Compact universal concentric strander with take-off sheaves mounted on strander shaft

Abstract

A concentric strander has an elongate concentric shaft that defines a shaft axis and supports for rotatably supporting the concentric shaft. A number of wire bobbins are spaced at substantially equal intervals along the shaft to form spaces between the bobbins. Each bobbin has an axis substantially coextensive with the shaft axis for rotation about the shaft, and each bobbin has a maximum radial diameter. The strander has take-off sheaves, mounted on the shaft, that are associated with a wire bobbin and that take the wires from the bobbins and guide them to a point radially outwardly beyond the maximum predetermined radial bobbin diameter. The take-off sheaves subsequently guide the wires in a direction substantially parallel to the shaft axis and define, on rotation of the concentric shaft, a cylindrical envelope. At a downstream end of the shaft, the strander has a closing device that receives the wires from the bobbins and applies them on a core. A drive rotates the shaft, and the wire take-off sheaves are rotated by the interaction between the sheaves and the paid-off advancing wires. The interbobbin spaces needed to support the wire take-off sheaves have axial dimension substantially independent of the diameters of the wires to be processed by the strander.