Abstract: Wires are picked from a loose bundle of wires which have been cut to length, prior to feeding to a processing machine such as a grid welding machine. The bundle is laid on a supporting table (23) so that end parts of the wires project freely beyond the table. A lifting beam (18) having a vertical slot (19) is then raised beneath the projecting end parts of the wires so that most of the wires are raised but the others are received one above the other in the slot. A gripper having clamping cheeks (20) is applied from below and grips the lowermost wire in the slot. The gripper is mounted on a carrier (2) which is movable parallel to the wire axes to pull the gripped wire longitudinally out of the slot.

Abstract: The invention relates to multi-spot-welding machines for the production of lattice gratings suitable for use for example as walk ways, and which consist of upright flat bars parallel to one another and cross-bars welded transversely into these and again parallel to one another. The flat bars are usually fed intermittently to welding electrodes. The machine of the invention has at least one pair of cooperating electrodes which are aligned in the feed direction of the flat bars and spaced apart a distance substantially equal to the desired spacing of the cross-bars. The or each pair of electrodes is pressed in turn against each pair or cross-bars to be welded and the upright flat bars themselves act as current bridges between the electrodes of the or each pair. An abutment supports the flat bars against the force of the welding electrodes and this abutment has considerably greater hardness and wear resistance than the flat bar material.

Abstract: A multispot welding machine for producing a mesh web from arrays of wire running skew to the longitudinal direction of the web and crossing one another has two endless circulating feeders which carry deflector-pins and each of which has a working run defining a different one of the edges of the mesh web to be produced, a wire-layer which is movable to and fro across the feeders and arranged to lay a number of wires alternately about a corresponding number of deflector-pins on the working runs of the two feeders, and a welding zone having means for welding the wires together at their crossover points. The endless feeders circulate in a common plane which is parallel with the plane of production of the web, the deflector-pins project substantially perpendicularly from the common plane, and the working runs of the two feeders have in the neighbourhood of the welding zone a greater separation from one another than before and beyond the zone.

Abstract: The invention relates to a binding tool for twisting the free ends of a binding wire, particularly for holding together metal reinforcing rods at their crossover points. The tool has a feed device for the binding wire, at least one pair of wire guides which can be opened and closed like pincers and which form, in the closed state, a U-shaped wire guide path, in use, around an assembly to be bound, shears for cutting the advanced wire to length and a twisting head which can be driven and which has wire passages to receive the ends of the wire to be twisted, the wire feed path extending, when the twisting head is in the position of rest, through one wire passage therein and, via the U-shaped wire guide path into the other wire passage in the twisting head. The twisting head is disposed in the space between the wire guides of the or each pair and the wire passages in the twisting head are formed in components which can be swung inwards about bearing pins.

Abstract: A multispot welding machine for producing a mesh web from arrays of wire running skew to the longitudinal direction of the web and crossing one another has two endless synchronously circulating feeders which carry deflector-pins and each of which has a straight working run; the runs are uniformly spaced from one another and each defining a different one of the edges of the mesh web to be produced, a wire-layer which is movable to and fro across the feeders and arranged to lay perpendicular to the runs a number of wires alternately about a corresponding number of deflector-pins on the working runs of the two feeders, and a welding zone having means for welding the wires together at their crossover points.