Abstract:
The present invention discloses methods and apparatus for winding wire onto the slots on armature lamination stacks. More specifically, the present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for increasing time the winding components are operating on an armature winding system. The invention includes a loading/unloading unit and a holding unit that may be operated independently under most circumstances. The independent operation enables the winders of the present invention to operate at increased duty cycles, thereby increasing throughput. Additionally, the apparatus of the present invention increases the likelihood that armatures remain properly indexed during the loading transfer process to further increase system efficiency.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 60/163,102, filed Nov. 2, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is related to methods and apparatus for manufacturing dynamo-electric machines such as electric motors, generators, and similar apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to improved solutions for rapidly winding coils of wire on different sized cores of dynamo-electric machine using a mechanical winding machine. 
     Electric motors generally include two main components, a fixed portion and a rotating portion or “core.” Often, the fixed portion is referred to as a “stator,” while the rotating core portion is often referred to as the “armature.” In these cases, the core typically includes a “rotor” that rotates inside the stator. The rotating core may be an armature that is typically formed from a stack of laminated pieces of iron or steel and has a series of slots spaced around its circumference onto which wire is wound. A commutator may be attached to the rotor that provides an electrical connection to the armature. The rotor and the commutator are mounted in an axially spaced relation on a common shaft. 
     The commutator is formed from a series of circumferentially spaced conductive bars that each may include a connection point such as a “tang” to which the starting and ending leads of the wound coils are physically and electrically connected. While tangs are a commonly available type of connection point, persons skilled in the art will appreciate that other types of connections are also available. For example, instead of a tang, a channel or slot within a solid commutator bar may be used in which wire leads are inserted into the channel and the channel is then sealed around the wire. In either case, electricity supplied to the wire induces a current which interacts with a magnetic field produced in the stator to create torque that causes the motor to rotate. 
     There are numerous known machines that are capable of winding wire onto the slotted lamination stack. These winding machines have at least one—and often two—wire applying devices known as “flyers” that rotate about an axis normal to that of the lamination stack. The flyers draw wire from a source and wind it around the slots to produce a wound coil having a desired number of turns. When a coil (or set of coils in the case of a double flyer machine) is completely wound, the flyers stop and the wire leads are brought next to the tangs or other connection points on the commutator to which they will be attached. The core is then rotationally indexed to present the tangs (or other connection points) to the wire hooking devices, and the flyer wraps wire around them. Rotational indexing also brings the next set of slots on the lamination stack into position to receive wire from the flyers. 
     Various examples of wire winding machines are described in, for example, Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,563, and in Lombardi et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,127,594 and 5,257,745, all of which are commonly assigned with the present application. Each of the above identified patents are hereby incorporated by reference. 
     While such winders may be very effective for properly winding wire on the lamination stack slots, difficulties may arise when it is desired to wind wire around a core that does not have the same dimensions as the previously wound core. Currently available winding machines often require the center of each lamination stack to be aligned with a fixed axis on the machine. Moreover, two lamination stacks may have different centers even if they utilize a common sized shaft because, for example, the size of the lamination stack can also vary. 
     Additional difficulties also occur due to the multiple times a core is handled prior to winding. For example, one device may be used to form the core. This process includes selecting the proper number of laminations, stacking them on a rotor shaft, and fixing them in place. Then, a commutator must be added to complete the core. The completed core is then transferred to the winding machine, often with a known first index position (i.e., the first slot in the lamination stack to be wound). Problems may occur, however, during the transfer from the load/unload device to the gripper that holds the core in place during winding and that first index position may be lost. This causes a delay in the manufacturing process and may even require human intervention to insure that the core is properly indexed prior to winding. 
     Even if the first index position is not lost, known winding systems may be inherently slower than necessary due to other limitations. For example, in known winding systems, the winder must wait a given amount of time after a core is loaded for the load/unload device to move out of the way. This waiting time is directly proportional to the distance the load/unload device must travel to get out of the way. An additional delay is also inherent in that the winder must pause and wait while the loader/unloader travels that same distance prior to removing the wound core from the winder. 
