WO1999035730A1

WO1999035730A1 - Stator winding and coil lead termination method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO1999035730A1
Application number: PCT/US1999/000358
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lawrence E. Newman
Original assignee: Globe Products Inc.
Priority date: 1998-01-07
Filing date: 1999-01-07
Publication date: 1999-07-15

Abstract

A method and apparatus for winding a stator (20) and inserting coil lead wires into terminal members (44) on the stator (20) includes lead wire guide members mounted on winding form retaining blade assemblies.

Description

STATOR WINDING AND COIL LEAD TERMINATION METHOD AND APPARATUS

BACKGROUND 1. Field of Invention

This invention relates to a stator winding and coil lead termination method and apparatus. The invention is intended primarily for use in the manufacture of 2-pole stators for dynamoelectric machines, such as motors, but may have application to the manufacture of other devices.

2. Cross-reference to Related Application

This application claims the benefit of U. S. provisional patent application serial no. 60/072,170, filed January 7, 1998.

3. Incorporation by Reference

The disclosures of the following patents are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

1. U. S. Patent No. 5,186,405 to Bea es et al. 2. U. S. Patent No. 5,549,253 to Beakes et al.

3. U. S. Patent No. 5,586,384 to Newman

4. U. S. Patent No. 5,413,403 to Beakes et al.

4. Prior Art and Other Considerations

Many electric motor stators are configured to include a non-conductive terminal board mounted to an end face of the stator core, which terminal board carries electrically conductive terminals to which start and finish leads of the electric field coils wound onto the core are attached. Such stators are particularly suited for fully automated production because the electric field coils may be machine wound onto such stator cores and the start and finish leads of each coil may be at least temporarily secured to the terminal boards or terminals mounted thereon before the wound stator is removed from the winding machine for further processing. The coils will not unwind or despool upon removal of the stator from the winding machine because the finish leads are each secured to the terminal board or a terminal thereon. The start leads and tap leads, as is well known, are each trapped by their respective coil turns and may, in addition, be connected to the terminal board or terminals thereon. Tap wire leads may also be trapped by the coil turns and may be connected to the terminal board or terminals thereon.

This invention is directed to a method and apparatus for manufacturing stators with such terminal boards. As to the documents incorporated by reference,

Beakes et al. patents 5,186,405 and 5,549,253 show a turret stator winder including mechanisms useful in the practice of the instant invention. These include a stator winding head 92 with a shuttle or ram 94 and a programmably-operable lead pull assembly 208 that includes wire grippers 84. These also include pairs of winding forms 80 and 82, winding form retainer blades 130 and 132, and mechanisms for moving the winding forms toward and away from a stator located at the winding station.

The lead pull assemblies 208 of the Beakes et al. '405 and '253 patents are capable of moving the wire grippers 84 horizontally and vertically in planes transverse to the longitudinal axis of the winding shuttle or ram. In addition, the grippers 84 can be pivoted about a horizontal axis to move the jaws of the wire grippers 84 closer to or farther from the vertical plane containing the rear face of a stator at the winding station.

The present invention could be used with a turret stator winder as shown in the Beakes et al. '405 and '253 patents. The invention could also be used in connection with an in-line stator winder in which stators move along tracks to and from the winding station. The Newman patent 5,586,384 is incorporated herein to show a representative in-line winder with which this invention could be used.

Turret stator winders and in-line stator winders include arrangements to automatically place stators at a winding station. This invention is also usable with stator winding machines which do not have associated stator handling mechanisms and in which stators to be wound are manually placed in a suitable clamp in the winding machine.

Both the Beakes et al.'405 and '253 patents and the Newman '384 patent show winding machines that include a winding station at which the coil lead wires are connected to temporary wire clamps which are separate from the stator being wound. The stators and the temporary clamps are moved with the stator to a robotic lead connect station at which the lead wires are removed from the temporary clamps and at least temporarily connected to the terminal members on the stator.

Beakes et al. patent 5,413,403 shows a lead pull assembly or wire gripper having upper and lower clamping jaws 36 and 26, respectively, and a fitting having a sharpened edge for severing a gripped wire segment.

5. Definitions

The following terms used in the specification and claims are used in the senses indicated in this paragraph. The terms "upper," "lower," "vertical" and "horizontal" are used in a relative sense and not in an absolute sense. The term "front" in reference to the winding machine or the stator is used to refer to the parts of the machine and stator facing an observer standing in front of the winding shuttle during a winding operation. Accordingly, the term "rear" is used in the opposite sense. Thus, for example, at the outset of a winding operation, the winding shuttle moves from behind the rear end of the stator to the front end of the stator to extend the start wire through the bore of the stator. "Start wires" are the segments of the magnet wires extending from the lead pulls through the bore of the stator to form the first sides of the stator coils. The wire segments that extend across the front and rear of a stator pole piece are referred to as the "end turns." Because the first end turn merges with and extends from the start wire, the transitional wire segment at the front end of the start wire and the beginning of the first end turn are indistinguishable and is considered to be part of the start wire or part of the first end turn. The phrase "terminal member" is used to refer to either conductive terminals or to terminal support members, which are typically non-conductive, such as terminal sockets.

