes a conventional continuous wire insulating and vulcaniz ing unit for insulating a pair of parallel wires 10 .and 10a from each other with a Single coating of rubber. A typical unit is that disclosed in US. Patent No.

2,648,872. The unit generally comprises a rubber extruder 1 which coats the wires passing therethrough with rubber, a steam tube 2 which cures the rubber coated on the wires 10 and 10a, a water seal 3 which prevnts steam escaping from the end of the steam tube and which cools the cured rubber coated wires 10 and 10a, a capstan 4 which pulls the wires 10 and 10a through the unit, and

take-up reels 5 driven by motor 5a upon which the cured rubber coated wires 10 and 1011 are ultimately wound. The extruder 1 and steam tube 2 are connected by a splice box (not shown). The wires 10 and 10a are fed to the extruder 1 of the continuous wire insulating and vulcanizing unit from supply spools 12 (only one spool shown) through a clamping, cropping and welding unit 14, an accumulator 16, a footage counter 18 and guide rollers 20, 22 and 24. After passage through the water seal 3 and before passage over the capstan 4, the coated wire passes through a mutilator 26.

With reference to FIGURE 2 the clamping, cropping and welding unit 14 comprises a bed 17 which supports at one end thereof a pulley 28 and a pair of alignment rollers 30 via which the wire 10 enters the unit 14 from the spool 12, and supports at the other end thereof a pair of alignment rollers 32 and support roller 34 via which the wire 10 leaves the unit 14 and passes to the accumulator 16. During its passage through the unit 14 the wire 10 passes between the jaws 36 of the clamp 38, the blades 40 of the cropper 42 and the jaws 44 of the clamp 46. The bed 17 also supports at one end thereof a pulley 28a and a pair of alignment rollers 30a via which a wire 10a enters the unit 14 from a spool (not shown) similar to the spool 12, and supports at the other end of a pair of alignment rollers 32a, by which with the support roller 34, the wire 10*a leaves the unit 14 and also passes to the accumulator 16 and subsequently to the continuous insulating and vulcanizing unit in a similar manner to wire 10. During its passage through the unit 14 the wire 10a passes between the jaws 36 of the clamp 38, the cropping blades 41 of the cropper 42 and the jaws 44 of the clamp 46. The bed 17 also carries a welding and annealing unit 48 shown diagrammatically, a deflashing unit 50 and a puller unit 52.

With reference to FIGURES 2 and 3 the clamp 38 comprises a pair of jaws. 36 the lower one of which is fixedly mounted on the bed 17 and the upper one of which is fixedly mounted on a piston rod 54 which passes through the lower jaw 36 to an air cylinder 56 bolted by bolts 58 to the underside of the bed 17. The

piston rod 54 is slidably mounted with respect to the lower jaw 36 and the bed 17, and upon actuation of the air cylinder through the air supply inlet 57, reciprocates in a vertical direction, the jaws 36 closing on the introduction of air under pressure in the cylinder 56 and opening under the action of the helical spring 69 disposed around the rod 54 on exhaustion of the cylinder 56. The upper jaw 36 is guided in its reciprocal vertical motion by vertical guide rods 71 rigidly fixed in the lower jaw 36 and slideable with respect to the upper jaw 36. The piston rod 54 also carries a horizontal tie plate 62 which is at to the direction of the jaws 36, and from the opposite ends of the tie plate 62 depend a pair of valve rods 64 and 66 which control air valves 68 and 70 respectively fixed to the underside of the bed. Thus it will readily be seen that the motion of the piston rod 54 besides clamping the wires 10 and 10a in the jaws 36 also controls the valves 68 and 70.

