WO1993007330A1

WO1993007330A1 - Precision spinning or stranding device

Info

Publication number: WO1993007330A1
Application number: PCT/FR1992/000906
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yves Michnik
Original assignee: M.I.P. Methodes Et Ingenierie De Production S.A.
Priority date: 1991-09-30
Filing date: 1992-09-30
Publication date: 1993-04-15
Also published as: EP0562087A1; FR2681881B1; FR2681881A1; JPH06505538A

Abstract

A device for continuously winding at least one secondary wire around a main wire or winding several secondary wires around each other to form a cable (8). The device includes: a winding apparatus (1) having a rotary cage (12); a feeding apparatus (4); a cable pulling apparatus (7) for pulling the wound cable (8); an optical sensor (5) for optically measuring the angle between the portion of said secondary wire (13) located immediately before the winding point and the longitudinal axis of said cable (8), and for generating an output which is representative of said angle; and an automatic control device (11) for receiving said output from said optical sensor (5) and responding by varying an operating speed of the device so as to keep said angle constant.

Description

DEVICE FOR MAKING HIGH-PRECISION GUIPAGE OR STRAND

Field of the invention

The present invention relates generally to a device for making a covering or a high precision strand. The covering is an operation which consists in winding, preferably in contiguous turns, a secondary wire around a main wire resistant to traction. Guitar strings for bass notes are usually wrapped. Stranding is an operation which involves winding or twisting several wires together. Some flexible electrical cables are made up of several stranded wires.

A large number of stranding or covering equipment are known, such as those described for example in United States patents Nos. US-A-3,302,379 and US-A-4,055,038.

The stranding is currently done on traditional equipment in which wires are twisted together, each wire thus forming turns. The wrapping is currently done on traditional equipment in which at least one secondary wire is wound on a main wire, or core, the secondary wire thus forming turns which must in principle be contiguous or spaced by a precise constant distance. When, for example, wires are stranded or gimped to constitute electrical cables representing characteristics of lines, such as characteristics of capacity, inductance, etc., the pitch of the turns must be kept constant with high precision. These devices have the following drawbacks: the pitch of the turns is imprecise; the turns which must be contiguous are in fact imperfectly contiguous, in the sense that adjacent turns may be slightly disjoint, or in the sense that adjacent turns may be too tightly packed against each other. other, this compaction can cause deformation of the wires or a risk of overlapping of the wires; and the pitch of the turns fluctuates more when the equipment must be stopped then restarted, for example during an incident or during a wire connection operation. Object of the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide a device for making a covering or a high precision strand.

Another object consists in proposing such a device in which a pitch of a wire thus wrapped or stranded (that is to say wound) is of high precision, even over a very long length of cable thus formed.

Another object is to provide such a device in which the winding speed can be very high, for example greater than 6000 revolutions per minute, and can also vary during the wrapping or stranding operation (this is - ie winding) or even become transiently zero, for example during a normal or emergency stop of the device, without all this significantly affecting said precision of the covering or stranding.

Another object consists in proposing such a device in which the improvement thus brought about involves a relatively simple and inexpensive arrangement.

According to an essential characteristic of the invention, a device for carrying out a continuous winding of at least one secondary wire around a main wire or a winding of several secondary wires on themselves, in order to constitute a cable, comprises: winding equipment provided with a rotating cage allowing, by the rotation of said cage, to carry out said winding; supply equipment for supplying said secondary wire with said winding equipment; and pulling equipment for pulling said coiled cable; the device further comprising an optical sensor for optically measuring the angle made by the part of said secondary wire situated just before its winding with the longitudinal axis of said cable and to output a signal representative of said angle; and an automatic control device which receives said signal from said optical sensor, which compares this signal with a predetermined set value and which consequently controls a variation in an operating speed of at least one item of equipment selected from said item of equipment winding, the feeding equipment and the drawing equipment in order to cause the return of the value of said angle substantially to said predetermined set value. Summary of the invention

According to a particular embodiment of the invention, said optical sensor measures said angle at the level of a single secondary wire.

According to another particular embodiment of the invention, said optical sensor measures said angle simultaneously at the level of several secondary wires and in that the automatic control device performs an average of the measurements thus carried out.

