METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING STATORS

摘要

Stators having wave wound coil for electric motors or other dynamo-electric machines are manufactured by a production line having a series of interconnecting conveyors running to various processing workstations. The workstations are of three primary types: wave coil forming and insertion stations, prefinishing stations and a final finishing stations. Every workstation of a given type may process any or all phases of a given stator. The stators are transported along the conveyor by pallets which are encoded with information denoting the production status of the stator on the pallet. By providing the workstations with the capability to read the encoded information and adapt themselves for processing based on that information, efficiency is increased because the first available workstation may be selected and individual workstations may be bypassed if other than normal operating conditions are occurring in a workstation without impacting the entire production line. Additionally, minor variations in production rates between workstations are easily absorbed by the production line without a corresponding loss of efficiency.