WO2012059875A1

WO2012059875A1 - Winding machine

Info

Publication number: WO2012059875A1
Application number: PCT/IB2011/054881
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mauro Marzolla
Original assignee: Dmg Meccanica S.R.L.
Priority date: 2010-11-03
Filing date: 2011-11-03
Publication date: 2012-05-10
Also published as: IT1402663B1; CN103189944B; ITTO20100872A1; CN103189944A; EP2636050B1; EP2636050A1

Abstract

The device (1) comprises a bearing structure (2) carrying an inlet support and guide member (3), with a distribution of passages (9) each of which is suitable for being passed through by an insulated wire (IW) unwound from a respective skein or reel (C) or the like, and an outlet support and guide member (4), having a corresponding distribution of passages (29) each of which is suitable for being passed through by an insulated wire (IW) coming from the inlet support and guide member (3); the arrangement being such that between said support and guide members (3, 4) there is defined a plurality of adjacent and separate paths, each for a respective insulated wire (IW). The totality of the wires (IW) emerging from the outlet support and guide member (4) forms a bundle of wires (B) destined to be fed to a rotating winding head (WH) of a winding machine (WM). At least one (4) of the support and guide members (3, 4) is mounted on the structure (2) in a manner rotatable about an axis essentially parallel to the path of the wires (IW), and is provided with driving devices (21, 22) capable of causing a rotation thereof in a predetermined direction and to a predetermined extent, about this axis, in such a way that the emerging bundle (B) of wires is correspondingly twisted.

Description

Winding machine

The present invention concerns a winding machine for forming a coil of insulated electric wire around a stationary support structure.

Such a device according to the prior art is schematically represented in figure 1 of the attached drawings. This device, comprehensively indicated by 1, comprises a bearing structure 2, such as a horizontal beam, which carries two support and guide members 3 and 4, respectively inlet and outlet. These members 3, 4 are provided with respective pluralities of passages, passed through by corresponding insulated electric wires IW, unwound for example from corresponding skeins or reels contained in respective containers C. The support and guide members 3 and 4 have respective pluralities of passages, for example angularly equispaced around an axis A-A. The passages of one support and guide member are aligned with those of the other, so that a bundle of insulated electric wires is formed between them, parallel to each other.

From the outlet support and guide member 4 emerges a bundle B of parallel wires, which then arrives at a winding head WH, rotating around an axis Z-Z, for example in an anticlockwise direction for a person observing figure 1, as indicated therein by the curved arrow F. In the schematic representation shown in figure 1, the head WH comprises a rotatable deposition arm D which, using procedures which are known per se, provides for winding the bundle of wires B around a stationary structure S, such as a so-called insertion tool of a type equally known per se. As a result of the rotation of the head WH and of the relative arm D, during the formation of a winding around the structure S the bundle B, nominally of parallel wires, in fact becomes twisted. The undesired twisting which is unavoidably imparted to this bundle represents an inconvenience which can compromise the correct formation of the winding or coil W around the structure S.

The document EP 1 930 918 A2 describes a winding machine suitable for manufacturing a bundle of electric wires including a succession of twisted portions of bundle, alternating with straight portions of bundle. A winding machine according to EP 1 930 918 A2 comprises a rotatable winding head and a feeding device suitable for feeding to the winding head a bundle of bundles of insulated electric wires. This feeding device comprises a bearing structure which carries an inlet support and guide member, and an outlet support and guide member, having respective distributions of passages, suitable for being passed through by respective bundles of insulated electric wires and arranged in such a way that between said support and guide members there is defined a plurality of adjacent and separate paths, each for a respective bundle of wires. The totality of the bundles of wires emerging from the outlet support and guide member forms a final bundle of bundles, destined to be fed to the rotating winding head of the winding machine. The outlet support and guide member is rotatable with respect to the inlet support and guide member around an axis substantially parallel to the path of the bundles of wires and is provided with a driving motor suitable for periodically causing a rotation thereof in a predetermined direction and to a predetermined extent, about said axis, such that the final bundle has twisted longitudinal portions, alternating with straight longitudinal portions.

The machine according to EP 1 930 918 A2 is thus predisposed for creating local twists in a bundle of bundles of wires, twists which are positively desired and necessary in the final bundle to reduce the losses due to eddy currents. This document contains no reference to the problem of eliminating or at the least limiting the introduction of undesired twists in a bundle of parallel wires, nor to the possible solutions to this problem. US 4,665,952 A describes a winding machine suitable for making coils formed with a bundle of wires twisted by means of a single support and guide device which is rotatable in controlled fashion. This machine, too, is predisposed for making a positively desired twist in the bundle of wires. An object of the present invention is to create a device for feeding a bundle of insulated electric wires to a winding machine, which makes it possible to obviate the problem outlined above of the solutions according to the prior art.