According to another particular embodiment of the invention, there are provided several secondary wires intended to be wound together to form a stranded cable, characterized in that said optical sensor measures said angle at the level of only one of said secondary wires, a angular position coding device being provided on said rotating cage in order to synchronize the capture of the measurement of said angle with the angular position of said rotating cage so as to produce a said angle measurement signal only when a secondary wire particular is in the measurement field of said optical sensor. According to another particular embodiment of the invention, said signal produced by said optical sensor is an analog signal which is proportional in voltage, to the angle or angles observed, allowing during a fluctuation of the angle or angles observed, to accelerate or decelerate the rotating cage through a variable speed drive, in order to keep the angle or angles initially created.

According to another particular embodiment of the invention, the device makes it possible to guide a core continuously while ensuring that the pitch between the turns or the stress between the turns remains constant.

According to another particular embodiment of the invention, the device makes it possible to coat several wires around a core while ensuring that the pitch between the turns is precise. According to another particular embodiment of the invention, the device makes it possible to permanently display an angle or angles of wires of different materials.

According to another particular embodiment of the invention, said optical sensor comprises a housing including a light source which provides a light beam located in a plane intersecting said wire and including a light receiver in the form of a bar which produces a signal representative of the position along the bar of the impact of a part of the light beam specularly reflected by said wire, from which it follows that said optical sensor produces a signal which is representative of said angle while said wire crosses said incident light beam . Description of the drawings

These objects, characteristic and advantages, as well as others, of the present invention will be better understood and explained during the detailed description of an exemplary embodiment which will follow, illustrated by the appended drawings among which: FIG. 1 is a schematic general view of a device according to the invention; and Figure 2 is an enlarged partial schematic view of part of the device of Figure. Preferred embodiment of the invention In Figure 1, there is a device for making a covering or stranding according to the present invention. This device comprises in several following sub-assemblies: a single twist or covering stranding equipment 1 driven by a motor 2, associated with a variable speed drive 3; a tension regulated unwinder 4; an optical sensor 5; a metric counter 6 for programming several meters; a capstan 7 horizontal with crawler or vertical with pulleys in order to ensure the drawing of the product cable 8; a cutter 9 intended to cut the cable 8 product; a recovery tank 10 for recovering the cable sections; and a general control device 11.

Many variants can be envisaged in this equipment; for example, the cutter 9 and the tray 10 can be replaced by a take-up reel system. The stranding or covering equipment 1 is conventional in itself and well known in the prior art, and for this reason it will not be described in detail here. Such equipment is described, for example, in United States patents Nos. US-A-3,302,379 and US-A-4,055,038.

The operating principle of the device according to the invention is as follows. Compared to an electrical lockout which can be provided by the control device 11, a cage 12 of the simple twist equipment 1 rotates at a constant speed at the predefined (for example 8000 revolutions per minute). Similarly, with respect to another electrical setpoint, the horizontal capstan with crawler or vertical with pulleys 7 pulls the cable 8 at a predefined speed (for example 1 meter per minute). We therefore create a winding of a wire 13 or more wires around a single-strand or multi-strand core 14. The pitch P between turns thus obtained is therefore linked to the pulling speed V of the cable and to the speed of rotation R of the winding cage by the following formula:

P = V / R The helix inclination angle α, considered with respect to the longitudinal axis, of the wire 13 thus wound in a helix is expressed by the following formula: sinα = πD / P formula in which D is the wire winding diameter 13. In order to ensure a constant and / or precisely determined pitch P between turns or a constant and / or precisely determined angle α of the inclination of the turns, or in order to ensure the jointing of the turns, the device according to the invention permanently controls the angle β created by the wire or by one or more of the multiple wires 2. In this way, when for any reason, the angle or angles β change, the device detects a variation in the analog voltage representative of this angle or these angles β and it modifies the instruction given to the winding cage 12 of the single twist equipment 1 in order to accelerate or decelerate the rotation speed of way to recover the drift or the drift ives of angles observed.

The variation of the angle (s) β is controlled in steps of

0.5 degree, which represents for a wire with a diameter of 0.10 millimeter a possible variation of + or - 10 turns per minute and for a wire with a diameter of 0.50 millimeter a possible variation of + or - 2 turns per minute. Thus, the device permanently monitors the wire or wires forming a covering or a strand in order to ensure a perfect pitch between turns. On the other hand, whatever the variation in the diameter of the guiding or stranding wire, we are certain to obtain a pitch between turns or a level of stress between contiguous turns perfectly determined.

Detail of the sub-assemblies making up the device: (a) The simple twist stranding equipment 1 (FIG. 1) allows the rotation of its cage to wind a wire 13 (FIG. 2) around a core 14.

