I'be been researching making toroids (painful!).
It seems that every DIY design of a winding machine uses the same design - a single ring and a spool/bobbing on the driven ring. Yet this is possibly the worst way of doing it.
The professional machines have two independent rings. This has two effects (a) the laying can be kept precise and to a specific tension and (b) the rate of spooling varies as the rotation moves around the toroid which is enabled by the slipping differential of the second 'spool' ring to the speed the wire is being drawn by the primary laying ring.
Only when loading the windings on to the spool ring is the spool ring locked to the primary driven ring. The needed amount of wire is drawn onto the spool ring. The wire is then threaded into the primary laying ring and the lock between the two rings is disabled. The primary laying ring then lays the wire and the second spool ring is then simply keeps up by the pull of the wire and friction providing the tension of the wire.
This technique allows for off centre winding and for non-linear winding such as 1/2,3/4,5,6/7,8,9/ or progressive winding by dynamically reacting to maintain the set tension.
I thought about the way the rings should be - the primary ring has a U cross section whilst the spool has a reverse L with a plastic slip ring to allow the primary to pull the wire off at any point around the diameter as it rotates but not scuff the insulation varnish off the wire.
The friction could be made by either the power ring sitting on the spool ring or the spool ring sitting on the power ring. Both rings are kept steady by wheels on the outside edge.
This means the laying can be via a plastic/teflon V shaped wheel.
Lastly the toroid can be held by three or four wheels with one powered by a stepper motor or better still each wheel being geared/belted together so that as the motor moves all provide a rotation. If you wanted to be smart then an optic camera with flow control could see the movement vs the rotation commands sent to the stepper motor.
Has anyone tried to make this style of machine?
* Naturally for safety using a pre-built professional mains toroid then stripping off the secondaries would be an option.
EDIT: Sorry - wrong forum, can a friendly mod move it to the construction tools forums please 😀
It seems that every DIY design of a winding machine uses the same design - a single ring and a spool/bobbing on the driven ring. Yet this is possibly the worst way of doing it.
The professional machines have two independent rings. This has two effects (a) the laying can be kept precise and to a specific tension and (b) the rate of spooling varies as the rotation moves around the toroid which is enabled by the slipping differential of the second 'spool' ring to the speed the wire is being drawn by the primary laying ring.
Only when loading the windings on to the spool ring is the spool ring locked to the primary driven ring. The needed amount of wire is drawn onto the spool ring. The wire is then threaded into the primary laying ring and the lock between the two rings is disabled. The primary laying ring then lays the wire and the second spool ring is then simply keeps up by the pull of the wire and friction providing the tension of the wire.
This technique allows for off centre winding and for non-linear winding such as 1/2,3/4,5,6/7,8,9/ or progressive winding by dynamically reacting to maintain the set tension.
I thought about the way the rings should be - the primary ring has a U cross section whilst the spool has a reverse L with a plastic slip ring to allow the primary to pull the wire off at any point around the diameter as it rotates but not scuff the insulation varnish off the wire.
The friction could be made by either the power ring sitting on the spool ring or the spool ring sitting on the power ring. Both rings are kept steady by wheels on the outside edge.
This means the laying can be via a plastic/teflon V shaped wheel.
Lastly the toroid can be held by three or four wheels with one powered by a stepper motor or better still each wheel being geared/belted together so that as the motor moves all provide a rotation. If you wanted to be smart then an optic camera with flow control could see the movement vs the rotation commands sent to the stepper motor.
Has anyone tried to make this style of machine?
* Naturally for safety using a pre-built professional mains toroid then stripping off the secondaries would be an option.
EDIT: Sorry - wrong forum, can a friendly mod move it to the construction tools forums please 😀
I have a hard time visualizing what you wrote...
A picture being worth a 1000 words and all that.
Jan
A picture being worth a 1000 words and all that.
Jan
Do you expect usto follow your explanations|with NO drawings or pictures? 😉
Watch the two rings once the loading has finished and the winding starts - the two rings rotate at different rates:
Whilst DIY attempts try and do this:
Whilst DIY attempts try and do this:
Your description is pretty accurate. And yes, I turned it all on my lathe.
I used an arduino to control two stepper motors, and program the pitch in the arduino.
I designed it to accommodate the small toroids needed for the application. The rings are three inches diameter.
John