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19-wire unilay---- - - - -
cable O f
stra nd qua Iity ___--.,...-___No_rlha_mp_lon_,E_ngl_and
So m e years aga whilst developing 19-wire unil ay secto r s haped ca ble. with the
co-operation of a large UK cab le manufacturer, we observed t~at atte~ pt s to sec_tor
shap e the hex3go nally shaped 19 w ires o n OUf large d ouble tWist bunchtng/strandlng
ma chin e proved t o be almost impo ssibl e.
An exa min atio n of th e geometry of the strand Icd us to a realisation of the problem.
Wh at we were attempting to do was to Secto r s hape a rotatl ng spira l of wlres whose
sectlon Is as Illustrated In Figure 1.
Fi!} I 19 .w ire 1/I)/11Iy' normal COlls(ftl cliOIJ
By selecting wire siz es suitable fo r maki n g
the product ci rcula r in cross-sec ti o", see
Fi g u ra 2. it wos possible to stra ig ht sector
sllapa a limited qllan ti ty o f a 19-w i ra pro-
duct. Howeve r, at that time the particular
prodllct speci f ication was changed, so that
sect o r shapi n g was no longer required
as the cab le eoul eJ now be manll fa c t ~Jr ed
in a scven· w ire configuro ti on . Natural ly
enough, it occurred to us that we had ,
perh aps by accident, found another
prOcluct fo r Our bU I~ehing machines.
Further test s in 1980 we re of limited
du ration and did not prove sa t isfa ctory, it
being vi rt ually im possible to main tai n the
wires in the eO rrect relative posi t ion one to
an other.
132
2.1. 0 8
In the meantime, a 19-wi re double pass
system had been developeel,4 whieh
tog eth er w ith eo n si d erabl e improvements
in our bunching machine supply sy stem
have resu lted in a mu ch g reater contra I
ove r lhe inpu t product. It was therefore
cl eeide d lhat we wo u ld try again to ma nu -
facture 19-wire in· llOu se. Thi s t ime the
pro cess proved very sa t isfa cto ry,
The ma in adva nt ages are much
ine rea sed produetiv ity and as a co n-
seque nee of a cha ng e in geome try th e
rel ativa den sity of a product is incraased,
reducin g its diameter. Whilst, of cou rse,
the re is a small sav ing in co pper due to a
redu ct ion ir~ Ihe d iamete r an d the result i ng
reelu ct ion in excess material if lhe lay
length s are fix ad, advan tages also occur
from the reduction in insulatin g m ate rial ,
Th is i5 no rmally speci fied by radial thi ck-
ness limits an d a saving o f same 3-5 per
cent o f insulating moterial eosts shoul d
resul t.
Th era hav e been one or two comments
about th e difficu lty of maintaining the
co r recl wire stzes i n a specifi c relatio nshi p
to each o th er. Such di fficulti es have been
much ove rstated by the trade and, in fact,
m ost u sers who employ thi s sys tem
enco unter n o problems in this area,
Fi g ure 3 il lustrates a lypical factory
insta llation which is produc i ng 10, 12 and
14 awg (gross cro ss-sectio nal areal at wi re
weigh ts de signed to meet specifica tion
re qu i rement s without providing excess
co pper in the produet.
Savings i n production costs depend on
m any fa cto rs such as exist ing manu factur·
in g facilities; wh ethe r the stra nd is cur-
rently m anufactu red in-house o r purch-
ased; (he eare a l~d eontrol exe rcisecl ov ar
i nput copper wire; general house·keep rng
an d th e co ntrol of high -speed d ou ble tw ist
st rand ing machines,
Und er the mOst advantageous condi-
li ons savi ng s can provi de quile asto -
nishingly ShO f t pay·back pariods, but
should of cou rse, be calculated for each
i n divid~al appli cation , Some of th e pro-
dueli on adv antages of thi s proeess relat iv e
10 ex ist in g melhods are broa dl y as
fo liows:
VA C Burlon, CEng, MIEE,
Norlhamplon Machinery Co Lid,
Plg 3 Pay-off IIne feedln9 Info fil e bune/l et
1) Ve ry hi gh productio n SpeedS grea tly i n
excess of th ose achievable by other
co nventiona l method s, suc h as tubula r
st rand ers,
2) La rg e eapac ily wire input packag9s are
quite n o rmal end cont inu ous i nputs
Witll dual tunnel and simil ar devices are
possib le,
31 Re latively smal l floor space requl re-
rnenls for a large product ou tput.
4) Virtual ly automatie ope rat ion due to the
prov ision of counters , broke n w ire
detecto rs, product monitors, ete,
5) High relia b ility i nbuilt into th e dc drive
system, whi eh in addition has o n-board
sys tem state monitoring.
6) Computer interface co ntrol systems
can be provided es opt ional exJr~s,
7) Inerease in prod uetivity cau sed, by lh e
li rn ited use o f production persönnel.
81~~.Dt I YJligll.guali tY_Q rodu c t s , pro_" __
viding h igh quality input wire is
supplied to the system,
9) Greatly reduced d ow n-time, dlJe to th e
supp ly and lake-up bobbin chang es
when co mpared w ith tubular stranding
ma chines. Thi s is particu la rly noti ce -
able On the take-up, wh ich has au tom a-
ti e bobbi n load and unload fa cilities.
• Scc 'Wir C- 1f) (hr$lry: Apfil 1982, pag e 232, ' 19 w lre
(;OrHrf\l f\ y (; iI!) lC ~r $ i n !J (J O ~r !)l e rwi $1 btrr)ch lng mac h in os.'
WIRE INDUSTRY, February 1984