Globe Products Inc.

John W Bradfute

Patrick A Dolgas

Mark T Heaton

Gary E Clemenz

John M Beakes

Gregory S Garmann

Alvin C Banner

Lawrence E Newman

Larry E Staton

Arlie D Williams

Damon E Bussert

Scott J Kroencke

The reciprocating and oscillating winding spindle of a stator winding machine is rotatable through 180&deg; to enable a stator winding and lead terminating method and apparatus for automatically winding a 2-pole stator having two pole pieces each with a coil wire wound from the same, single strand of wire. A cross-over wire segment between the two stator coils extends through the bore of the stator and is trapped against an inside wall of the stator by a cross-over wire retaining member. A stator coil lead terminating apparatus is capable of complex manipulations of stator coil lead wires at a winding station. Stator coil lead wires can be looped about wire guide posts on a stator core in the course of forming coil lead terminations, and the posts can be protected against bending or breaking by looping pins that partly receive the posts.

Stator winding and coil lead termination method and apparatus

An armature manufacturing line includes one or more manufacturing cells, each having a winder facing a fuser and a rotatable armature transfer apparatus that transfers unwound armatures to the winder and wound armatures from the winder directly to the fuser. The armature transfer apparatus has a rotatable turret upon which are mounted a pair of grippers that face in mutually opposite directions and which are movable along mutually parallel axes. Independent drive means drives the grippers along their respective paths of movement relative to the turret. The turret is rotatably driven through 180.degree. in alternately opposite directions to place one gripper in confronting relation with the winder, then in confronting relation with the fuser, and so on. An elevator at the fuser moves wound and fused armatures from the fuser to a conveyor. Different embodiments are disclosed.

Armature transfer apparatus

An armature shaft having an eccentric cam body extending from one end thereof is gripped by an adjustable collet mechanism and rotated by a drive motor, preferably a stepping motor, having an output shaft movable in discrete increments. This rotation continues until an imaginary reference point on the periphery of the cam body reaches first and second angular positions. The preferred reference point is the point on the periphery of the end face of the cam body that is farthest from the axis of rotation of the armature shaft. The number of steps necessary to rotate the armature shaft so that the reference point is moved from the first angular position to the second angular position is determined as the armature shaft is rotated and used to determine the position of the reference point relative to a centerline between the first and second angular positions. Thereafter, the armature shaft is rotated from the second angular position by a number of steps computed by a programmable controller which controls the motor so that the cam body has the desired angular orientation relative to the axis of rotation of the armature shaft. After the shaft is oriented, the collet mechanism is moved, without disturbing the angular orientation of the shaft, to align the oriented shaft with a central aperture in a stack of lamination. Thereafter, the oriented shaft is inserted into the stack of laminations.

Method and apparatus for rotationally orienting an armature shaft

An armature manufacturing line includes one or more manufacturing cells, each having a winder facing a fuser and a rotatable armature transfer apparatus that transfers unwound armatures to the winder and wound armature from the winder directly to the fuser. An elevator at the fuser moves wound and fused armatures from the fuser to a conveyor. Different embodiments are disclosed.

Armature manufacturing lines and armature transfer apparatus

In the winding of an armature having a slotted commutator by a flier-type armature winding machine, a finish wire is severed closely adjacent its associated commutator bar slot by clamping a segment of the finish wire to a fixed tooling piece after it is wedged into the commutator bar slot by a linearly movable clamp rod having a finger which extends into the path that the start wire takes at the beginning of the winding of the next armature. The start wire is, accordingly, looped around the finger at the beginning of the winding of the next armature. The clamp rod is thereafter moved away from the fixed tooling piece, carrying the loop of wire with it. During the latter movement, the loop of wire is stripped from the finger by a cam surface past which the finger moves. The machine is provided with quick change wire guide tooling parts and quick change tamping blades so that the machine may be rapidly retooled for maintenance or for winding armatures having different parameters. The tamping blades move purely linearly through small distances during the tamping operations.

Armature winding method and apparatus

Connection of stator coil lead wires to terminals with channels is accomplished using an industrial robot and tooling for guiding the lead wires into the terminal channels and for crimping the lead wire to the terminals before the wires are severed. Also, lead wire placing assemblies are provided with hooks at each end of a stator being wound for holding the start wires away from the stator pole pieces.

Growing community of inventors

Xenia, OH, United States of America

John W Bradfute