The wire diameter can vary from 0.10 millimeter to several millimeters in single wire or in multi-strand. This wire can be of different materials, for example pure copper, silver copper, ferro-nickel, aluminum, bronze, synthetic material or any other material. The core around which the wire is wound can have a diameter of a few hundredths to several millimeters. The composition of this core can be a single-strand or multi-strand synthetic material or any other material.

(b) The tension regulated unwinder 4.

This unwinder 4 is regulated via a puppet (or several pulleys). This shoe ensures on the one hand a constant tension (from a few grams to several kilograms) of the wire which is pulled, but it also ensures a perfectly controlled wire flow rate thus avoiding possible jolts during the flow of this wire.

(c) The optical sensor 5. The role of this sensor is to permanently control the angle α of the wire or wires 13 winding around the core 14, in real time, so that in the event that the latter or these vary, to give a setpoint in analog voltage different from its nominal setpoint in order to vary the speed of the winding stand 12 so as to return to the nominal angle previously defined. So for example, for a desired angle of 80 ° with a variation of + or - 10 degrees, we can have the following analog voltage outputs: 70 degrees = 0 volts 80 degrees = 5 volts

90 degrees = 10 volts

We therefore have, for an angle varying by 1 degree, an analog voltage varying by 0.5 volts. So we can, through the variation of this analog setpoint, speed up or decelerate the rotation of the winding cage 12 of the simple twist equipment 1.

(d) The metric counter 6.

This metric counter allows via previously recorded metering instructions to output information in voltage level in order to inform the capstan 7, which can be of any known type, for example of the horizontal track type (shown) or vertical with pulleys. It also informs, when the previously recorded footage is reached, the cutter 9 at the capstan outlet 7.

(e) Capstan 7 horizontal with crawler or vertical with pulleys.

It provides rope training at constant speed. It can accelerate or decelerate according to analog setpoints (setpoints, for example from the metric counter).

The device can also include other conventional functional elements such as a marker 30, a capstan motor 32, a capstan variator 31 and a certain number of electrical connections transporting either electrical signals or electrical energy, these connections mainly connecting the control unit 11 and the variators 3 and 31, the optical sensor 5 and the counter 6. The control unit 11 may include a button 33 for variable control of the winding speed R (the rotation speed of cage 12) and a button 34 for variable control of the angle β.

In the general device which has just been described, the invention relates more specifically to the sensor 5. This sensor 5 consists of a housing 17 including a light emission device 18 and a light reception device 19. The light emitting device 18 can be a lamp device, a light emitting diode, a laser or the like. The light-emitting device 18 comprises an optic which makes it possible to project a light beam 19 whose cross section 20 taken at the level of the supposed meeting between the beam 19 and the wire 13 has substantially the shape of a rectangle with one side lengthwise 21 substantially perpendicular to the wire 13. The side lengthwise 21 is relatively long, for example several millimeters and one side lengthwise 22 is comparatively short, for example a few hundredths of a millimeter. In this way, it can be said that the beam 19 therefore propagates in a plane and that this plane intersects the wire 13 substantially perpendicularly. More precisely, the beam strikes the wire 13 in the part 13A of the wire 13 located between a pulley guide 23 of the wire and the core 14 or the other wires on which the wire 13 is wound. The part 19A of the beam 19 which actually strikes the wire 13 is specularly reflected (at least partly at a certain substantially planar solid angle, since the wire 13 is substantially cylindrical. Consequently, part 19B of the light thus specularly reflected reaches a precise and restricted place 24 on the surface of a light receiver 25 in the form of a bar which is capable of providing a digital or analog signal which is representative of the position of this place of impact 24. It is understood that the angle β that the part 13A of the wire 13 makes with respect to the longitudinal axis of the core 14 is thus detected and measured precisely by the sensor 5. The part 13A of the wire rotates at high speed, for example 8000 revolutions per minute This does not cause any inconvenience for measuring the angle β because the portion of wire 13A returns a light only during the short instant when it crosses the incident light beam. 19. On the other hand, we can see with the help of a simulation in space or through a concrete realization that, during this short instant when the wire crosses the beam 19, although the lit part of the wire 13 moves, the position of the impact location 24 on the receiver 25 varies only very slightly, this variation being negligible compared to the accuracy of the measurement.

If several wires are simultaneously wound, each wire being independent and passing over a separate pulley 23 and being similarly struck by the incident beam 19, it is possible to provide a coding wheel (not shown) on the rotating cage 13 which supports the pulleys 23, so that it is possible to select the signals transmitted by the receiver 25 so as not to keep only signals corresponding to a particular wire or several wires whose angles β are to be measured respectively.

