Abstract: An armature includes a shaft which supports a slotted core and a commutator having peripherally spaced hook-like tangs. The armature is automatically wound on a flyer-type winding machine which incorporates a novel lead forming and connecting mechanism. The mechanism includes a set of finger members each adapted to hook a lead wire extending from a wire coil to a rotating flyer after the winding of the last wire turn for the coil. Each finger member is then rotated approximately 180.degree. for twisting the wire to form a twisted wire loop which is transferred from the finger member to a predetermined tang, forming an alpha-type connection of the lead wire with the tang. A movable wire gripping member is associated with the finger members to control when each lead wire loop is released from a finger member for transfer to a tang, thereby controlling the slack within each lead wire.

Abstract: An armature winding machine supports a combined armature loading and unloading mechanism which includes a turret supported by a carriage for rotary indexing movement on a horizontal axis. The carriage is supported for horizontal linear movement by a set of guide rods projecting outwardly from the winding machine, and the carriage and turret are moved between inner and outer positions by actuation of a fluid cylinder. The turret includes a set of annularly arranged gripping members which successively grip the unwound armatures supplied from a vertically moveable magazine located above the turret. While each unwound armature is being transferred to the winding station by the turret, a wound armature is simultaneously transferred by the turret to an unloading station where it is released from its gripping member. The turret automatically indexes in response to linear movement of the carriage.