Machine for producing transposed cable
AssigneeGeneral Cable Superconductors Limited
InventorsLachlan Cameron Clelland, Christopher William Bumby, Rodney Alan Badcock
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cable winding machine for winding transposed cable from multiple serpentine subconductors such as in particular Roebel cable from such 2G HTS tape, without damaging the tape through edge-wise bending, comprises a conductor supply stage carrying subconductor supply spools to move the supply spools about a machine axis and maintain the supply spools in a common orientation as the subconductors unwind and move through the machine in a machine direction, and a cable forming stage after the conductor supply stage in the machine direction, arranged to bring together the subconductors and at which the subconductors interleave to form the transposed cable.
Claims21
A cable winding machine for winding transposed cable from multiple serpentine subconductors, comprising:
- a conductor supply stage carrying a subconductor supply spool for each subconductor and arranged to move the supply spools about a machine axis and maintain the supply spools in a common orientation as the multiple serpentine subconductors unwind from the supply spools and move through the machine in a machine direction,
- a cable forming stage after the conductor supply stage in the machine direction, arranged to bring together the subconductors and at which the subconductors interleave to form the transposed cable, and
- wherein each subconductor supply spool comprises an associated back-wind mechanism arranged to pay out the subconductor at a substantially constant tension and also rewind excess subconductor length back onto the spool when required during operation of the conductor supply stage.
A cable winding machine for winding transposed cable from multiple serpentine subconductors, comprising:
- a conductor supply stage comprising an endless flexible conveyor carrying a subconductor unwind spool for each subconductor and arranged to move the unwind spools about a machine axis and maintain the unwind spools in a predetermined orientation and at a substantially constant tension as the multiple serpentine subconductors unwind from the spools and move through the machine in a machine direction, and
- a winding stage after the conductor supply stage in the machine direction, arranged to bring together the subconductors and at which the subconductors interleave to form the transposed cable.
A cable winding machine for winding transposed cable from multiple serpentine subconductors, comprising:
- a conductor supply stage comprising an endless flexible conveyor carrying multiple subconductor unwind spools carrying subconductors comprising flat serpentine tapes comprising an HTS layer, the conductor supply stage arranged to move the unwind spools about a machine axis and maintain the unwind spools in a predetermined orientation and at a substantially constant tension as the multiple serpentine subconductors unwind from the spools and move through the machine in a machine direction, the conveyor carrying associated back-wind mechanisms arranged to rewind excess subconductor length back onto the spools when required during operation of the conductor supply stage, as the subconductors move through the machine with a longitudinal displacement between subconductors of L/n where L is a subconductor transposition length and n is the total number of subconductors wound in the cable, and
- a winding stage after the conductor supply stage in the machine direction, arranged to bring together the subconductors and at which the subconductors interleave to form the transposed cable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.