     Conventional winding systems also typically are inherently inefficient as the winding flyers are idle for a large portion of each operational cycle. This is due to the way in which the cores are loaded and unloaded into the winding area. In known systems, a load/unload unit is utilized to remove wound cores and to place unwound cores into the winding area. Prior to and subsequent to each load/unload operation, the winding devices (including the flyers and winding guides) must be moved out of the way so that the load/unload unit may move inside the winding area to manipulate the cores. Due to the size of the typical load/unload unit, the time required for moving the winding systems out of and into position is relatively significant. The system cannot be winding while the winding systems are moving, resulting in inefficiency. 
     Further problems with conventional winding systems are the inherent problems in processing sequential cores which are different sizes. Each core must be aligned such that its center is co-located with the center of the flyers. The load/unload unit is often used to perform the alignment function as well. Unfortunately, this results in the load/unload unit being a substantially complex piece of equipment that requires a variable drive to accommodate different sized cores. 
     Additional problems also often occur in configuring automated winding systems. These problems are related to the fact that the systems, which typically include multiple hydraulic and/or air pressure lines, must be calibrated to run at specific operational pressures. Typical installations, however, often are configured such that the pressure controls, which are needed very infrequently after the initial baseline levels are set, are located in a hidden location such as underneath the operational console. While this may be convenient for normal operation, as well as being aesthetically pleasing, the conventional location of these controls often makes the initial setup very difficult, especially for a single operator. The operator simply cannot easily reach and adjust the controls while simultaneously observing the impact of those changes, due to the location of those controls. 
     In view of the foregoing, it is an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for transferring cores from a load/unload apparatus to a winding apparatus while retaining alignment of the lamination stack slots. 
     It also is an object of this invention to provide methods and apparatus for winding core coils in which the winding device is operational at an increased level of efficiency. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for simplifying sequential processing of different sized cores. 
     It is a still further object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatus for enabling an operator to adjust the initial pressure and other settings on the winding system while simultaneously being able to observe the impact of those adjustments. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     These and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the invention by providing a novel transfer mechanism that minimizes the number of transfers of the core prior to winding. This significantly increases the likelihood that the indexing of the core will not be lost when the core is loaded into the winder, thereby enabling a more rapid winding process. An assembled, but unwound, core is grasped by a gripper of a load/unload device and oriented at a first index position. That position insures that a slot in the lamination stack will be in alignment with the winder when the core is placed into the winder. The core is then directly transferred to the holding gripper of the winder, while the first index position is maintained. 
     Another aspect of the present invention is related to the increase in efficiency of the winding system. This is related to the fact that the winding flyers are operational for a higher percentage of time than in conventional systems. The improvements in efficiency are obtained by increasing the capability of the equipment in the winding area and offloading functionality from the load/unload unit. In particular, the load/unload unit is limited to moving cores to and from a specific location that is outside of the winding area. Instead, the holding unit, which is located in the winding area, is provided with longitudinal movement capability and is tasked with the function of aligning the core with respect to the winders and winding guides, a task that was previously assigned to the load/unload unit. This provides multiple advantages. 
     One advantage results from the fact that the holding unit is much smaller than the load/unload unit, so that the winding systems do not have to be moved as far out of the way for load/unload operations. The less distance required for travel of the winding systems, the more time they may spend winding cores and the greater overall system efficiency. In addition, removing the alignment feature from the load/unload unit enables that unit to be significantly simpler because of the elimination of a variable drive. The present invention instead utilizes a fixed drive that may be implemented to simply move the load/unload unit from one fixed location to the next. 
     Further advantages of the present invention are obtained by the addition of longitudinal movement to the holding unit. In particular, because the holding unit and the load/unload unit are each moving toward the transfer point at the same time, they will necessarily meet at that point faster than in conventional systems. Accordingly, the transfer will occur sooner than in conventional systems and the alignment of the unwound core will also be accomplished faster. In this manner, the waiting time between each winding process is further reduced and the overall efficiency of the winding systems is increased. 
     Other features of the present invention are provided that increase the ease with which the system may be initially configured for normal operation. This process typically requires fine-tune adjustments of various pressure settings to insure that automated operation occurs smoothly. The present invention accomplishes this by relocating the pressure controls so that they are accessible to the operator while the operator is observing the operation of the system. This requires the controls, which are typically located in a hidden or isolated location because they are seldom used after the initial settings are made, to be within the reach of the operator during observation of the system, and preferably located in the back of the system (i.e., opposite to where the cores are loaded and unloaded). 
