Feedback-based system for bending wire and forming springs

A feedback-based method of bending wire, the method comprising:

• providing a wire;
• bending the wire using continuous oscillation of a wire-bending element to produce a sinusoidal wire structure;
• detecting, using a wire-monitoring component, a characteristic of the sinusoidal wire structure;
• determining, using the wire-monitoring component, if the characteristic is within selected limits;
• and
• providing, using the wire-monitoring component, an instruction to modify the bending of the wire to adjust the characteristic of the sinusoidal wire structure when the characteristic is not within the selected limits,
• wherein the wire-bending element comprises a pair of forming pins each having a tapered profile, and
• wherein bending the wire further comprises moving a retainer tool between a first position to retain the wire and a second position to release the wire during formation of the sinusoidal wire structure.

A method of feedback-based wire bending, the method comprising:

• providing a wire;
• providing a wire-bending mechanism comprising:
• a wire-bending element comprising a pair of forming pins each having a tapered profile, and
• a retainer tool;
• providing a wire-monitoring component comprising:
• one or more image-capturing devices, and
• one or more computer processors communicatively coupled to the one or more image-capturing devices;
• bending the wire using the wire-bending mechanism to form a sinusoidal wire structure;
• capturing one or more images of the sinusoidal wire structure or a section thereof using the one or more image-capturing devices;
• determining if a characteristic of the sinusoidal wire structure or the section thereof depicted in the one or more images is outside of selected limits;
• and
• instructing, upon determining that the characteristic is outside of the selected limits, the wire-bending mechanism to modify the bending of the wire to modify the characteristic,
• wherein bending the wire comprises moving the retainer tool between a first position to retain the wire and a second position to release the wire during formation of the sinusoidal wire structure.