SUMMARY

An object of this invention is to provide an improved method and an improved apparatus for manufacturing stators which have terminal boards. More particularly, an object is to provide a method and an apparatus by which stator coil lead wires, such as start wires, finish wires or tap wires, can be connected at the winding station to terminal members on the terminal boards of the stator being manufactured.

Another object of this invention is to at least temporarily connect stator coil lead wires to terminal members on a stator core at the winding station using lead pull assemblies for inserting the lead wires into the terminal members.

Still another object of this invention is to provide lead wire guide members that cooperate with the lead pull assemblies for at least temporarily connecting stator coil lead wires to terminal members on a stator core at the winding station.

In accordance with this invention, a stator winding machine is provided with lead wire guide members having wire guide surfaces that cooperate with the lead pull assemblies for inserting the lead wires into terminal members on the rear face of the stator core. The lead wire guide members are mounted on winding form retaining blade assemblies and move with the form retainers into and out of the winding area. Shortly before, during, and shortly after the stator coils are being wound, the lead wire guide members are in positions in which they can guide lead wires held by the lead pull grippers into the terminal members.

In the method of this invention, the lead wire guide members are positioned adjacent a stator to be wound and, by appropriate movements of the winding shuttle or ram and the lead pull grippers, the lead wires are guided by the guide members into lead wire-receiving parts of the terminal members. In order to draw the lead wires deeply into the terminal members, the lead pull grippers are first moved to align the lead wires with the terminal members and then the lead pull grippers are pivoted to move the lead wires toward the plane of the rear end face of the stator. During the latter movement, the tension on the lead wire is preferably increased to better control the movement of the lead wire into the lead-receiving portion of the terminal member.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent in view of the following description and the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a highly-simplified, fragmentary, partly diagrammatic perspective view, of a stator winding station provided with apparatus in accordance with this invention, showing also a stator to be wound and showing, in phantom, upper and lower winding forms used during the winding of coiis on the stator.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view of a portion of the apparatus and the stator of FIG. 1 at the beginning of the winding and lead terminating procedures in accordance with this invention.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary elevational view similar to FIG. 2 but after a coil start wire has been aligned with a wire-receiving slot in its terminal member on the stator.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view, on a larger scale than the preceding figures, of parts of the apparatus of this invention and the stator for illustrating the insertion of the coil start wire into its terminal member.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are each fragmentary elevational views similar to FIGS. 2 and 3 but showing a sequence of operation for placing a coil tap wire in a terminal member. FIG. 7 is a fragmentary perspective view similar to FIG. 4 of part of parts of the apparatus of this invention and the stator for illustrating the placement of the coil start wire into its terminal member. FIG. 8 is a fragmentary elevational view similar to FIGS. 2, 3, 5 and 6 but after the coil tap wire has been placed in a terminal member as shown in FIG. 6 and at the beginning of the winding of a second coil portion on the stator. FIGS. 9 and 10 are fragmentary elevational views similar to FIGS. 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 but illustrating sequential steps taken to insert the coil finish wire into a terminal member.

FIG. 11 is a fragmentary perspective view similar to FIGS. 4 and 7 and illustrating the placement of the coil finish wire into its terminal member. FIG. 12 is fragmentary elevational view illustrating an optional step for inserting the start wire of a second coil portion into its terminal member.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a stator 20 having a laminated core 22 held by clamp means (not shown) in position to be wound at a winding station 24 of a stator winding machine 26. At the winding station 24, an upper coil 30 (FIGS. 9 and 10) and a lower coil (not shown) are wound using magnet wire around respective upper and lower pole pieces 28 formed by the laminations. Both coils 30 are simultaneously wound by a reciprocating and oscillating shuttle or ram 32 driven by winding head (not shown) , which may be the same as or similar to the shuttle or ram 92 and the winding head 94 illustrated in the aforementioned Beakes et al.'405 and '253 patents, and which has a pair of wire-exit needles 34. During movements of the shuttle or ram 32, it draws the wires W from wire spools 35 through adjustable wire tensioning mechanisms 36, which may be entirely conventional, and winds the wires W around the pole pieces 28 to form the coils 30. Winding forms 29, shown in phantom in FIG. 1, guide the wires W across the end faces of the stator during the winding process. The stator 20 has insulating end plates or so- called "boards" 40 and 42. The rear end plate 42 is provided with an upper and a lower set of box-like terminal-receiving sockets 44A, 44B, 44C and 44D that have wire-retaining slots 46 in opposing walls thereof for receiving coil lead wires as will be further described below. Sockets 44A, 44B and 44C are illustrated enlarged in FIGS. 4, 7 and 11, where it will

RECTIFIED SHEET (RULE 91 be noted that the slots 46 have wide mouths 48 with tapered sides which taper to narrow bottom sections provided to snugly receive the coil lead wires.

