US2944380A - Wire twisting machine - Google Patents

Description

J. J. KLAPPER ETAL 2,944,380

WIRE TWISTING MACHINE July 12, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Jan. 15, 1957 fiWW/Ws Jab/7 /(/a er, f/aaa e 6. l'f/h/l:

W of il MM 4 AMMWA 26/! A/fomggs U wd mm M 2,944,380 WIRE TWISTING John .LKlapper, New Canaan, and-Claude C. Smith, In,

Stralford, Conn., assignors to General Electric Conipany, a corporation of New York Filed Jan. 15, 1957, set. No. 034,268 3 Claims. (CI. 57-34) 2,944,330 Patented July 12, 1960 ice having individual machines for each combination as is the present practice in this industry.

stand abrasion :or scuifing without causing deleterious;

effects on its electrical,properties. Also, this fine wire cannot withstand large tensions without'experiencing a decrease in its cross-sectional area (neckingdownyand possiblythe breakage of the wire. I 'f a Present-day twisting machines use pay'oii spools or reels which permit. unequal wire pay-otf resulting in different lengths of singles in the twinned or tripled conductor. This oftentimes results in the rejection of such'wire for use in finished cable. In order to twist long lengths of wire, largecapacity reels are usedwhich necessarily in-'- s Our invention comprises three main components, name- 1y, a. tensionless pay-01f which may either be a loose coil of wire, a stationary barrel or a revolving barreL' A stationary barrel will impart some backtwist to the finished twisted conductor. In cases where this backtwist is objectionable, a revolving barrel can be used. The second, and most important, component is the twisting head which revolves at a high speed about a vertical axis and has meansv for gripping the wires and pulling them through the head as they are being twisted. The pitch of the twisted wire is a function of the amount of travel of the wire through the head for each revolution of the head. V

than'the' linear wire. output of the twisting head which, of

course, is a function of the speed of the twisting head, so

that the-twi's ted wire will level fill the barrel from bottom -.to topias if the twisted wire, were being folded therein rather than dropped directly-down into the barrelig Ourginvention will be'better' understood from the fol;

lowing description taken iiiconnection with the accom pany ing drawings and its scope will be pointed out in the 3: appended claims.

crease the physical size of the machine; As a" consea quence, this large" size means a bulky, rugged conjstrucftion which by its very nature cannot delicately handle fine wire. Also, the size andinertia of the twistingmachine parts limits the maximum speed of the machine and, hence, its output. wire either has a long path or an intricate path'over small the insulation and the copperconductor. ,i

Figure 1. shows a perspective elevational view of two fine wiresbeing drawn down: through the twisting head and from there being whirled into the spinning barrel take-up having a centralcore. t

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the details of the twist- 7 ing head showing a pair of endless belts being driven In all the present-day machines the sheaves which imparts unnecessary, punishment to both In recent years, work-has beenconducted. on packaging I wire in barrels rather than winding itv on reels; One advantage of this is that the barrels are usually of heavy duty cardboard construction whichresults in alightweight container as compared with a heavy wooden or steel reel. The wire is merely laidin the barrel in a loose pack so that itis' an easy matter to place the wire in the barrel and to remove it without exertingmuch tension.

on thewire. 2

Accordingly, thetprincipal object of this invention is to provide a wire twisting machine which iscapable of whirling the twistedwire directly into a spinning barrel take-up mechanism.

p A further object of this invention is to provide a jwire V twisting machine with a tensionless wire pay-off and a barrel take-up mechanism to'reduce to "a minimum, the

tension which is applied to the wire.

twisting machine of small lightweight symmetrical construction which will first twist the wire and then whirl the twisted wire in'a revolving helix of more than one turn that is'made to'revolve at nearly the same speed as the A further object of this invention is toprovide a wire against each: other to pull the two wires downward through the head, while at the same time imparting a twist to the wires asthe head revolves.

FigureS is a plan view of an apertured plate which is assembledover the twisting head and includes a series of protected-openings through which the fine Wire is drawn from the wire payoif means downward into the twisting head.

