Inductor winding apparatus and method

An inductor coil winding apparatus, which comprises:

• a frame;
• spaced apart first and second shaft supports mounted on said frame, each shaft support having a cylindrical bore extending therethrough, the bores having collinear axes;
• a first shaft rotatably extending through the bore in the first shaft support and rotatably supported within the bore;
• a second shaft extending through the bore in the second shaft support and rotatably supported within the bore;
• a first mandrel half mounted on said first shaft and having outer and inner ends, the first mandrel half being generally conical in shape and having a tapered surface which tapers inwardly from its outer end to its inner end;
• a second mandrel half mounted on said second shaft and having outer and inner ends, the second mandrel half being generally conical in shape and having a tapered surface which tapers inwardly from its outer end to its inner end, the tapered surfaces of the first and second mandrel halves together defining, when the inner ends of the mandrel halves are mated, a continuous, double conical helix-shaped groove beginning near the outer end of the first mandrel half, and terminating near the outer end of the second mandrel half;
• means for axially displacing at least one of said first and second mandrel halves toward and away from the other of said first and second mandrel halves;
• means for removably mating the first mandrel half with the second mandrel half;
• a ribbon guide articulably affixed to said frame to move in at least a vertical direction as the winding of the coil proceeds, a first end of the ribbon guide proximate to the first and second mandrel halves, an elongated guide channel of the ribbon guide extending substantially perpendicular to said axes for guiding a ribbon toward the first and second mandrel halves as an inductor coil is being wound on the mandrel halves;
• and
• biasing means for urging the ribbon guide into sliding engagement with the double conical helix-shaped groove in the mandrel halves as the shafts and mandrel halves are rotated.