Apparatus for manufacturing stators
First Claim
1. A production line for manufacturing stators, each stator having a stator stack and a plurality of wave wound coils which are formed and inserted into said stator stack, said production line comprising:
- a plurality of pallets, each of said pallets being able to carry at least one said stator stack and having a coding device which stores at least information denoting contents of said pallet and production status of said contents;
a plurality of conveyors arranged so that said pallets are transported in a cyclical manner along said production line; and
a plurality of forming and insertion machines configured along said production line such that said conveyors transport said pallets up or down said production line to a first available or any of said machines, said machines forming at least one of said wave wound coils by forming said at least one coil and placing said at least one coil into an insertion tool and inserting said at least one coil in said stator stack by transferring said at least one coil from said insertion tool to said stator stack and being configured such that each of said machines selectively forms and inserts a phase wave wound coil in response to said information on said coding device, said machines having normal operating conditions.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Stators having wave wound coil for electric motors or other dynamo-electric machines are manufactured by a production line having a series of interconnecting conveyors running to various processing workstations. The workstations are of three primary types: wave coil forming and insertion stations, prefinishing stations and a final finishing stations. Every workstation of a given type may process any or all phases of a given stator. The stators are transported along the conveyor by pallets which are encoded with information denoting the production status of the stator on the pallet. By providing the workstations with the capability to read the encoded information and adapt themselves for processing based on that information, efficiency is increased because the first available workstation may be selected and individual workstations may be bypassed if other than normal operating conditions are occurring in a workstation without impacting the entire production line. Additionally, minor variations in production rates between workstations are easily absorbed by the production line without a corresponding loss of efficiency.
13 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A production line for manufacturing stators, each stator having a stator stack and a plurality of wave wound coils which are formed and inserted into said stator stack, said production line comprising:
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a plurality of pallets, each of said pallets being able to carry at least one said stator stack and having a coding device which stores at least information denoting contents of said pallet and production status of said contents; a plurality of conveyors arranged so that said pallets are transported in a cyclical manner along said production line; and a plurality of forming and insertion machines configured along said production line such that said conveyors transport said pallets up or down said production line to a first available or any of said machines, said machines forming at least one of said wave wound coils by forming said at least one coil and placing said at least one coil into an insertion tool and inserting said at least one coil in said stator stack by transferring said at least one coil from said insertion tool to said stator stack and being configured such that each of said machines selectively forms and inserts a phase wave wound coil in response to said information on said coding device, said machines having normal operating conditions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A forming and insertion workstation for forming a wave wound coil and for inserting said wave wound coil in a stator stack which is on a coded pallet, said coded pallet containing at least information denoting contents of said pallet and production status of said contents, said workstation comprising:
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an information reader for reading said coded information; a forming machine for forming said wave wound coil, said forming machine forming said coil and placing said coil into an insertion tool; an indexer for indexing said forming machine such that said wave wound coil is aligned in a specific and known orientation with respect to said stator stack, in response to said coded information; an insertion machine for inserting said formed coil into said stator stack by transferring said coil from said insertion tool to said stator stack; and a first transfer device for transferring said insertion tool containing said formed coil from said forming machine to said insertion machine and for transferring empty insertion tools from said insertion machine to said forming machine. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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Specification