Filament winding system

In a filament winding system using a cut/add delivery head for winding a plurality of tows forming a winding band onto a mandrel to form an irregular shaped object, the improvement being a cut/add delivery head comprising:

• a) an upper cut/add assembly wherein half of the tows are conveyed therethrough,
• b) a lower cut/add assembly disposed at an angle to said upper assembly wherein the remaining half of the tows are conveyed therethrough,
• c) said upper and lower assemblies being spaced from each other at their feed ends and being substantially juxtaposed at their discharge ends so that the tows being fed from each assembly to the mandrel meet in a single plane immediately before passing to applicating means, each assembly comprising
• i) distributing means being located at said feed end of said assembly for spacing the tows and feeding the tows inwardly in said head,
• ii) ribbonizing means for ribbonizing or spreading the tows to a desired width and thickness,
• iii) chilling means for cooling the tows coming from the ribbonizing section,
• iv) cutting means to selectively cut individual tows passing through said assembly which are not to be applied to the mandrel as part of the winding band,
• v) add means upstream from said cutting means for holding said cut tows and adding said cut tows on demand to permit the application of cut tows to the mandrel as part of the winding band, and
• d) applicating means at said discharge ends of said assemblies for receiving the tows in a single plane from each of the upper cut/add assembly and the lower cut/add assembly and applying the tows to the mandrel.