Wire-looping Apparatus

Abstract

Wire coming hot from a rolling mill traverses an eccentric duct in a rotating body and emerges therefrom at the periphery of a frustoconical disk which is centered on the axis of rotation and is held stationary by a planetary-gear system. A tapering guide roller, journaled on the body adjacent the outlet of the duct, helps wind the emerging wire about the disk periphery from which the wire loops slide off axially, the roller axis being oriented skew to the axis of rotation to impart an axial component to the motion of the wire exiting from the rotating body.

Description

My present invention relates to an apparatus for winding a wire, coming hot from a rolling mill, into a series of loops which can be spread out on a conveyor for cooling purposes or can be directly stacked for tying into coils.

Conventional devices of this type use a rotating dispenser with a duct, such as a curved tube, having an entrance end on the axis of rotation and an exit end offset from that axis. A length of wire continuously fed in at the entrance end and emerging eccentrically at the exit end is wound on a central core which rotates with the dispenser and may be provided with a helicoidal track receiving a limited number of wire turns. With proper choice of the exit speed of the wire, these turns move only axially but do not rotate so that the loops sliding off the core can freely drop onto a conveyor surface or array themselves about a stacking mandrel. There exists, however, considerable friction between the wound wire and the rotating core, especially at higher winding speeds requiring increased core lengths.

The general object of my invention is to provide an improved wire-looping apparatus which avoids the disadvantages of known devices of this type and enables a more efficient winding of hot wire without the need for overcoming major frictional resistance.

A more specific object is to provide means in such apparatus for holding a winding core stationary on a rotating dispenser.

In accordance with this invention the body of the dispenser carries a guide member, preferably a roller, at a location adjacent the exit end of the curved duct and just beyond the periphery of a stationary disk whose peripheral edge lies close to the orbit of that exit end. A length of wire emerging from the duct passes between the disk and the guide member which, in revolving about the central axis of the rotating body, winds the wire about the disk periphery in successive turns which only slide axially off that disk but do not rotate with reference thereto if the feeding rate of the wire is properly correlated with the disk diameter and the speed of rotation.

In order to impart an initial axial component of motion to the turns of the emerging wire, I prefer to orient the guide roller with its axis skew to the central axis of the dispenser, i.e., with the roller axis including an outwardly pointing acute angle with a radial plane passing through the exit end of the duct.

To facilitate the detachment of the loops from the disk, the latter is advantageously of outwardly tapering frustoconical shape, as is the guide roller.

In order to hold the disk stationary without interfering with the continuous unloading of the looped wire from the disk periphery, the fixed support for the dispenser may be coupled with that disk via a planetary-gear train passing through the rotating body. Such a gear train may simply consist of a pair of equisized sun gears respectively meshing with a pair of equisized planet gears, the latter being keyed to a common shaft journaled in the dispenser body or rotor.

If it is desired to promote the advance of the wire with the aid of supplemental transport means positioned beyond the duct, such transport means may be disposed on a stationary disk and may be energized through relatively sliding contacts, such as a slip ring and a brush, by way of the rotor body.

The invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is an axial sectional view of an apparatus according to the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a front view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

The apparatus shown in the drawing comprises a fixed base 1 in which a body 2 with an eccentric wire-dispensing duct 13 is journaled for rotation about a central axis 7. Duct 13 is helicoidally curved, as seen in FIG. 2, but has been relocated into a radial plane in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 1. The entrance end 13' of this duct, located on axis 7, confronts a feeding tube 15 through which a wire 16 continuously passes on being drawn from a rolling mill by conventional transport rollers not shown. The exit end 13" of duct 13 is remote from axis 7 and orbits in a circle of a diameter slightly larger than that of the major base of a frustoconical disk 5 adjoining the enlarged right-hand end of body 2. Disk 5 is positively coupled at 17 with a sun gear 8 having a shaft 6 journaled in rotor body 2. This body is driven by a motor 3 on base 1 through a transmission 4, the motor speed being correlated with the feed rate of wire 16 and with the orbital radius of exit end 13" so that the emerging length of wire forms a set of nonrotating turns of that radius about disk 5.

Sun gear 8 meshes with a planet gear 12 keyed to a shaft 10 which is journaled in rotor body 2, another planet gear 11 also keyed to that shaft engaging a sun gear 9 fixed on a neck of base 1. Since the two coaxial sun gears 8 and 9 are of like diameter, as are the two coaxial planet gears 11 and 12, gear 8 is constrained to move at the speed of gear 9 and is therefore held stationary together with disk 5.

An outwardly tapering frustoconical guide roller 14 is eccentrically mounted on body 2 adjacent exit end 13", just beyond the periphery of disk 5, and is tilted with reference thereto so that the roller axis 18 is skew to the central axis 7. The wire 16 emerging from duct 13, entering a gap between the disk and the roller, is thus deflected outwardly along the innermost generatrix of roller 14 so as to impart a slight outward axial thrust (to the right in FIG. 1) to the turns formed by this wire about the frustoconical disk 5. In sliding off the narrow end of the disk, these turns may drop onto a conveyor surface or a stacking mandrel as is well known per se.

A vibrator 19, serving as a supplemental transport means, is mounted on the disk 5 whose coupling 17 with gear 8 may be an elastic pad or the like. The motor of vibrator 19 is energized from a current source, diagramatically indicated at 20, through a brush 21, a co-operating slip ring 22 on rotor 2, another such slip ring 23 on that rotor, and a coacting further brush 24 on disk 5.

Claims

I claim:

1. A wire-looping apparatus comprising:

a stationary support;

a body journaled on said support for rotation about a central axis, said body being provided with a curved duct having an entrance end on said axis and an axially oriented exit end remote from said axis;

an outwardly tapering stationary disk adjacent said body centered on said axis, said disk having a peripheral edge close to the orbit of said exit end about said axis; and

an outwardly tapering guide roller mounted on said body adjacent said exit end outside said disk for winding an emerging length of wire, fed into said duct at said entrance end, about the periphery of said disk in successive turns sliding axially off said periphery, said exit end opening into a gap between said roller and said disk.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said roller has an axis lying skew to said central axis at an angle imparting an axial component of motion, away from said body, to the emerging length of wire.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising transport means for said length of wire on said disk.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said transport means comprises a vibrator, further comprising an energizing circuit for said vibrator including a pair of sliding contacts on said body and said disk.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, further comprising a planetary-gear train linking said disk with said support through said body for holding said disk stationary.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 5 whrein said planetary-gear train comprises a pair of equisized sun gears on said support and said disk and a pair of equisized interconnected planet gears on said body respectively meshing with said sun gears.

7. A wire-looping apparatus comprising:

a stationary support;

a body journaled on said support for rotation about a central axis, said body being provided with a curved duct having an entrance end on said axis and an exit end remote from said axis;

a stationary disk adjacent said body centered on said axis, said disk having a peripheral edge close to the orbit of said exit end about said axis;

a guide member mounted on said body adjacent said exit end outside said disk for winding an emerging length of wire, fed into said duct at said entrance end, about the periphery of said disk in successive turns sliding axially off said periphery;

a vibrator for advancing said turns along said periphery; and

an energizing circuit for said vibrator including a pair of sliding contacts on said body and said disk.