    
    
     Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a three dimensional perspective view of a core winder constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a three dimensional perspective view of the core winder of FIG. 1, in which certain elements are removed for purposes of illustration; 
     FIG. 3 is a plan view of the core winder of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is an illustration of multi-sized core processing of the core winder of FIGS. 1-3; and 
     FIG. 5 is a three-dimensional illustration of an operator configuring a winding system in accordance with the principles of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 
     The drawings are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not for purposes of limitation. FIGS. 1 and 2 show a core winding apparatus  100  (in FIG. 2, some of the supporting structure has been removed for purposes of illustrating various details of the present invention). Winding apparatus  100  includes several main components including holding unit  110 , winding units  120  and  130 , and load/unload unit  140 . Winding apparatus  100  winds coils on completely assembled core  150 . Cores  150  are preferably armatures, which may include shaft  152 , commutator  154  and lamination stack  156 , but persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the core may take on other functions, such as a stator in a brushless machine. Commutator  154  includes some form of connection between the appropriate wound coils and each commutator bar. This connection may be, for example, a tang or channel, or any other means for connecting the wound wire to the commutator bars as persons skilled in the art will appreciate. 
     Holding unit  110  includes gripper  112 , which securely grasps and retains shaft  152  so that armature  150  does not rotate during winding operations. Holding unit  110  also includes variable drive unit  114 , drive guides  116 , and indexer  118 . Drive unit  114  moves forward along guides  116  to grasp unwound armatures from load/unload unit  140 , and then retracts along guides  116  so that the unwound armatures are placed into a properly aligned position for winding. Holding gripper  112  may be any known gripper such as the grippers described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,744 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/323,304, both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     One advantage of the present invention is obtained because holding unit  110  has a significantly smaller radius than gripper  112  extending from load/unload unit  140 . The result of this size difference is that the winding units (see description below) do not have to move as great of a distance for the loading/unloading process. Accordingly, they may resume operation after a shorter wait time because they will be back in place sooner after each new core is cycled in place. 
     After each individual lamination stack slot has been wound, indexer  118  rotates armature  150  so that an unwound slot is placed into alignment with winding units  120  and  130 . This process continues until each of the slots in the lamination stack have been wound. Once the core is completely wound, the system changes cores as is described in more detail below. 
     Winding units  120  and  130  each include a flyer  122 ,  132 , and a winding guide  124 ,  134 . Flyers  122  and  132  operate at high speed, in opposite directions, to wind the wire into the slots on lamination stack  156 . Winding guides  124  and  134  act to force the wire into the intended slot on lamination stack  156 . Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the specific configuration of winding units  120  and  130  shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is merely for purposes of illustration, and that various other winding units may be utilized without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
     Load/unload unit  140  includes a pair of core grippers  142  and  144  that are mounted to a command plate  146 . The grippers may be, for example, like those described in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,912, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Lower gripper  142  is the gripper that is used to load and unload cores from holding unit  110 , and accordingly, is aligned on the same axis as the center of holding unit  110 . Command plate  146  may be rotated by motor-gear drive  148  about axis  10  as is described in more detail below. Load/unload unit  140  is supported by support structure  160 , which includes drive guides  162  and  164 , and drive  166 . A drive (not shown—hidden by structure  160 ) drives load/unload unit  140  back and forth along guides  162  (and in parallel to axis  10 ), while drive  166  drives load/unload unit  140  vertically up and down along guide  164 . 
     The up and down movement enables load/unload unit  140  to retrieve new, unwound, cores from a pallet (not shown) that may be part of a conveyor system (not shown), for example, and also enables the movement of wound cores to an empty pallet for downstream operation or for storage prior to moving on to the next station in the motor manufacturing cycle. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, these load/unload operations occur while the winding portion of the system is winding cores. Core grippers  142  and  144  may grip the core by the lamination stack using a pair of pliers, or any other convenient location on the core and, using an internal pawl (not shown), are able to establish the first index position for winding. 
     Operation of winding apparatus  100  may occur as follows, assuming that the system is already up and running (i.e., a core is already in the winding portion of the system being wound, gripper  144  has a wound core, and gripper  142  is empty having just transferred an unwound core to holding unit  110 ). Upstream from winding apparatus  100 , cores  150  have previously been assembled. Each core may include a commutator  154  and a lamination stack  156 , both of which are permanently mounted to a common shaft  152 . Assembled cores  150  may, for example, be delivered to apparatus  100  via pallets (not shown) moving on a conveyor (not shown), in which case the pallet would be conveyed below apparatus  100  in the area generally designated as reference  170 . 