Referring in detail to the drawing, and in particular to F gure 1, there is shown a box-like framework 10 of our wire twisting machine having a twisting head 11' near the top and a spinning barrel take-up assembly 12 directly beneath the twisting head. The framework 10 is constructed of a series of angle irons welded together. in an T open box-like form with ,a top plate 13, anintermediate i shelf 14 on which the twisting head 11 is seated, and,

lower shelf 15 supporting a turntable 16 which carries the take-up barrel 12. The lower shelf 15 is raised from the. bottom' of the framework 10, to allow room for the belt drive mechanism 17 which underlies'the turntable 16 and;

drives the barrel 12 in unison with the twisting head 11. A pair of stanchions 18' are fixed to the top plate 13 at'equal distaneestfroma central opening 19 in the plate;

. Wires 21' extendthrough this opening 19 before they enterthe twisting'head 11. Each stanchion 18 supports a horizontal roller 20 over which the wires 21 move as they are pulled from the wire pay-off mechanism (not shown). An apertured plate '22 is supported by the stanchions above the top plate 13 of the machine, and centered over the hole 19 for guiding the wires 21 as they leave the rollers 20 until they extend through the hole 19. This plate 22, as best shown in Figure 3, is of v circular configuration with a plurality of small openings 7 23 arranged in a circular fashion near the edge of the a over-deliver. The loop of wire strikes the inner core first and then begins to grow in size ad infinitum back and forth. Actually, under normal operating conditions the wire will strike the inner surface of the barrel and then will be drawn over to the outer surface of the core and then back again to the inner surface of the barrel until a flower petal pattern is formed in the barrel and builds up successive full layers until the wire space of the barrel is full.

Having described above our novel machine and methcd for twisting fine wire and paclcing the twisted wire in a barrel, it should be well understood by those skilled in this art that we have simplified the construction of wire twisting machines and have provided a wire handling method that will carefully treat the wire and .tend to eliminate faults in the wires which were produced by the former methods of rough handling the wire. One of our most important contributions is the use of a wire twisting machine that operates about a vertical axis and packs the wire so that the wire does not become untwisted and, hence, unusable.

Modifications of this invention will occur to those skilled in this art, and it is to be understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed but that-it is intended to cover all modifications which are within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A wire twisting machine comprising guide means for supporting a plurality of wires which are being drawn into the machine, a twisting head rotatingabout avertical axis and gripping the Wires to them over the said guides iwhile putting a continuous twist in the wires,

a rotating barrel wire take-up means positioned under I the said rotating head to receive the-twisted wire as it is delivered from the head, the barrel having a central core so that the wire will fill up-the barrel in the wire space around the core, the speed of rotation of the barrel measured as the'speed of a point on the mean circumference of thewire space ofthebzirrel, this barrel speed differing from the linear speed of wire output of the twisting head by an amount equal to'the pitch of the twisted wire, thereby converting axial rotation of the wire, as it emerges from the twisting head to linear mobarrel take-up means to provide a level fill firom bottom to top of the barrel. 1

tion by means of more than 'one complete turn of a revolving helix of twisted wire that is whirled into the 2. A wire twisting machine comprising guide means for supporting a plurality of wires being drawn into the machine, a twisting head rotating about a vertical axis and having means for gripping the wires and pulling them over the said guide means, while at the same time putting a continuous twist in the wires having a pitch that is determined as the function of the speed of rotation of the head and the speed at which the wire is pulled by the head, a rotating barrel take-up means positioned under the rotating head to receive the twisted wire as it is delivered from the head, the barrel having a central core so that the wire will fill up the barrel in the wire space around the core, the relation of the speed of delivery of wire from the head with respect to the speed of a point on the mean circumference of the wire space of the barrel take-up means diifering only as the function of the pitch of the twisted wire so that the wire will settle into the barrel at a slight acute angle to the bottom of the barrel and will lie neatly in multiple layers, the axial rotation of the wire as it emerges from the twisting head being converted into linear motion by means of more than one complete turn of a revolving helix as the twisted wire is whirled into the barrel.

3. A wire twisting machine comprising guide means for supporting the wires as they travel toward each other for a, subsequent twisting operation, the wires being acted upon by a vertically rotating head which pulls the wires over the said guide means while at the same time twisting them continuously around each other, the pitch of the twisted wires being a function of the speed of rotation of the head and the amount the wires are pulled through the head for each revolution of the head, a rotating barrel take-up means located directly under the rotating head so that the twisted wire will drop into the barrel, the speed of rotation of the barrel measured as the speed of a point on the mean circumference of the wire space of the barrel, this barrel speed difiering fromthe linear speed of wire output of the twisting head by an amount equal to the pitch of the twisted wire, the axial rotation of the wireasit emerges from the twisting head being converted into linear motion'by more than one complete turn of a revolving helix of wire that is being whirled into the barrel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 403,304 Sutcliife May 14, 1889 1,070,632 Rothe Aug. 19, 1913 Gillis et al Apr. 30, 1957

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