DC drives for aerospace wire manufacturing

August 2005 Motion Control & Drives

Temco, a precision manufacturer of aircraft specification wire has installed over 200 Sprint Electric DC drives. Temco was finding that custom designed tension control systems for feeding wire into a stranding machine were progressively more difficult to repair and maintain.

The wire producer needed to find a replacement for the old controllers, to use in a completely re-designed pay-off stand, which would incorporate current technology and fit into the small space available in the wire pay-off stand. Accurate tension control is essential because the equipment is employed to feed wire into high speed, double twist stranding machines that produce cable for the aerospace industry. In order to keep weight to a minimum, the cable and insulation is kept as thin as possible.

The high specification wire strands need to be produced to a consistently high quality and so the replacement controllers would have to be capable of meeting 'tight' tolerances. Among the solutions considered by Temco were servo drives and several manufacturers' regenerative DC drives. The only controller found to meet the performance and physical constraints was the Sprint 36OOXRi four-quadrant drive.

The solution devised by Temco, using Sprint drives was to pass the wire over a weighted 'dancing arm' which pivots around a central point. The output from a non-contact position sensor is used as a demand signal for the Sprint drive. The drive's small footprint allowed it to fit into the existing space. All the other alternatives required separate cubicles. As the pay-off stand is moved from strander to strander, this would have been impractical.

The system is operating very successfully at Temco, providing the required tension characteristics and giving a repeatable, reliable and predictable performance for the stranding machines.

For more information contact Elquip Solutions, 011 827 7117.

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