Abstract: The insulating coating on the portion of a conductor wire to be fused to a terminal is evaporated prior to the fusing operation by the use of a focused inductive heater, such as an ultrasonic or laser beam, focused on the portion of the wire from which the insulating coating is to be removed. Following removal of the insulating coating in this manner, the terminal and the conductor wire are fused together by application of heat and pressure thereto. The invention is described for use in connecting armature coil lead wires to commutators having bars with tangs.

Abstract: Workpieces are conveyed from an incoming load station to a plurality of processing machines utilizing an endless conveyor having plural cradles for carrying the workpieces. A seat memory tracks each of the cradles and designates them as either work-to-be-performed cradles or work-finished cradles. The cradles are filled at a load station in accordance with an algorithm by which there is a predetermined ratio between those of the cradles being conveyed from the load station to the first of the processing machines designated as work-to-be-performed cradles and those of the cradles designated as work-finished cradles.

Abstract: An armature core subassembly and a commutator to be assembled thereon are each centered on a common axis and rotated relative to one another until a desired angular alignment is obtained between a side edge of a commutator bar and the armature core slots. This orientation is maintained while the commutator is advanced to and pressed onto the armature shaft. A commutator placing machine is described in which a tang-oriented commutator is loaded into the nosepiece of a ram assembly and the ram assembly is rotated by a stepper motor until an edge of a commutator bar is detected at a predetermined location by an optical edge detector. Prior machines for tang-orientation and orientation by insulating gaps between commutator bars are also described.

Abstract: A method of connecting a wire segment, such as a stator coil lead, to a terminal having a tang and severing the wire segment at the terminal including the steps of gripping the wire segment by gripper jaws of an industrial robot, manipulating the gripper jaws to lay the wire segment between one side of the tang and the adjacent face of the terminal, loop the wire segment around an edge of the tang, extend it past the tang, bend it over an edge of the terminal, and pull it with sufficient force that it stretches and breaks at a corner of the terminal edge. The wire segment is initially gripped with a sufficiently low pressure that it can slide along the gripper jaws as it is being manipulated to connect the wire to the terminal. The gripping pressure is increased prior to the pulling step so that sufficient pressure is applied that the free end of the wire segment is held clamped and will not be drawn through the gripper jaws when the wire segment is being stretched and severed.

Abstract: An armature core subassembly and a commutator to be assembled thereon are each centered on a common axis and rotated relative to one another until a desired angular alignment is obtained between a side edge of a commutator bar and the armature core slots. This orientation is maintained while the commutator is advanced to and pressed onto the armature shaft. A commutator placing machine is described in which a tang-oriented commutator is loaded into the nosepiece of a ram assembly and the ram assembly is rotated by a stepper motor until an edge of a commutator bar is detected at a predetermined location by an optical edge detector. Prior machines for tang-orientation and orientation by insulating gaps between commutator bars are also described.

Abstract: Both the inner commutator shield assembly and the outer commutator shield assembly of a flier-type armature winding machine include quick release means by which armature-specific tooling parts may be quickly removed and replaced by other armature-specific tooling. The armature rotator assembly has a modular collet assembly which may be removed simply by manually removing a pair of connectors and replaced by another modular collet assembly. By employing these assemblies, an entire tooling changeover can be effected by one relatively unskilled in tooling set-up techniques in a few minutes without the use of tools.

Abstract: Wire drawn from a tensioned supply into the wire inlet to a reciprocating and oscillating shuttle of a high speed stator winding machine is frictionally restrained by a convex friction plate when the shuttle approaches the end of each of its forward strokes. The friction plate is mounted on the rearward end of the shuttle and has a wire-engaging surface spaced rearwardly of and confronting the wire inlet to the shuttle. To optimize the restraint on the wire, adjustments are provided to vary both the length of time during which the wire is engaged with the wire-engaging surface and the length of the surface so engaged.