With reference to FIGURES 2 and 4, the clamp 46, which is essentially similar to the clamp 38 referred to above, comprises a pair of jaws 44 the lower one of which is bolted to the bed 17 and the upper of which is fixed on a piston rod 72 which passes through the lower jaw 44 to an air cylinder 74 bolted to the underside of the bed 17 by means of bolts 76 which also locate the lower jaw 44. The piston rod 72 is slidably mounted with regard to the lower jaw 44 and the bed l7, and upon actuation of the air cylinder 74 through the supply inlet 78, reciprocates vertically the jaws 44 closing on the introduction of air under pressure to the cylinder 74 and opening under the action of a helical spring 80 disposed around the rod 72 on exhaustion of the cylinder 74. The upper jaw 44 is guided in its motion by a pair of guide rods 82 rigidly fixed in the lower jaw 44 and slideable with respect to the upper jaw 44. The piston rod 72 also carries a horizontal tie plate 84 bolted to the upper jaw 44 by bolts 86 and locked by a nut 88 which also serves to locate the upper jaw 44 on the rod 72. The tie plate 84 (FIGURE 2) has dependent from one end thereof a valve rod 90 (FIGURE 14) which controls an air valve 92 (FIGURE 14) fixed to the underside of the bed 17 (as in FIGURE 3). The other end of the plate 84 is free and has no rod or valve associated therewith. The air cylinder 56 and valves 68 and 70 of the clamp 38, and the air cylinder 74 and valve 92 of clamps 46 are actuated and controlled by a pneumatic system described hereinafter.

The cropper 42 as will be seen from FIGURES 2 and 5 comprises a cutting block 96 fixed by bolts 98 to the upper surface of the bed 17 of the unit 14. This cutting block 96 has keyways 100 in which are located the lower blades 40 and 41 held by retaining screws 102. The upper cutting blades 40 and 41 are held in L-shaped members 104 offset longitudinally of wires and 10a with respect to the lower cutting blades 40 and 41 to provide a shearing action. The cutting block 96 carries adjacent each pair of cutting blades 40 and 41 a guide plate 112 which facilitates the positioning of the wire 10 or 10a in notches 114 in lower cutting blades 40 or 41, respectively. Each member 104 has fixed thereto by screws 106 a horizontal bar 108, and an adjustable valve-actuating pin 110 depends from the end of each bar 108.

Each L-shaped member 104 is slideable within a vertical slot 116 in the cutting block 96 and the bed 17 and has connected at the lower end thereof through a linkage 118 the piston rod 120 of an air cylinder 122 and 124, respectively. Air cylinder 122 is actuated through air supply inlet 126 by means of a pneumatic system described hereinafter to cause the upper cropping blade 41 to descend so as to crop the wire 10a disposed in the notch 114 against the action of a helical spring 128 disposed around said rod 120 between the air cylinder 122 and a retaining nut 130, on the rod 120. Similarly the air cylinder 124 is actuated by the aforesaid pneumatic system through air supply inlet 132 to cause the upper cropping blade 40 to descend against the action of the helical spring 134 disposed around rod 120, between air cylinder 124 and retaining nut 136 to crop the wire 10. As the wire 10 or 10a is cropped by the action of the blades 40 or 41, the pins 110 contact ball check 138 or 140 in air valves 142 or 144, respectively, which are rigidly fixed in the bed 17. The air cylinders 124 and 126 are stabilized by posts 146 (shown partly broken away) to the bed 17.

The welding and annealing unit 48 shown diagram- -rnatically in FIGURE 2 is a standard butt-welding machine supplied by Micro-Products Company of Chicago, Illinois, as their Micro-Weld butt-welding machine Model El modified as shown in FIGURES 6, 7 and 8. Referring to FIGURES 6, 7 and 8, the machine comprises a stationary head 148 fixedly mounted on a base 150, and a movable head 152 which is slideable on horizontal bars 154 extending from the fixed head 148. The movable head 152 is. biased towards the fixed head, 148 by means ofsprings (not shown) the tension of which is adjusted by a micrometer screw 156 extending through head 148. The .head 148 has pivotably mounted thereon by bolt 160 an operating lever 161 the head 162 of which is in the form of a cam and abuts threadably adjustable screw 164 on the head 152 and determines the gap betweenthe heads 148 and 152. A spring 166 extends between the head 162 of the lever 161 and the fixed head 148 and biases the lever 161 into the position shown in FIGURE 8 against a threadably adjustable positive stop 168 located in a recess 170 in the head 162. The base 150 also supports a plate 172 pivotably mounted on a post 174 by a bolt 176, and the plate 172 has an adjustable locating pin 178 which, upon movement of the lever 161 in the direction of the arrow shown in FIGURE 8, is contacted by said lever which causes the plate 172 to pivot about bolt 176 in the opposite direction whence a downwardly extending flange 180 contacts a switch 182 to close the welding circuit of the machine.

