Feeder blade replacement apparatus for coil inserter tooling

摘要

A blade replacement technique for removing and replacing the wedge guide, coil feeder and/or pusher blades of coil inserter tooling is disclosed. The tooling includes a circular array of coil feeder blades and a circular array of wedge guide blades, with the wedge guide blades being in face-to-face apposition with the feeder blades and being radially outwardly of the feeder blades. A collet encircles the wedge guide blades and has a first surface restraining an intermediate portion of each wedge guide blade against axial and radial displacement and second surface facing and spaced from each wedge guide blade and defining a clearance zone. Each wedge guide blade is supported and restrained at its proximal end by being received in an annular groove in a support plate. Each coil feeder blade has its proximal end received in a slotted ring and each feeder blade is axially restrained by a pin projecting radially outwardly in each slot. By raising the collet, a selected wedge guide blade may be lifted out of the annular groove and pivoted in the clearance space so that an associated feeder blade may be released from its connecting pin and axially removed from the collet. The associated wedge guide blade may then be axially removed from the collet.