METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUSLY REELING STRAND MATERIAL

摘要

A pair of transversely aligned arbors are rotatably cantilevered at opposite ends of a vertically disposed rotatable turret. Each arbor is provided with a plurality of internally floating, cam-operated mechanisms for locking a take-up reel thereon. Independent drive mechanisms drive the reels separately at varying speeds. A snagger device is cantedly mounted on the cantilevered end of each arbor for rotation therewith and extends a radial distance slightly greater than the adjacent flange of the reel thereon to oscillate between two points coplanar with respect to the inner and outer surfaces of the flange, respectively. A distributor adjacent to one of the reels actively taking up the strand is provided with a reversible drive screw for driving a traversable strand guide controlled alternately by a stationary limit switch adjacent to the reel flange associated with the snagger and a rectilinearly movable limit switch mounted on a second drive screw and normally positioned adjacent to the opposite reel flange. Prior to cutover from a full reel to an empty reel, when a footage counter indicates that a length of strand approximating one layer of convolutions thereof remains to be taken up: (a) the turret is rotated 180 DEG to position an empty reel between the distributor and the nearly full reel; and (b) the second drive screw is actuated to move the movable limit switch toward the stationary limit switch at the traverse speed of the strand guide. The limit switches continue to control the reversal of the first drive screw. When the remaining length of strand is taken up and the advancing strand is traveling close to the inside flange of the empty reel, the snagger associated therewith is thrust into the path of the strand to grip and sever its connection to the full reel and to commence winding thereof upon the empty reel. The full reel is replaced by an empty reel to await the next cutover operation.