Method and apparatus for winding and forming field windings for dynamo-electric machines

A method of forming field coils on a stator for a dynamo-electric machine, said stator including a plurality of skewed slots defined by stator teeth oriented at a predetermined skew angle relative to a longitudinal axis of the stator, said method comprising:

• positioning said stator in a stator winding machine, said winding machine including a winding spindle having a wire exit aperture;
• feeding wire through said wire exit radially outwardly for placement on said stator;
• moving said winding spindle in rotating and reciprocating movement to direct wire into said slots and around the ends of said teeth whereby said wire is formed into field coils on said stator teeth, wherein said winding spindle is driven by a first servo motor in reciprocating movement and said winding spindle is driven by a second servo motor in rotating movement, and said winding spindle is driven in rotation simultaneously with said reciprocating movement to cause said wire exit to follow said skewed slots along a path extending at a skew angle relative to the longitudinal axis of said stator;
• and
• wherein said wire is pushed through said winding spindle at a predetermined rate from a location upstream of said wire exit to cause said wire to be fed onto said stator during movement of said winding spindle.