The fixed head 148 carries a lug 184, and the moveable head 152, a lug 186. The lugs 184 and 186 have fixed thereto the lower welding jaws 188 by means of bolts 190, the welding jaws being split at their centre and having grooves 192 on the upper surface thereof to accommodate the wire 10 or 10a. The upper welding jaws 194 have integral therewith rearwardly extending arms 195 which are pivotably mounted on bolts 196 extending through the lugs 184 and 186. Each of the bolts 196 also has pivotably mounted thereon an arm 198, which arms 198 support lower annealing jaws 200 which are separate from and in alignment with the lower welding jaws 188. The upper annealing jaws 202 also have rearwardly extending arms 204 integral therewith, said arms 204 being pivotably mounted on the bolts 196. The arms 198 also carry stub pins 206 which extend beneath the rearwardly extending arms 195 of the jaws 194. The ends 208 of the arms 195 remote from the jaws 194 are flattened and lie directly beneath the inward facing flanges 210 on ends of the arms 204 remote from the upper annealing jaws 202. Extending between the arms 195 of the upper welding jaws 194 is a bell-crank lever 212 which has at one end thereof a sleeve 213 which carries rollers 214 of electrically insulating material on a spindle 216, the rollers 214 being spaced either side of the sleeve 213 by washers 218. The lever 212 is pivoted on a lug 220 located on the base 150 by a pin 222 and is connected at the other end thereof to the piston rod 224 of an air cylinder 226 by means of a linkage 228.

The gap between the lower welding jaws 188 and thus also the gap between the upper welding jaws 194 is determined by the gap between the heads 148 and 152. Thus before the unit is operated by means of the lever 161, a gap is present between the welding jaws which is determined by the setting of the screw 164. The wires to be welded are threaded between the upper and lower annealing jaws 200 and 202 and the upper and lower welding jaws 194 and 188 so that the ends thereof abut in the gap between the welding jaws 188. On movement of the lever 161 in the direction of the arrow the cam head 162 allows the head 152 to move towards the fixed head 148 a distance determined by the configuration of the cam head 162 which causes the ends of wires in the welding jaws 188 and 194 to press together under the bias of the spring urging the heads toward each other, and upon the contact of the arm 161 with the locating pin 178, the plate 172 pivots about the bolt 176 such that the flange 180 closes the switch 182 and a current passes through the welding jaws 188 and 194 to heat the wires and cause the weld, the gap between the welding jaws 188 being narrowed, and a flash forming the weld.

As will be explained in more detail hereinafter the closure of the welding circuit also actuates a timer 340 (FIGURE 15) which after a set period of time actuates a solenoid valve 344 (FIGURE 15) allowing air under pressure from the system described hereinafter to operate lifted clear of contact with the lower welding jaws 188, and is maintained lower than and clear of the upper welding jaws 194.

The timer 340 now actuates the annealing circuit of the unit 48, so as to pass an annealing current for a set period of time through the upper and lower annealing jaws 202 and 200 and through the welded wire, whereafter the timer 340 opens the circuit. The welded and annealed wire is then pulled through the annealing jaws 200 and 202 and the deflashing unit 50 by the puller unit 52, and the wire is then removed manually from the annealing jaws 200 and 202, the deflashing unit 50 and the puller unit 52. The timer 340 then deenergises the solenoid valve 344 which exhausts the air cylinder 226 whence the upper welding jaws 194, the upper annealing jaws 202 and the lower welding jaws 200 return to their initial position under the action of the springs 230, 232, and 234 respectively for further operation of the unit 48. The lever arm 161 returns to its initial position under the action of the spring 166 again setting the gap 158 between the heads 148 and 152 and as such the gap between the jaws 188.