     Drive  166  drives support structure  160  downward so that empty gripper  142  may grasp an unwound core  150  (the same movement is also used to return the wound cores  150  to a transport pallet for further processing). The internal pawl on gripper  142  may be utilized to align armature  150  in its first index position. Drive  166  moves support structure up and command plate  146  is rotated one hundred eighty degrees (180°) (rotation may occur prior to, during, or after vertical movement, without departing from the spirit of the present invention) so that the wound core is in the lower gripper. Drive  166  once again lowers the support structure so that the wound core may be placed on a transport pallet (not shown) for further processing. Finally, drive  166  moves structure  160  upward so that empty lower gripper  142  is aligned with axis  60  (see FIG.  3 ), and the load/unload unit is moved to its waiting position (i.e., position  64  in FIG.  3 ). 
     In this manner, lower gripper  142  becomes upper gripper  144 , which now includes an unwound core ready to be loaded into the winding portion of the system, and lower gripper  142  remains empty. Up and down movement of structure  160  also may occur while winding units  120  and  130  are winding the next core, thereby further increasing the throughput and efficiency of winding apparatus  100 . Load/unload unit  140  is moved longitudinally into position to wait for holding unit  110  to deliver a wound core as is described in more detail below. Once the core is wound, the wound core is transferred to empty lower gripper  142 , command plate  146  is again rotated so that upper gripper  144  retains the wound core, and the unwound core is transferred to holding unit  110 , which properly aligns the center of the core with the flyers prior to the next winding procedure. 
     Further details of the advantages of the present invention are apparent from the illustration shown in FIG.  3 . As seen in FIG. 3, the loading and unloading operation takes place along axis  60 . Lower gripper  142  of load/unload unit  140  is the portion of unit  140  that is aligned along axis  60 . Once an unwound core is loaded into upper gripper  144  (as described above), load/unload unit  140  is moved along axis  60  in direction  50  into position  64 , where it waits. In position  64 , there still is a small clearance space between unit  140  and winding units  120  and  130 , but the distance required for core travel during loading and unloading is thus reduced in accordance with the present invention. Instead of the traditional distance, such as moving from position  62 , through position  66  until the center of the core was aligned, load/unload unit only needs to move from position  64  to position  66  to accept a wound core from holding unit  110 , which also moves along axis  60 . 
     Moreover, as is plainly illustrated in FIG. 3, and because grippers  142  and  144  are likely to be required to grip the core by the stack instead of the shaft, the radius of load/unload unit  140  is substantially larger than the radius of gripper  112  extending from holding unit  110 . If the load/unload unit also had to align the unwound core, the winding systems, including winding guides  124  and  134 , and flyer wheels  126  and  136  would have to be moved substantially farther apart. This is particularly so with respect to the winding guides because their location, prior to being moved back, would prevent the load/unload unit gripper from being able to grasp the stack (if the load/unload unit provides the core indexed, than the load/unload unit gripper needs to be able to grip the stack instead of the shaft, and thus will necessarily have a larger radius). Accordingly, in known systems, the winding systems would therefore be driven further along directions  20  and  30 , respectively. In conventional winding systems, this movement (in both directions) significantly reduces the time that the winding systems are available for winding operations. 
     In the present invention, however, load/unload unit  140  never enters the winding area of system  100 , so that the distance that the winding systems travel during each unload and load operation is reduced to a minimal distance (i.e., the distance slightly greater than the diameter of the holding unit and the core in the holding unit, such that the core and holding unit can move along axis  60  without engaging any components of the winding systems, and specifically winding guides  124 ,  134 ). Thus, the reduced distance of travel results in the winding flyers being operational for a greater percentage of time than in conventional systems. 
     Another advantage of the present invention is obtained by offloading functionality from load/unload unit  140  to holding unit  110 . The offloaded functionality is the alignment process whereby the center of the unwound core is aligned in the center of flyers  120  and  130 . By moving that function to holding unit  110 , the variable drive unit of conventional load/unload units may be replaced by a simpler drive unit that moves load/unload unit from one fixed location to another. 
