Claims
- 1. Apparatus for forming a filament-reinforced plastic article, the apparatus comprising:
- a mandrel having a nonlinear longitudinal axis;
- means for rotating the mandrel about a winding axis;
- a pair of guide fingers adjacent the mandrel, the guide fingers being spaced from each other along the longitudinal axis of the mandrel,
- each guide finger being disposed along a respective arc at least part way around the winding axis;
- means for feeding resin-coated filaments between the fingers to wrap around the mandrel at a winding station as the mandrel rotates; and
- means keeping the distance between the fingers and mandrel axis at the winding station substantially constant and for moving the fingers and mandrel relative to each other back and forth along the mandrel nonlinear longitudinal axis so the filaments slide longitudinally with respect to the filament axes first over one of the fingers and then over the other to wrap the mandrel along its length and form the article, the resin-coated filaments being unrestricted from lateral movement in a plane substantially parallel to the pair of guide fingers for a sufficient distance to leave the filaments free to slide laterally on the guide fingers as the mandrel rotates about the winding axis and follow a stable path on the mandrel.
- 2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the guide fingers are curved concave toward the mandrel, and are substantially concentric with the mandrel axis.
- 3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 in which the radius of curvature of the guide fingers is greater than the distance from the mandrel axis to the mandrel exterior surface.
- 4. Apparatus according to claim 3 in which the guide fingers are substantially identical in size and shape.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 6/460,317, filed Jan. 24, 1983, now abandoned, which is a division of application Ser. No. 6,319,575, filed Nov. 9, 1981, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,913, which is a division of application Ser. No. 6/078,887, filed Sept. 25, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,408.
US Referenced Citations (13)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
1037501 |
Jul 1966 |
GBX |
1317903 |
May 1973 |
GBX |
361354 |
Dec 1972 |
SUX |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
"Filament Winding Machine for High Pressure Pipe Elbows", Reinforced Plastics, May 1967, p. 268. |
Divisions (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
319575 |
Nov 1981 |
|
Parent |
78887 |
Sep 1979 |
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Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
460317 |
Jan 1983 |
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