Winding machine

In a winding machine of the type in which a strip is wrapped around a mandrel so as to establish stepped portions comprising the leading edge and trailing portions of the strip overlying said leading edge, and a plurality of wrapper rolls disposed around the mandrel are forced by individually controlled hydraulic cylinders associated therewith to press the strip against the mandrel, in combination:

• (a) sensor means associated with at least one of said wrapper rolls and adapted to respond to displacement of the latter with respect to the mandrel and to generate a signal representative of said displacement;
• (b) a first pulse generator operatively coupled to said mandrel and adapted to generate a pulse signal representative of an angle of rotation thereof;
• (c) an arithmetic circuit connected to receive the signals from said sensor means and first pulse generator and generate for each respective wrapper roll a retraction signal corresponding for each respective wrapper roll to the time the stepped portion of said strip will pass each said respective wrapper roll;
• and
• (d) means responsive to said reaction signals and operatively coupled to said hydraulic cylinders operative to cause each said hydraulic cylinder to be energized to retract the wrapper roll associated therewith away from said mandrel during the passing of the stepped portion of said strip past such associated wrapper roll.