This and other objects are achieved according to the invention with a machine whose principal characteristics are defined in Claim 1.

Owing to these characteristics, as will appear even more clearly from what follows, a pre- twist is imparted to the bundle of wires in the opposite direction to that of the undesired twist induced by the winding head of the winding machine in the manufacture of a winding or coil. This makes it possible to reduce, and on average to cancel out, the twisting of the bundle of wires wound onto the insertion tool or other structure receiving the winding. Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear from the detailed description which follows, given purely by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

figure 1 , already described, is a partial and schematic representation of a winding machine provided with a feeding device for insulated wires according to the prior art;

figure 2 is a partial perspective view of a winding machine provided with a feeding device according to the present invention;

figure 3 is a partial frontal view of a portion, indicated by III in figure 2, of the feeding device for a winding machine according to the invention;

figure 4 is a partial top plan view, according to arrow IV in figure 3;

figure 5 is a perspective view of a part of the device according to the invention, shown in a condition of pre-twist;

figure 6 is a view from above, partly sectioned, of a portion, indicated by V in figure 2, of a feeding device for a winding machine according to the invention; and

figure 7 is a partial sectioned view of a portion, indicated by VII in figure 2, of a feeding device for a winding machine according to the present invention.

In figure 2, WM comprehensively indicates a winding machine, provided with a feeding device 1, according to the present invention. In this drawing, parts and elements corresponding to those already described are once again assigned the same reference numbers as used above.

The machine WM comprises in particular a winding head WH which in the embodiment illustrated is of the type with two arms D.

The feeding device 1 shown in figure 2 comprises a bearing structure, including an upper horizontal beam 2, which at its ends carries two support and guide members 3 and 4, respectively inlet and outlet, whose details are more clearly visible in figures 3-5 and, respectively, in figure 7.

Still with reference to figure 2, in the embodiment illustrated therein the feeding device 1 comprises an intermediate support and guide member, indicated by 5, whose details are more clearly visible in figure 6. With reference to figures 3 to 5, in the embodiment illustrated by way of example the inlet support and guide member 3 comprises a body 7 mounted translatably along the bearing beam 2, by sliding on a guide 8 fixed to this beam. A plurality of passages, indicated by 9 in figures 4 and 5, is formed in the body 7, each passed through by an insulated electric wire IW coming from a skein or reel or the like. These passages communicate with corresponding flexible tubes 10 (see figure 5 in particular) into which the wires IW extend.

In the embodiment illustrated the flexible tubes 10 extend around a hollow longitudinal guide shaft 1 1, which has one end fixed to the body 7 of the support and guide member 3, and the other end slidably mounted in a central passage 12 of the outlet support and guide member 4 (figure 7).

The flexible tubes 10 also extend between the body 7 of the support and guide member 3 and the support and guide member 4, and have their respective ends at least axially integral with these members 3 and 4.

With reference in particular to figure 5, in the embodiment illustrated the body 7 of the support and guide member 3 has furthermore anchored to it the ends of metal cables 13, interspersed with the flexible tubes 10, around the central shaft 1 1. The opposite ends of the cables 13 are anchored in the support and guide member 4.

In the embodiment illustrated (figure 5) the feeding device 1 comprises four flexible tubes

10, with which are interspersed four metal cables 13. Embodiments are also possible with different numbers of tubes and cables. Between the terminal support and guide members 3 and 4, the flexible tubes 10 and the metal cables 13 pass through a plurality of "flying" supports 14 (figures 2 and 5) i.e. not constrained by the bearing beam 2.

In the intermediate region between the terminal members 3 and 4, the tubes 10 and the cables 13 pass through an intermediate support and guide member 5 (see figure 6 in particular), which is supported by the beam 2 rotatably around the axis of the central shaft

11 , by means of bearings 15.

As was mentioned earlier, the inlet support and guide member 3 is mounted axially translatable relative to the beam 2, along the guide 8. A helical spring 16 (figures 3 to 5) is interposed between this support and guide member 3 and an anchorage pin 17 (figures 3 and 4) integral with the bearing beam 2. The spring 16 tends to return the support and guide member 3 away from the support and guide member 4.

With reference to figures 2 and 7, the support and guide member 4 has a stationary outer body 18, fixed to the bearing beam 2, in which a central body 19 is mounted rotatably by means of bearings 20. The flexible tubes 10 and the metal cables 13 are connected to this central body 19.

The body 19 has a conical gear wheel 21 fixed to it, which engages with a corresponding gear wheel 22, forming what is called a bevel gear set.

The gear wheel 22 is carried on a hollow shaft 23, defining inside it a passage 24 within which the bundle B of insulated wires IW is capable of extending, emerging from the outlet support and guide member 4 and directed towards the winding head WH of the winding machine.

