ELECTEOFORMED CONDUCTOR FOR TELEPHONE DROP WIRE 1111 



the longest lengths of plated wire that can be made from a single reel 

 of core wire. This means that for each core wire reel that goes onto the 

 pay off stands, one spool of plated wire comes off at the take ups. This 

 practice reduces scrap operating losses and spool handling, and simplifies 

 the keeping of production records. The take-up spools, which nominally 

 bold 600 pounds of plated wire, were made large enough to take 750 

 pounds. This allows steel wire suppliers up to 50 pounds overrun above 

 i50 pounds of core-wire per spool. 



The spools are. made with large arbor-holes which are slightly counter- 

 sunk to provide seating surfaces for engaging cone plates which hold the 

 spool in the take-up stand. The cone plates clamp the spool betw^een 

 them under the pressure of a direct-acting compressed air cylinder clo- 

 sure, which permits quick loading and ejection of the spools and greatly 

 reduces the time required to make spool changes thus keeping scrap to 

 a, minimum. Driven pinch rolls are provided at each take-up stand to 

 draw^ the wire from the take-up capstan while a spool change is being 

 made. The pinch rolls do not contact the wire while it is being w^ound 

 onto a spool. Operating linkages are provided whereby the pinch rolls 

 are applied to engage the wire at the instant the take-up spool is stopped. 

 En this way there is no pause and no interruption of the ware's motion 

 from the take-up capstan. Wire passing through the pinch rolls is slightly 

 flattened, so it must be scrapped. Spool changes can be made quickly 

 enough so that no more than 10 feet of wire in 125,000 feet have to be 

 scrapped from this cause. 



The wires are laid evenly on the spools w^ith a gang-distributor driven 

 by a separate motor. The spool traverse is wdde, the wire lay is close, 

 and the distributor travel can be accurately set, both at the distributor 

 traversing screw^ and at the individual take-up position, so that the wire 

 will be distributed on the spools without camber or end pile-up. Every 

 precaution is taken to insure good wire distribution on the take-up 

 spools, because the wire is subsequently taken off them at high speed at 

 the insulators where wire breaks resulting from faulty wire distribution 

 cannot be tolerated. 



PLATING MACHINE 



The plating machine frame is a simple structure built up of regular 

 structural steel sections and lined with sheet steel. The cross section of 

 the machine resembles the letter "H" with the cross bar set low. The 

 tops of the "H" are joined to lengthwise channels, which form a con- 

 tinuous rail. The bottoms of the ''H" are welded to heavy longitudinal 

 channels w^hich transmit the weight of the machine through rollers to a 