As is common in the stator winding art, the winding forms 29 are clamped to the stator during the winding operations by upper and lower winding form retaining blade assemblies. Only the upper and lower rear retaining blade assemblies, designated 54 and 56, respectively, are illustrated in the drawings. The upper retaining blade assembly 54 includes an elongate, vertical blade holder 58 and a retaining blade 60 held in a longitudinal channel thereof by bolts 62. The longitudinal channel of the upper blade assembly 54 is not shown in the drawings, but may be the same as the channel 63 shown in FIG. 1 in the lower retaining blade assembly 56. A dowel pin 64 extended through the upper blade 60 and its holder 58 ensures that they are rigidly secured together. The upper blade 60 has an aperture 66 at its lower end that engages a pin or the like projection (not shown) on the upper rear winding form in a well known manner to clamp the winding form to the stator 20 during the winding operation. The rear lower form retaining blade assembly 56 similarly includes a blade 68 mounted on a blade holder 70. In accordance with this invention, an upper lead wire guide assembly 72 is affixed to the upper rear form retaining blade assembly 54 by the bolts 62 for movement therewith and secured in alignment by the dowel pin 64. A lower lead wire guide assembly 74 is similarly affixed to the lower rear form retaining blade assembly 56 for movement therewith. The upper lead wire guide assembly 72 comprises a relatively thin, bifurcated, plate-like body 76 having spaced branches 78 with relatively thick lead wire guide members 80 which, as shown in FIGS. 2 through 12, have wire-guide surfaces adjacent the terminal members 44A, 44B and 44C. The lower lead guide assembly 74 is similarly constructed.

Here it may be observed that the stator 20 is essentially symmetrical about its horizontal axis and the processes carried out on the lower half of the stator 20 may be essentially the same (but in mirror image) to the processes carried out on the upper half of the stator 20. To simplify the drawings and this description, only the upper portion of the stator 20 is illustrated in FIGS. 2 through 12, it being well understood in the art that the upper and lower winding and lead termination procedures normally occur simultaneously in the same manner.

With reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4, the magnet wire W used for winding the upper coil 30 is gripped by a wire gripper 84 forming part of the programmably operable lead pull assembly with the clamp jaws of the gripper 84 located at the "12 o'clock" position and with the gripper 84 in a vertical orientation, as illustrated in FIG. 18 of the Beakes et al.'405 and '253 patents. The upper needle 34 is also located at the "12 o'clock" position as shown in FIG. 1 when the winding forms 29 are clamped to the stator. The winding shuttle or ram 32 oscillates to the position shown in FIG. 2 in the direction of the open arrow in FIG. 2 and begins to move through the bore of the stator 20 toward its front end. When the ram 32 reaches its position shown in FIG. 3, with its upper needle again at the 12 o'clock position but beyond the front end of the stator 20, the wire gripper 84 is moved by operation of the lead pull assembly to bring the start wire against a wire guide surface 86 of the right side (as viewed in FIG. 3) lead wire guide member 80. At this time, the start lead SW is aligned with the slot 46 in the terminal socket 44C. With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, the operation of the ram 32 is temporarily interrupted, the tension on the wire W ise increased by the tensioning mechanism 36 associated therewith, and the wire gripper 84 pivoted in the manner shown in FIG. 19 of each of the Beakes et al. '405 and '253 patents to cause the start wire SW to be drawn to the bottom of the slot 46 in the terminal socket 44C. The tension on the wire W is then reduced to the tension desired for winding and the winding of coil 30 ise continued by operation of the ram 32, beginning in the direction indicated by the open arrow in FIG. 3. The wire gripper 84 is operated to release the start wire SW after the winding of the coil 30 is continued. Thereafter, the wire gripper 84 is returned to its vertical orientation.

After the winding of a first coil portion 30A, a tap lead TL-1 can be inserted into the terminal socket 44B as shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7. With the upper needle 34 stopped at the 12 o'clock position rearwardly of the stator 20, the wire gripper 84 is moved horizontally to the left, as viewed in FIG. 5 in the direction of the solid arrow therein, grips the stretch of the wire W between the coil portion 30A and the needle 34 and moves upwardly and to the left to bring the tap lead TL-1 into engagement with another wire guide surface 88, which is on the left side wire guide member 80. This action aligns the tap lead TL-1 with the wire-receiving slot 46 in the terminal member 44B. At this time, the tension on the wire W is increased by its associated tensioning mechanism and the wire gripper 84 is again pivoted to move its jaws toward the plane of the rear end face of the stator 20, causing the tap lead TL-1 to be inserted into the slot 46 of the terminal member 44B as shown in FIG. 7. After the tap lead TL-1 is lodged in the terminal socket 44B, the wire gripper 84 is operated to cut the tap lead TL-1 free and the gripper returned to the 12 o'clock position, as indicated by the solid arrow in FIG. 8. The wire gripper 84 may at this time be returned to its vertical orientation and, after changing the tension on the wire to that used for winding, the winding of the second portion of the coil 30 is commenced .

