Winding machine for winding strand-shaped winding material on a spool

In a winding machine for winding strand-shaped winding material to form a winding on a flanged rotating spool to which the winding material is fed via a strand guide on a side of the spool, having a winding layer feed drive for a reciprocating relative traversing movement axially of the spool between the spool and the strand guide, the feed drive being controlled upon the rising of the winding material at a spool flange in accordance with a predetermined control program during a transition from a winding layer, having a predetermined width when completely formed, into a next higher winding layer, wherein a step is defined between the first mentioned winding layer and the next higher winding layer until the width of the next higher winding layer increases to said predetermined width the improvement comprising,

• an electrical scanning means arranged on the strand-guide side for monitoring the presence of the winding layer step in a contour of the winding layers, respectively, without physically contacting the winding layer step, as the width of the next higher winding layer increases to said predetermined width and a transition to a successive next higher winding layer occurs,
• said scanning means having a scanning range at least equal to a maximum winding thickness of the spool, and
• said scanning means having means for turning on the control program for reversing the movement of the feed drive upon the transition from the first-mentioned winding layer into the next higher winding layer and upon each occurrence of a new said winding layer step.