Electrical insulation taping machine with uniform tape tensioning
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorAndre J. Levino
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A taping machine of the type on which a head is mounted with a tape roll for release of tape upon head rotation about the position of the conductors being taped is provided with a tape tensioning device that is independent of tape on the roll.
Claims5
An electrical insulation taping machine comprising:
- a head mounted for rotation about an axis on which one or more electrical conductors to be taped are located;
- a cylindrical tape roll mounted on said head, said tape roll having a core affixed to said head and a quantity of electrical insulation tape wound on said core with a layer of said tape fed through a tape path to said axis for taping said conductors, said tape being unwound from said core, traversing said tape path, and wound on said conductors as said head rotates about said axis;
- a tape tensioning device mounted on said head clear of said tape roll, said tape tensioning device comprising a cylindrical tensioning wheel over which said tape path passes and means for adjustably spring loading said wheel against said head to tension said tape substantially uniformly between said tensioning device and said conductors being taped independent of what quantity of said tape is on said core.
A method of machine taping electrical insulation on conductors, where the tape is to be prevented from breakage due to increased tension as the taping proceeds, using a machine of the type comprising a head on which a tape roll is mounted with the head rotated about the position of the conductors being taped thus feeding tape from the roll onto the conductors, comprising the steps of:
- feeding the tape, while the head is at standstill, from the roll to the conductors through a tape path that includes a first leg from the roll to a free wheel on the head, a second leg from the free wheel to a tensioning wheel of a tensioning device that has a spring loading means for maintaining a uniform load on the tensioning wheel, and a third leg from the tensioning wheel to the conductors;
- and
- operating the machine to rotate the head by which tape is drawn from the tape roll and applied to the conductors with the tape roll decreasing in size causing the location of the tape path first leg to change while the location of the tape path second and third legs, and the tension on the tape applied to the conductors, remains unchanged.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.