Apparatus and method for the manufacture of uniform impedance communications cables for high frequency use

摘要

Machine for manufacturing uniform impedance communication cables for high frequency use includes a series of staggered double twisting units or heads each of which supports two reels wound with single wire elements or conductors, and a constant tension tape dispenser. The wire elements from the reels as well as the tape from the tape dispenser are simultaneously unwound and guided to the ends of the rotating bows of the twisting units at which points the individual wire elements or conductors are twisted about each other and the tape is applied to the twisted wire pair to fix and maintain the spatial integrity of the twisted wires relative to each other. Each twisting unit rotated at slightly different speeds to assure different lay lengths for each twisted pair. The twisted pairs are guided downstream by a capstan and all of the twisted and taped wire sets are secured to each other by a pre-twisting and taping operation before the composite cable is wound onto a rotating take-up unit. A number of different design modifications are described for producing both simple and complex cable constructions which include twisted pairs, triads and quads.