The deflashing unit 50 as will be seen from FIGURES 9 and 10 comprises U-shaped block 236 and a movable block 238 disposed between the arms 239 and 242 thereof. The U-shaped block 238 is fixedly mounted on the bed 17 of the unit 14 such that the arms 239 and 242 thereof are horizontally disposed, the upper arm 239 forming with the block 238 the jaws of the defiashing unit 50'. Block 238 is mounted on a rod 240 extending through the bed 17 and the lower arm 242, and is slideable with respect thereto. The lower end of the rod 240 is connected by a linkage 244 to the piston rod 246 of an air cylinder 358 (FIGURE 15) whereby the block 238 may be moved between a closed position in which the outer edges of the upper recessed surface of the block 238 abuts the outer edges of the recessed surface of the upper arm 239, and an open position where the aforesaid surfaces are spaced apart. The block 238 is biased by a spring (not shown) into the open position. The aforesaid outer edges of the surfaces in the block 238 and the arm 239 have cutting channels 248 extending therethrough which accommodate the wire 10 or 10a.

Referring now to FIGURES 2, and 11 to 13 the puller unit 52 comprises a track 250 along which travels an inverted U-shaped pulling block 252 which is connected by a linkage 254 to the piston rod 256 of a double acting pneumatic cylinder 258. Disposed at each end of the cylinder 258 are air supply inlets 260 and 262 whereby the introduction of air under pressure into one of the inlets and exhaustion of air through the other inlet causes the piston rod 256 to move in a direction parallel to the tracks 250 and thus the pulling block 252 to move along the tracks 250 in the same direction. The pulling block 252 has a pair of jaws 264 slidably mounted in recesses 266 which are disposed either side of a longitudinal recess 267 at the end of the block 252 remote from the cylinder 258. The jaws 264 are arranged to slide along inclined surfaces 268 of the recesses 266 and have pins 270 dependent therefrom which extend through elongated slots 272 in the pulling block 252. In the position shown in FIGURES 11 and 12 the pins 270 abut a horizontal bar 274 which extends through a vertical lever 276, the lower end of which extends through a slot (not shown) in the bed 17 of the unit 14. The lever 276 is mounted on arm 278 extending from the lower surface of the block 252 by means of a pivot 280. The end of the track 250 remote from the cylinder 258 has a stop screw 282 adjustably mounted on an upwardly extending lug 284.

The block 252 accommodates in a slot a gripper 286 which is held by screws 288. With particular reference to FIGURE 13 the gripper 286 comprises a housing 290 having a pair of gripping blades 292 slideable therein, the blades 292 being biased towards each other by springs 294 which are located by end plates 296 held by screws 298 on the housing 290.

In operation, wire '13 from the reserve reel 11 (FIGURE 1) is taken and passed between the gripping blades 292 of the gripper 286, between the open jaws 264 of the pulling block 252, between the open jaws 238 and 239 of the deflashing unit 50 and finally the free end is passed between the annealing jaws 200 and 202 and the welding jaws 188 and 194 for subsequent butt-welding to the cropped end of the wire 10 or 1011 from the spools 12 whichever runs out first. A foot pedal (not shown) is then depressed to actuate via a lever 300 (FIGURE 12) a plunger 301 in a control valve 302 which operates the air cylinder 358 (see FIGURE 15) to close the jaws 238 and 239 of the deflashing unit 50 on the wire 13.

After the welding and annealing of the wire 10 or 10a to the wire 13 in the welding and annealing unit 48, the puller unit 52, which is in the position shown in FIGURES 2, 11 and 12, is actuated from the timer 340.

The timer 340 after passage of the annealing current then, as will be explained in more detail hereinafter, actuates solenoid valves 352 and 354 (FIGURE 15) which open air supply inlet 260 to air under pressure from the pneumatic system and opens the air supply inlet 262 to exhaust whereby to move the piston rod 256 from left to right in FIGURES 11 and 12. During the travel of the block 252 along the tracks 250* the jaws 264 move along the faces 268 of the recesses 266 under the action of springs 304 whereby the serrated edges 306 thereof grip the wire 13. The wire 13 is thus pulled through the deflashing unit 50 and the flashing is removed from the welded joint. On completion of the stroke the lower end of the lever 276 contacts the plunger 301 in the control valve 302 which operates the air cylinder 358 (see FIGURE 15) to open the jaws 238 and 239 of the deflashing unit 50. At the same time, the lever 276 is pivoted about the pivot 280 forcing the bar 274 against the pins 270 so as to cause the jaws 264 to slide along the faces 268 of the recesses 266, against the bias of the spring 304. The jaws 264 open releasing the wire 13 which is then manually removed from the puller unit 52, the deflashing unit 50 and the welding and annealing unit 48 and again placed between the open jaws 36 of the clamp 38 and the jaws 40 or 411 of the cropper 42, depending on which of the two wires 10 and '10a the wire 13 has been welded to.