The angle β measurement can be used for:

- controlling a variation of the speed of rotation of the cage 12, the speed of extraction of the cable 8 using the capstan 7 remaining constant;

- controlling a variation in the speed of extraction of the cable 8 using the capstan 7, the speed of rotation of the cage 12 remaining constant; - Order a variation of the speed of rotation of the cage 12, the speed of the unwinder 4 remaining constant;

- Order a variation of the speed of the unwinder 4, the speed of rotation of the cage 12 remaining constant; or

- simultaneously control at least two of these parameters.

In equipment which has been produced by the inventors, tests have revealed with precision that the measurement of the angle β using the sensor which has just been described can be easily used by a simple electronic control device making it possible to control the machine automatically so that the pitch of the coiled wire remains very precisely constant, even if the speed of rotation of the cage 12 varies rapidly, for example during an emergency stop followed by a restart. The angle β can generally correspond substantially to the angle α, but in the case of a wrapping, the angle β will be slightly greater than the angle α in order to produce a longitudinal stress between the adjacent contiguous turns of the cable as well product 8. A real implementation of such a device according to the invention has made it possible to note that the device can operate at speeds much higher than those currently accepted, while producing coiled cables (that is to say wrapped or twisted ) more precisely and while ensuring such production more reliably, that is to say with fewer manufacturing incidents such as breakage of wire, abnormal overlaps of wire, damage to a coating wire (for example an insulating varnish) and other incidents commonly occurring in conventional devices. In certain types of winding, in particular in certain types of tight wrapping, the angle β can be chosen slightly greater than 90 ° in order to ensure good tightening of the contiguous turns of the wound wire. The invention is not limited to the embodiment which has just been described but it encompasses the variants or adaptations that can be envisaged on the basis of the concept corresponding to the present invention.

Claims

1. Device for carrying out a continuous winding of at least one secondary wire around a main wire or a winding of several secondary wires on themselves, in order to constitute a cable (8), comprising: winding equipment (1 ) fitted with a rotating cage

(12) allowing, by the rotation of said cage, to effect said winding; supply equipment (4) for supplying said secondary wire with said winding equipment; and pulling equipment (7) for pulling said coiled cable (8); characterized in that it further comprises: an optical sensor (5) for optically measuring the angle

(β) made by the part (13A) of said secondary wire. (13) located just before it is wound with the longitudinal axis of said cable (8) and for outputting a signal representative of said angle (β); and an automatic control device (11) which receives said signal from said optical sensor (5), which compares this signal with a predetermined set value and which consequently controls a variation in an operating speed of at least one item of equipment taken from said winding equipment (1), the feeding equipment (4) and the drawing equipment (7) in order to cause the return of the value of said angle (β) substantially to said predetermined set value.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said optical sensor (5) measures said angle (β) at the level of a single secondary wire.

3. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that said optical sensor (5) measures said angle (β) simultaneously at the level of several secondary wires and in this that the automatic control device (1 1) performs an average of the measurements thus made.

4. Device according to claim 1, in which several secondary wires are provided (13) intended to be wound together to form a stranded cable, characterized in that said optical sensor (5) measures said angle (β) at only one of said secondary wires, an angular position coding device being provided on said rotating cage (12) in order to synchronize the entry of the measurement of said angle (β) with the angular position of said rotating cage so as not to produce a said angle measurement signal (β) only when a particular secondary wire is in the measurement field of said optical sensor (5).

5. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said signal produced by said optical sensor (5) is an analog signal which is proportional in voltage, to the angle or angles observed, allowing during a fluctuation of the observed angle or angles, to accelerate or decelerate the rotating cage (12) by means of a speed variator (3), in order to maintain the angle or angles initially created.

6. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it makes it possible to guide a core continuously while ensuring that the pitch between the turns or the stress between the turns remains constant.

7. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it makes it possible to coat several wires around a core while ensuring that the pitch between the turns is precise.

8. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it makes it possible to permanently display an angle or angles of wires of different materials.

9. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said optical sensor (5) comprises a housing (17) including a light source (18) which provides a light beam (19) located in a plane intersecting said wire (13A) and including a light receiver (25) in the form of a bar which produces a signal representative of the position along the impact bar (24) of a part of the light beam (19B) specularly reflected by said wire (13A), from which it follows that said optical sensor (5) produces a signal which is representative of said angle (β) while said wire (13A) crosses said incisive light beam (19).