Conveniently, the shaft 23 is drivable in rotation by the same electric motor EM (figure 2) which in the winding machine WM is responsible for driving in rotation the winding head WH. In operation, driving in rotation the shaft 23 and the associated gear wheel 22 (figure 7) in a predetermined direction is capable of causing a corresponding rotation of the conical wheel 21 and of the inner body 19 of the support and guide member 4. The rotation of the body 19 entails a twisting of the flexible tubes 10 and of the cables 13 interspersed with them, around the axis of the central shaft 1 1.

This twisting determines a translation of the body 7 of the support and guide member 3 towards the support and guide member 4, along the guide 8, against the action of the return spring 16. The insulated wires IW which extend inside the flexible tubes 10 come to form a twisted bundle, as also do these tubes.

The feeding device 1 described above thus allows a pre-twist to be effected on the bundle B of insulated wires, in the opposite direction to that of the undesired twist which is applied to this bundle as a result of the rotation of the winding head WH of the winding machine WM during the manufacture of a winding or coil W on the structure S. Such a winding or coil W is therefore formed by a substantially untwisted bundle of wires. The prior reverse twisting in fact allows a reduction in the maximum twisting to which the bundle of wires B is subjected during the manufacture of a winding or coil, and in particular can allow the average twisting of this bundle to be cancelled out.

Conveniently, although not necessarily, the electronic control unit ECU of the winding machine WM can be predisposed to rotate the head WH and the associated shaft 23 (figure 7) in the opposite direction to that specified for the manufacture of a winding or coil, for a preset number of turns of the inner body 19 of the support and guide member 4, so as to create the desired reverse pre-twist of the bundle B of wires. This condition having been achieved, the control unit ECU can then command the rotation of the head WH in the necessary direction for the manufacture of a winding or coil.

Naturally, without affecting the principle of the invention, the forms of embodiment and in particular of execution may be widely varied with respect to what has been described and illustrated purely by way of non-limiting example, without for this reason departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the attached claims.

Claims

1. Winding machine (WM), including a rotating winding head (WH) and a feeding device (1) suitable for feeding a bundle (B) of insulated electric wires (IW) to the winding head (WH); the feeding device (1) comprising a bearing structure (2) carrying

an inlet support and guide member (3), having a distribution of passages (9) each of which is suitable for being passed through by an insulated wire (IW) unwound from a respective skein or reel (C) or the like, and

an outlet support and guide member (4), having a corresponding distribution of passages (29) each of which is suitable for being passed through by an insulated wire (IW) coming from the inlet support and guide member (3);

the arrangement being such that between said support and guide members (3, 4) there is defined a plurality of adjacent and separate paths, each for a respective insulated wire (IW);

at least one (4) of said support and guide members (3, 4) being mounted on said structure (2) in a manner rotatable with respect to the other (3), about an axis which is essentially parallel to the path of the wires (IW), and being provided with driving means (21, 22) capable of causing a rotation thereof in a predetermined direction and to a predetermined extent, about said axis, such that the emerging bundle of wires (B) is correspondingly twisted;

the machine (WM) being made in such a way that during the formation of a coil (W) the rotation of the winding head (WH) is capable of causing an undesired twisting in a predetermined direction of the bundle (B) of wires (IW) emerging from the feeding device (1), and the driving means (21, 22) of the feeding device (1) are predisposed for determining a rotation of said at least one support and guide member (4) such as to cause a pre-twist of said bundle (B) in the opposite direction, capable of cancelling out at least in part said undesired twist.

2. Winding machine according to Claim 1, wherein a plurality of flexible conduits (10) extends between the passages (9) of the inlet support and guide member (3) and the passages (9) of the outlet support and guide member (4), in each of which a respective insulated electric wire (IW) extends, and wherein said conduits (10) have their respective ends at least axially constrained to said support and guide members (3, 4), and at least one (3) of said support and guide members (3, 4) is mounted movable from/towards the other support and guide member (4) along the path of said wires (IW).

3. Winding machine according to one of the preceding claims, wherein motor means (EM) are associated with the winding head (WH), capable of causing its rotation, and the driving means (21, 22) of the feeding device (1) are associated with the outlet support and guide member (4) and are mechanically coupled to said motor means (EM) associated with the winding head (WH), through transmission means (21-23).

4. Winding machine according to Claim 3, comprising control means (ECU) suitable for causing a pre-rotation of the winding head (WH) in a direction opposite to the winding direction, such as to determine, through said transmission means (21-23), a rotation of the outlet support and guide member (4) such as to cause an inverse pre-twist of the bundle (B) of wires emerging from the feeding device (1).