v The timer 340 then actuates the solenoid valves 352 and 354 in a reverse manner so to open air supply inlet 262 to air pressure and air supply inlet 260 to exhaust thereby causing the piston rod 256 to move in the reverse direction. The jaws 264 close under the action of the springs 304 and on completion of the stroke the bar 274 contacts the stop 282 causing the lever 276 to pivot about the pivot 280 and the bar 274 subsequently contacts the pins 270 forcing the jaws 264 along the faces 268 against the bias of the springs 304 thereby opening the jaws 264. The puller unit 52 and the deflashing unit 50 are now ready for further operation.

The clamping, cropping and welding unit 14 is operated by a pneumatic system shown diagrammatically in FIGURES l4 and 15. Air under pressure is fed via a control unit 308 to a main supply line 310 and feed line 312..Feed line 312 contains a two-way valve 314 which is operated when a lever 316 is moved momentarily by hand from the neutral position to position Y or Z which determines whether the air under pressure passes through lines 318 and 319 or lines 320 and 321, to the selector valve 322 on which are two pilot cylinders (not shown) which position the main valve stem (not shown) which in turn directs the flow of air from the line 324 to one of the air cylinders 122 or 124 thereby closing the blades 41 or 40 on the cropper 42. Thus when one of the wires 10 or 10a is essentially exhausted from the spool 12,

the lever 316 is moved from neutral to the position Y or Z to select which of the blades 40 or 41 will close to crop the appropriate wire 10 or |10a. Immediately on movement of the lever 316, air under pressure passes 9 through the line 318 or 320, via directional control valve 326 and line 328 to the air cylinder 56 of the clamp 38 thereby closing the jaws 36 clamping the wires 10* and 10a there'between.

On closure of the jaws 36 of the clamp 38, the tie plate 62 is drawn downwards and the valve rod 64 opens the air valve 70 which allows air under pressure to pass from the main line 310 via feed line 330 and line 332 to the inlet 78 of the air cylinder 74 of the clamp 46. The jaws 44 of this clamp 46 close and clamp the wires 10 and 10a. Immediately, as will be' explained hereinafter, wire which has been accummulated by the accummulator 16 during the free running of the wires 10 and 10a now supplies the continuous wire insulating and vulcanizing unit. On closure of the jaws 44 of the clamp 46, the tie plate 84 is drawn down and the valve rod 90 opens air valve 92 whereby air under pressure may pass from the main line 310 through feed line 334, line 336, air valve 68, which was opened on closing of the jaws 36 by the tie plate 62 and the valve rod 66, to line 324. From line 324 as aforesaid, the air passes through selector 'valve 322 to the inlets 126 or 132. of air cylinder 122 or 124 thus closing the blades 40 or 4-1 to crop the appropriate wire or 10a. On closure of the blades 40 or 41, the horizontal bar 108 descends and the associated valve actuating pin 110 opens the corresponding air valve 142 or 144 to exhaust whereby the air cylinder 56 of clamp 38 is also exhausted through line 328 and line 338. The jaws 36 of the clamp 38 open under the action of the spring 60 releasing the wires :10 and 10a, closing valves 68 and 70 to the main supply line 310, and opening the air valve 68 to exhaust. Exhaustion of air valve 68 results in the exhaustion of either air cylinder 122 or 124 via line 324, and selector valve 322 and cutter blades- 40 or 41 then open under the action of springs 12 8 or 134 to release the cut wire 10 or 10a into the hands of the operator.

The free end of the cut wire 10 or 10a which is held by clamp 46 is then inserted by hand between the welding jaws r188 and .194 of the welding and annealing unit 48 into abutment with the end of the wire 13 from the full spool 11 which has been previously inserted between the opposite welding jaws 188 and 194 of the unit 48. The lever 161 on the unit 48 is operated as aforesaid closing the welding circuit starting the timer 340' which is a conventional device sold by Industrial Timer Corporation, Route 287, Parsippany, N.J., as a synchronous motor driven cam timer Model RC3.

