Strip accumulator

A strip accumulator comprising an outer circular set of carrying rollers, which extend radially with respect to a vertical axis of the set and serve to carry an upright outer strip coil receiving a strip from a strip feeder positioned outside the outer circular set, a concentric inner circular set of freely rotatably mounted, radially extending inner carrying rollers for carrying an inner strip coil connected to the outer strip coil by a reversing loop, a roller cage, which constitutes a core for the inner strip coil and comprises rollers having parallel axes, one of the rollers serving as a payout roller for guiding the strip to an inclined delivery roller disposed within the roller cage, a looping roller for forming the reversing loop arranged between the outer and inner circular sets of carrying rollers drivable to revolve about the vertical axis at a velocity that is equal to one-half of the difference between the velocities of the incoming and outgoing strips, and a circular set of radially inwardly extending inclined rollers inside of the outer circular set of carrying rollers, the inclined rollers being upwardly inclined towards the vertical axis and/or being inclined relative to a radial orientation with respect to the vertical axis in a sense which is opposite to the sense of rotation of the outer strip coil.