     Moreover, while holding unit  110  is aligning the unwound core, load/unload unit  140  may be transferring the wound armature to fusing device  180  by rotating ninety degrees (90°) about axis  15  at position  62  so that the core is aligned parallel to axis  185  (the rotation may be accomplished through the use of a motor-gear drive, not shown, such as motor-gear drive  148  responsible for rotating command plate  146 ). It should be noted that, when transfer to fusing device  180  occurs, it is upper gripper  144  that retains the wound core while lower gripper  142  is empty. This enables the rotation of load/unload unit  140  to occur without requiring any rotation of command plate  146 , and aligns the empty gripper with fusing device  180 . The empty gripper is thus aligned to extract the fused core, at which point command plate  146  is rotated to move the wound core in alignment to be fused. After the wound core has been placed in fusing device  180 , load/unload unit  140  returns to waiting position  64  to receive the next wound core from holding unit  110 . 
     Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that, when apparatus  100  includes fusing device  180 , each of grippers  142  and  144  should include the ability to index the core so that the index position can be easily transferred to fusing device  180 . Fusing device  180  may be any known fusing apparatus, such as the fusing methods and apparatus shown and described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,976, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The fusing device fuses the ends of the wires to the tangs, slots or channels to which they are connected. 
     Further features of the present invention are obtained through the use of two grippers and rotary command plate  146 . As described above, load/unload unit waits at position  64  while upper gripper  144  retains an unwound core and lower gripper  142  is empty. Once the core is wound, lower gripper  142  grips the wound core, command table  146  is rotated, and the unwound core is made available to holding unit  110 . At this point in time, the wound core is in upper gripper  144  which, because it is located above all of the equipment of apparatus  100 , and thus is out of the way of the entire winding apparatus, even if load/unload unit  140  is rotated parallel to axis  185  for alignment with fusing device  180 , as described above. 
     Conventional systems, on the other hand, would have to translate along axis  60  to withdraw unit  140  from the winding area prior to rotation. For example, if the two grippers were aligned side-by-side, they would require additional translation of unit  140  to obtain clearance before rotation could occur, thus requiring more time and potentially bottlenecking the system. Additionally, if two grippers were aligned as shown (i.e., vertically on top of each other), but were moved along a vertical axis instead of being rotated, they also would require additional translation of unit  140  backwards along axis  60  to obtain clearance before rotation could occur. 
     Thus, in accordance with the present invention, as soon as the core has been completely wound (i.e., all of the slots in lamination stack  156  have been wound with wire), winding unit  120  is moved slightly in direction  20  and winding unit  130  is moved slightly in opposite direction  30 , just enough distance to allow the wound core to be moved in direction  40  to location  66  by holding unit  110  without hitting wire guides  124  and  134 . While the wound core is moving toward location  66 , load/unload unit  140  is moving in the opposite direction along axis  60  so that it also arrives at location  66 . In this manner, the time prior to transfer of the wound core to load/unload unit  140  is reduced (because it takes less time for two objects in motion to meet at a location than it takes for one object to travel the entire distance to a second, stationary object). Once load/unload unit  140  and the wound core are at position  66 , empty lower gripper  142  grasps the wound core. 
     Once the wound core has been grasped by lower gripper  142 , command plate  146  is rotated one hundred eighty degrees and a new, unwound core  150  is now in alignment with axis  60 , as described above. It may be preferable for load/unload unit  140  to move back from position  66  to position  64  prior to rotation (to extract shaft  152  from holding gripper  112 —or, alternately, holding gripper  112  may be moved a short distance back along axis  60  to pull itself away from the wound core). If so, load/unload unit  140  is then moved back from position  64  to position  66  after rotation occurs. In either case, the grippers in holding unit  110  and load/unload unit  140  are controlled such that the unwound core is transferred from load/unload unit  140  to holding unit  110  (which is still at position  66 ). The control process ensures that the gripper on load/unload unit  140  does not let go of the core until the other end of the shaft has been grasped by the gripper on holding unit  110 . 
     It should be noted that, in accordance with the present invention, load/unload unit  140  always moves between fixed points, regardless of the size of the core. The variable control of motion along axis  60  is relegated to holding unit  110  which, as described in more detail below, simplifies the process of sequentially processing different sized cores. 