After a set interval of time during which butt-welding of the wires is completed, the cam 342 closes its associated micro-switch (not shown) to energize solenoid valve 344 which opens the air cylinder 226 to the main pressure line 310 via line 346. This causes the piston rod 244 to rise and as aforesaid the roller 218 to lift the upper welding jaws 194 and the annealing jaws 200 and 202 from the lower welding jaws 188. The cam 348 now closes the annealing circuit of the unit 48 and after the time required for annealing opens the circuit.

Cam 350 deenergises solenoid valves 352 and 354; the valve 352 connects the inlet 260 of the cylinder 258 to main or pressure line 310 through feed line 356 and closes off the exhaust, and the valve 354 connects the inlet 262 to exhaust. This causes the piston rod 256 to move from left to right in FIGURES ll, 12 and whereby the jaws 264 of the puller unit 52 grip the welded and annealed wire 13 and pull the joint through the deflashing unit 50 as explained heretofore. On completion of the pulling stroke of the rod 256, the lever 276 contacts the switch 301 actuating the valve 302 which exhausts air cylinder 358 via feed line 360 through which it is normally pressurized from the main pressure line 310. The jaws 238 and 239 open under spring pressure and the wire 13 is removed by the operator from the welding unit 48, deflashing unit 50 and puller unit 52 and replaced between the 10 open blades 40 or 41 of the cropper 42 and the open jaws 36 of the clamp 38.

Cam 342 of the timer 340 deenergises solenoid valve 344 exhausting cylinder 352 whereby the upper welding jaws 194 and annealing jaws 200 and 202 return to their aligned initial position under the action of the return springs 230, 232 and 234. Cam 350 of the timer 340 then deenergises solenoid valves 352 and 354 reversing the air flow through the inlets 260 and 262 of cylinder 258 whereby the rod 256 moves in the opposite direction returning the puller jaws 264 to their initial position.

Finally the accumulator 16, as will be explained hereinafter, on exhaustion of the accumulated wire 10 or 10a therefrom, actuates by way of a limit switch (not shown) a solenoid valve 364 which exhausts air cylinder 74 of the clamp 46 opening the jaws 44 thereof and completely releasing the wires 10 and 10a for normal running and at the same time closes valve 92 to the main air supply line 310. The clamping, cropping and welding unit 14 is now ready for further use.

The accumulator 16 as will be seen from FIGURES 18 and 19 comprises a frame column 366 having fixed to the lower portion thereof a transverse plate 368 which carries at either end thereof a stationary spindle 370 located on plate 368 by a sleeve 372 and screws 373. Each spindle 370 has independently mounted thereon pulleys 376 which are spaced apart by spacers 374 and retained on the spindle by a nut 378 and washer 379. A carriage 380 has a pair of stationary spindles 382 fixedly mounted thereon by a pair of locking nuts 384, each spindle in a similar manner to the spindles 370 having independently mounted therein pulleys 386 spaced apart by spacers 388 and retained by a nut 390 and washer 391. The carriage 380 is mounted so as to traverse the upper portions of the same face of the column 366 as that upon which the plate 368 is fixed and uses the edges 367 of the column as tracking for the wheels 392. The carriage 380 is connected via brackets 394, ring 395, ring 397 and bracket 396, and cable 398 to a counterweight 400 which runs over the opposite surface of the column 366 and also tracks in the edges 401 of the column 366 via wheels 402. The cable 398 passes around multi-channeled pulleys 404 and 406 supported on a table 407 on the top of the column 366. The pulley 406 is driven by a motor 408, also supported on the table 407, via a sprocket 410 and a drive chain 412. The carriage 380 is arranged to traverse a path between said table 407 at its upper point and a springbiased abutment 362 mounted on a bracket 414 attached to the column 366 at its lower point. The wire 10 passes around one set of aligned pulleys 376 and 386 and the other wire 10a passes around the other set of aligned pulleys 376 and 386.

