Apparatus for precisely winding a coil of wire

Abstract

An apparatus for precisely winding a coil of wire, either free standing or on a bobbin, includes a servo motor for rotating a spool and a wire feeding mechanism for guiding the wire onto the rotating spool. The wire feeding mechanism is mounted on a ball screw shaft connected to a stepper motor. Thus, rotation of the ball screw shaft by the stepper motor causes axial movement of the wire feeding mechanism. A wire feed angle sensor is provided on the wire feeding mechanism for generating a signal which is representative of the load angle at which the wire is wound upon the spool. A control system, such as a microprocessor or a programmable controller, is responsive to the load angle signal for controlling the operation of the stepper motor and, thus, the position of the wire feeding mechanism relative to the point of winding on the spool. As a result, a constant load angle is maintained throughout the winding process. A wire diameter sensor also generates signals to the control system. The control system is responsive to the wire diameter signal for determining the number of windings which can be made on each layer of the spool. In an alternate embodiment, the control system determines the position of a movable flange in accordance with the diameter of the wire to provide a predetermined number of windings per layer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.