Method of manufacturing stator and coil insertion apparatus

A method of manufacturing a stator by winding a coil on a stator core by using a coil insertion apparatus, wherein

• the coil has a first coil portion and a second coil portion that are placed so as to adjoin each other in a radial direction when mounted on the stator core,
• the coil insertion apparatus includes a coil holding unit that has blades arranged along a circumferential direction and extending in an axial direction so as to face teeth of the stator core, respectively, a positioning unit that is fitted on the blades to adjust a positional relation between the blades, and a coil pushing-out unit that pushes out the coil held in the coil holding unit toward slots of the stator core, and
• the positioning unit has projecting teeth each extending between adjoining ones of the blades and protruding toward the stator core along a radial direction, and is formed such that a radial end face of each of the projecting teeth is located at a position in the slot, which is located inward of an opening of the slot, the method of manufacturing a stator comprising:
• a first coil winding step of, with annular conductors of the first coil portion being placed in the coil holding unit, inserting the annular conductors into the respective slots by the coil pushing-out unit;
• and
• a second coil winding step of, after the first coil winding step, with annular conductors of the second coil portion being placed in the coil holding unit, moving the positioning unit in the axial direction at least from one end of the stator core in the axial direction to the other end of the stator core in the axial direction, and inserting the annular conductors into the respective slots by the coil pushing-out unit while a part of the first coil portion, which is located in the slots, is pressed in a direction from the opening of the slot toward an inside of the slot by the radial end faces of the projecting teeth.