WIRE STKAICHTKNING AXD Mt)LDINr, FOR RELAYS 865 



WIRE SUPPLY 



One spool of raw wire is cradled in the mre straigh tenor, Fig. 4, for 

 each wire required in the molded comb. There are three sizes of wire 

 straightened, 0.0200 and 0.0226-inch diameter wire for the twin wire 

 comb of multi-contact and general purpose relays, respectively, and 

 0.0400-inch diameter wire for the single wire comb of both relays. The 

 smaller Avires are nickel silver while the 0.0400-inch AAdre is a silicon- 

 copper alloy. All three Avires are in the hard temper range. 



Originally the wire was pulled from the spools by the drive (pusher) 

 roll of the wire straigh tener. However, the pulling force required varied 

 A\idely from spool to spool. The result was an unequal rate of wire feed 

 through the straightening heads. To avoid this, a capstan with an in- 

 dividual pulley adjustment for each wire was added to the machine. 

 This capstan, in addition to pulling the wire from the supply spools, 

 meters the amount of wire fed into the straightener. An occasional ad- 

 justment of individual capstan pulleys is all that is necessary now to 

 assure production of straightened wire at a uniform rate from every 

 head. 



WIRE STRAIGHTENING MECHANISM 



Fig. 5 shows the wire straightening mechanism. Some of the spools of 

 raw wire are visible to the right below the 24 wres, in this instance, 

 being pulled from the capstan pulleys by the grooved shaft mounted 

 just inside the machine housing. This shaft has 24 grooves, one for each 

 \nre, which mate with twelve spring tensioned tA\in grooved wobble rolls 

 underneath to provide the means for pushing the wires through the 

 straightener heads. Both the grooved shaft and the twelve mating rolls 

 are power driven. The wires are pushed through the tubes to the left of 

 the grooved shaft which guide them to the spindles in the straightening 

 heads. These heads, arranged in two vertical rows, make it possible for 

 a common spiral geared drive shaft to rotate all 24 heads at identical 

 speed. This arrangement, however, causes twelve of the heads to rotate 

 clock\nse and twelve to rotate counterclockwise. The opposite twists 

 produced in the upper and lower wires under this circumstance are cor- 

 rected for by the double head arrangement in which the second set of 

 heads rotate counter to the first set. 



DIE BLADES AND SPINDLES 



Inside each head is a removable spindle for retaining a pair of con- 

 toured wire straightening die blades. The spindles are suitably keyed 