The wire gripper 84 is retained in its 12 o'clock position until the wire segment designated TL-2 in FIGS. 9 and 10 is partially wound under the turns of the second portion of the coil 30. The wire segment TL-2 may be deemed to be the second part of the tap lead or may be considered to be the start wire for the second portion of the coil 30 to be wound.

The finish lead wire FW of the completed coil 30 may be inserted into the terminal socket 44A in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11. In this case, the wire gripper 84 moves leftward in the direction of the solid arrow in FIG. 9 and grips the wire segment between the last coil turn wound by the ram 32 and the upper needle 34, after it has returned to its 12 o'clock position at the end of the winding of the coil 30. The wire gripper 84 moves to the left side (as viewed in FIG. 9) of the left side lead wire guide member 80, which causes the finish lead FW to slide along a lower guide surface 92 on the left side guide member 80. The wire gripper 84 is then raised into the position shown in FIG. 10, which causes the finish lead FW to be drawn around an outer guide surface 94 of the guide member 80. The tension on the wire W can then again be increased by the wire tensioning assembly 36 and the wire gripper jaws pivoted toward the plane of the rear face of the stator 20 to draw the finish lead FW into the slot 46 of the terminal socket 44A as shown in FIG. 11.

In the foregoing method, the second tap wire TL-2 will normally be manually inserted into the terminal socket 44D after the winding of the stator is completed. FIG. 12 shows a modification in which the second tap wire TL-2 is automatically inserted into the terminal socket 44D by a partial oscillation of the ram 32 and a movement of the wire gripper 84 to extend the second tap lead TL-2 across the mouth 48 of the slot in the terminal member 44D. Thereafter, the tension on the wire is increased and the wire gripper 84 pivoted to bring its jaws closer to the plane of the rear face of the stator 20 to insert the second tap wire TL-2 into the terminal 44D. Afterwards, the tension on the wire W is decreased to the desired winding tension and the winding of the second coil portion begun. It will noted in this case that the lead wire guide assembly 72 is not used in effecting connection to the terminal 44D.

It will be also noted in most cases, if not every case, that the lead wires to be inserted into the terminal sockets need not be accurately aligned with the narrowest portions of the slots 46 because the lead wires will be cammed along the sloping surfaces between the wide slot mouths 48 and the narrow portions of the slots 46 as the lead wires are drawn toward the bottoms of the slots 46.

The tensions applied to the wires W when the wire gripper 84 is pivoted to draw the wires into the terminal sockets will normally be sufficiently high that the wires cannot be drawn from the supply spools during the wire insertion steps.

It should be appreciated that the lead wire guide assemblies of this invention are configured to be usable with the particular stator 20, which is only one example of many stator designs. Different stator designs, including the types and locations of its terminal members, will obviously require various different lead wire guide assembly configurations.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various alterations in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A stator winding and lead wire termination apparatus comprising: a coil winding shuttle driven through a series of reciprocatory and oscillatory motions to wind a coil of wire around a pole of a stator fixed in a position to receive the coil of wire wound by said winding shuttle; a lead pull assembly having a wire gripper for engaging a coil lead wire and inserting it into a terminal member on the stator while said stator remains fixed in said position; and a lead wire guide for guiding the coil lead wire into the terminal member while said lead wire is inserted into the terminal member.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising at least one winding form adjacent the stator for guiding the wound into a coil by the shuttle around the stator pole and a form retaining blade assembly for maintaining said winding form adjacent the stator, said lead wire guide being mounted on said form retaining blade assembly.

3. In a method for winding stators and connecting a coil lead wire to a stator located at a winding station adjacent a stator winding head, the step of moving a lead wire guide member into a position adjacent the stator to be wound and, by appropriate movements of a winding shuttle and a lead pull gripper, inserting the lead wire into a lead-receiving portion of a terminal member on the stator.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the lead pull gripper are is to align the lead wire with the terminal member and then the lead pull gripper is pivoted to move the lead wire toward the plane of the face of the stator from which said terminal member extend.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein, as the lead pull gripper is pivoted to move the lead wire toward said plane, the tension on the lead wire is increased to better control the movement of the lead wire into the lead-receiving portion of the terminal member.