Apparatus and method for filament winding cylindrical bodies with closed end
AssigneeThe Secretary of State for Defence in Her Britannic Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
InventorClifford Rix
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A filament winding machine suitable for winding a hollow closed fibre-reinforced body such as a radome comprises a rotateable former 1, an annular spider 3 supporting a plurality of asymmetrically spaced filament guides 19 movable so as to be able to traverse the length of the former to a position beyond the closed end thereof, and an array of circumferentially spaced spigots 26 at or near the closed end of the body to retain laid fibres such that there is no slippage of fibres as they are laid over the closed end of the body.
Claims14
A method of filament winding a hollow body with a closed end characterised in that there are included the following steps:
- a. supporting a former at one end;
- b. providing circumferentially spaced filament retainers near the opposed end of the former;
- c. rotating the former about its longitudinal axis;
- and
- d. laying at least one filament on the former by a filament guide means which traverses the former parallel to the longitudinal axis between the supported end of the former and a position axially spaced beyond the end of the former;
- the rotation of the former and the traversing of the filament guide means being selected for controlling the lay angle of the filament on the former up to the filament retainers and also over the end of the former.
A filament winding machine for winding cylindrical bodies closed at one end thereof, said machine comprising means to support a former, filament guide means to guide at least one filament in spaced relationship to the former, means to reversibly move the filament guide means relative to the former such that the filament guide means traverses the length of the former and means to rotate the former relative to the filament guide means about an axis parallel to the traversing movement, wherein the improvement lies in that:
- the former is secured to a support at one axial end, the remote end being free;
- a circumferential array of filament retainers is attached to the periphery of the former near said remote end to limit slippage of the filament as it is laid between pairs of adjacent filament retainers;
- and the means to move the filament guide means traverses to a position beyond said remote end of the former whereby the filament is wound over the end of the former.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.