In operation, during the normal running of the wires 10 and 10a through the installation to the continuous Wire insulating and vulcanizing unit, the motor 408 drives the pulley 406 to pull the moveable carriage 380 to its upper point thereby accumulating wires 10 and 10a thereon, the amount of wire accumulated depending upon the number of pulleys 376 and 386 on the spindles 374 and 382, respectively, and the maximum distance between the spindles 374 and 382.

When the jaws 36 of the clamp 38 close on the wires 10 and 10a, the pull of the capstan 4 on the wires 10 and 10a causes the carriage 380 to descend towards the lower pulleys 374 thereby giving up the wire accumulated thereon during the normal passage of the wires 10 and 10a through the installation. At its lower limit, the under side of the carriage 380 contacts a limit switch (not shown) thereby as aforesaid releasing the jaws 44 of the clamp 46 whereby both wires 10 and 10a with wire 13 buttwelded to either of the wires 10 or 10a are released and the accumulator 14 again begins to take up more wire. It will be realized that during the time the accumulator 14 is accumulating wire from both spools 12, these spools will be running at a greater than normal speed. Therefore on the accumulator reaching full capacity with respect to the wires and 10a, it is necessary that spools 12 be decelerated to this normal running speed. This may be achieved by means of conventional air brakes operated from a switching arrangement (not shown) actuated by the carriage 380 on reaching its upper limit of traverse.

As will be apparent, the apparatus of FIGURES 2 to 15 is sufiicient to eflfect the method of the present invention. However, as aforesaid, with some types of insulated wire, particularly telephone cable, joints, e.g., welds, are not desirable and therefore according to a preferred embodiment of the invention the installation is provided with the mutilator 26 which is actuated from the footage counter 18 and which strips back the coating from the wire 10 and 10a about the joint whereby to identify the joint and facilitate removal of the same from either of the coated wires 10 or 10a as the case may be.

With reference to FIGURES 16 and 17 the mutilator 26 comprises a main housing 414 having a recess 416 therein transverse to the direction of the wires 10 and 10a. The recess 416 has bolted therein by bolts 417 a block 418 which carries a spindle 420 upon which a knurled handwheel 422 is mounted. The stem 424 of the wheel 422 has circular blades 428 located thereon by a key 426. The block 418 also has a stripper 432 bolted to an edge thereof downstream of said blades 428 by bolts 430. A carriage 434 is also located in the recess 416 and is slideable in runners 436 located at the edges of the recess 416. This carriage 434 is equipped in a similar manner to the block 418 with a spindle 438, a knurled handwheel 440 having mounted on the stern 442 thereof circular blades 446 by a key 444, and a stripper 448 mounted thereon by bolts 450. The carriage 434 is nioveable towards and away from the block 418 under the action of an air cylinder 452 connected thereto by a rod 454. The air cylinder 452. is connected to a source of air under pressure (not shown) through line 453 and is controlled by a solenoid valve 456 actuated by the footage counter 18. Air cylinder 452 is single acting, i.e. has a compression spring (not shown) located between the lower side of the piston (not shown) in the rod 454 and the bottom of the cylinder 452 to return the piston to its upper position when the solenoid valve 456 is deenergised and exhausts the upper portion of cylinder 452 to atmosphere.

On release of the clamp 46, the wire distance between the joint formed in the wire 10 or 10a, which is essentially the position of the cropper 42, and the centre line between the blades 428 and 446 is set on the footage counter 18. On release of the jaws 44 of the clamp 46 the footage counter 18 is automatically tripped and after passage of the preset footage of wire 10 or 10a therethrough, actuates the solenoid valve 456 Which in turn operates the air cylinder 452. The footage counter 18 resets to zero in preparation for the next welding cycle. The air cylinder 452 causes the carriage 434 to move towards the block 418 whereby the blades 428 and 446 close in on the wires 10 and 10a passing there-between via guide rolls 458 and 460 until stopped by means of the threadably adjustable screw .62 extending through the block 418. The blades 428 and 446 are rotated by their frictional contact wtih the insulation of the moving wires 10 and 10a and form longitudinal cuts in the insulation of wires 10 and 10a. This striated portion of the insulated Wires 10' and 10a then passes between the points 433 and 449 of the strippers 432 and 448 respectively which strip the striated portion of the coating from the wires thereby locating and identifying the joint.

