Cable winding apparatus and method

Abstract

Apparatus and method for manufacturing a wire wound flexible torque transmission cable. The apparatus includes multiple wire guides to facilitate the winding of a plurality of preformed spring or wire coil members onto a mandrel or a previously wrapped layer. The apparatus further includes a means for synchronously moving the wrapped mandrel longitudinally and rotatingly with respect to the wire guide for accomplishing the winding process. The cable winding process generally includes the steps of winding a plurality of wires to form a single layer, each wire being in the form of a preformed cylindrical helical coil stock. Multiple layers of wire are similarly wound on the next previous layer, the windings normally being in a reverse direction from the next previous layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.