pass to take-up reel 5 and when the mutilated portion thereof approaches the reel 5, the wire may be passed to a fresh take-up reel 5 with the mutilated portion of the wires 10 and 10a spanning the reels and being subsequently cut out. i

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A method of continuously producing a continuous length of insulated wire comprising feeding a first wire from a supply to a continuously insulating means at a rate responsive to the demand of said insulating means, collecting the insulated wire in a first package, increasing the rate of feed of said first wire beyond the demand of said insulating means and collecting the resulting excess of said first wire in a reserve supply, terminating the feed of said first wire from said supply on substantial exhaustion thereof by clamping said first wire adjacent its trailing end and thereafter supplying said demand from the reserve supply, positioning the end of said wire in end-to-end relationship with the leading end of a second wire to be joined thereto, joining the ends of said wires together, unclamping said wires prior to depletion of said reserve supply whereby said insulating means is again fed with wire from said supply, and locating and identifying said joint after the insulation has been applied but before the joint reaches said first package where-by said joint may be subsequently removed from the wire.

2. A method as in claim 1 in which the joint is located and identified by determining the length of wire between the joint at the instant said wire is unclamped and a point at which the joint is to be identified, simultaneously therewith commencing measurement of the amount of wire passing said point, and identifying the joint as soon as said determined length of wire has been measured.

3. A method as in claim 1 in which the joint is identified by removing a portion of the insulation surrounding said joint.

4. A method as in claim 1 including collecting the insulated wire in a second package as soon as the joint arrives at said first package.

5. In combination with a continuous insulating means arranged to receive wire from a first supply spool and pass the insulated wire to a take-up reel, an apparatus which includes clamping means arranged to clamp the trailing end of said wire on substantial exhaustion of said supply spool, means for joining said trailing end t the leading end of a wire from a second supply spool, an accumulating device disposed between the clamp and the continuous insulating means adapted to take up excess wire when said first wire is passing from said first supply spool to said insulating means and to give up the accumulated wire to said insulating means on clamping said first wire, means for releasing said clamping means on or prior to exhaustion of the accumulated wire in said accumulating device, a mutilator device disposed downstream of said insulating means arranged to strip insulation from said wire on actuation thereof, and a footage counter device arranged to actuate said mutilator on passage of a predetermined length of wire therethrough whereby to locate and identify the joint in the wire.

6. In combination with a continuous insulating means arranged to receive wire from a first supply spool and pass the insulated wire to a take-up reel, an apparatus which comprises a first clamp, a second clamp spaced from and upstream of said first clamp arranged to clamp the wire on substantial exhaustion of the supply spool, 21 cropping device disposed between the first and second clamp adapted to crop the wire extending between the clamps subsequent to the clamping thereof, a welding and annealing unit adapted to join the cropped end of said wire with the cropped leading end of a wire from a second supply spool, means for releasing the second clamp after cropping of said wire, a deflashing unit including a pair of cutting jaws adapted to close on the wire from the second spool, a pulling unit including gripping means adapted to pull the welded and annealed wire through the defiashing unit, means for releasing the wire from said welding and annealing unit, deflashing unit and pulling unit whereby the joined wire may be replaced in the second clamp, an accumulating device disposed between the first clamp and the continuous insulating means adapted to take up excess wire when said wire is passing from the first spool to the insulating means and give up the accumulated wire to said insulating means on clamping of said wire and means for releasing said first clamp prior to exhaustion of the accumulated wire in said accumulating device, a mutilator device disposed downstream of said insulating means arranged to strip insulation from said wire on actuation thereof, and a footage counter device arranged to actuate said mutilator on passage of a predetermined length of wire therethrough whereby to locate and identify the joint in the wire.

14 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,606,136 8/1952 Garrett et a1 156504 2,648,872 8/1953 Stiegler l86 2,768,105 10/1956 Dittmore et al. 156-49 2,987,108 6/1961 Kilmartin 156504 3,024,157 3/1962 Beerli 156504 3,363,309 1/ 1968 Logan et a1 29-628 FOREIGN PATENTS 188,305 3/ 1956 Austria.

EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner.

T. R. SAVOIE, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 15651, 502; 83369

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