     After gripper  112  of holding unit  110  grasps the new core, holding unit  110  is moved in direction  50  a variable distance that results in lamination stack  156  of core  150  being centered within the axes of winding flyers  122  and  132 , and within the mid-point of winding guides  124  and  134 . As soon as lamination stack  156  is centered, winding units  120  and  130  return to their operational positions by moving opposite to directions  20  and  30 , respectively, to close around the unwound core, and the winding process can begin anew. While centering of the core is occurring, load/unload unit  140  may be depositing the wound core on a pallet (not shown), retrieving another unwound core  150  from a pallet (not shown) for winding, or it may be transferring a wound core to or from fusing device  180 . In addition, empty lower gripper  142  is then realigned at position  64  to extract the next core as soon as winding is complete. 
     FIG. 4 shows a further illustration of how winding apparatus  100  may be utilized to process different size cores  150 . Cores  150  are shown in FIG. 4 as they would arrive on a pallet from a conveyor system (not shown). The pallet would be aligned such that the front edge of the lamination stack (the end closest to the commutator) is aligned with position  62  as shown in FIG.  3 . The pliers of gripper  142  are offset from position  62  a short distance (in the direction away from commutators  154 ), such that the pliers are able to grasp any sized core from the same position. The pliers are configured such that they can grasp the stack, the commutator, or even the shaft, if that is required. It may be preferred, however, for the pliers to grasp the stack, as that will aid in quickly obtaining the first index position. 
     Once the core is gripped by the lower gripper  142  and command plate  146  is rotated, load/unload unit  140  is moved from position  62  to position  64  in preparation for transfer of the unwound core to holding unit  110 . Once winding of the previous core is complete, unit  140  need only move the short distance from position  64  to position  66  to meet with holding unit  110  to unload the processed core as described above. After unload, command plate  146  is rotated and a new unwound core  150  is transferred to holding unit  110 . 
     Holding unit  110  is then translated along axis  60  in direction  50  a variable distance. The distance varies depending on the size of the core because each different sized core lamination stack may have a different center location “C.” Holding unit  110  must align each location C so that it coincides with a center point that coincides with the center of fliers  122 ,  132 , as well as with winding guides  124 ,  134  before winding can occur (i.e., holding unit  110  must align C with the center point for proper winding to occur). Units  110  and  140 , however, in accordance with the principles of the present invention, may each move somewhat independently (the only time units  110  and  140  must be operated in conjunction with each other is when the actual transfer of the core takes place) to reduce waiting times. 
     In this manner, winding units  120  and  130  of the present invention may be operated at higher duty cycles (the amount of time out of a given period that the winders are actually winding) than in conventional winding systems. For example, a goal of such an apparatus is for the load/unload unit to always be waiting at position  64  with an empty gripper anytime the winding process is completed. This condition would result in the winders having the highest duty cycle possible (a duty cycle of 100% is not possible in such a system because some time must be spent loading and unloading the cores). 
     A further feature of the present invention is illustrated in FIG.  5 . FIG. 5 shows a generic winding system  200  constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention to enable an operator  205  to easily calibrate and adjust system  200  for initial operation (as well as during any preventative maintenance being performed on system  200 ). System  200  may include one or more of the components described above with respect to system  100 . For example, system  200  may include holding unit  210 , winding units  220  and  230 , and load/unload unit  240 , each of which may be substantially similar to their like numbered components (e.g., holding unit  210  may be substantially identical to previously described holding unit  110 ). However, persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the principles set forth in connection with FIG. 5 may be applied to any winding system, such as a winding system in which core are manually loaded. Thus, many of the details shown in FIGS. 1-3 have been omitted from FIG. 5 for purposes of illustration. 
     System  200  also includes, in accordance with the present invention, an operators console  260  and a control panel  270 . Control panel  270  is conveniently located in the back of system  200  (i.e., at the end opposite where cores are loaded and unloaded). Moreover, control panel  270  runs from end to end of apparatus  200  so that operator  205  may be provided with easy access to the control knobs and indicators that are appropriate for whichever side of apparatus  200  operator  205  is adjusting. 
     Control panel  270  shall, in accordance with the present invention, be configured such that control indicators  272  and control knobs  274  shall be accessible to operator  205  while operator  205  is observing and controlling the operation of system  200 . For further convenience, the location of the knobs and indicators shall be oriented so that the knobs and indicators corresponding to individual components are on the same side as those components (e.g., the knob to acuate winding unit  120  shall be on one side of control panel  270 , while the knob corresponding to winding unit  130  will be on the other side). 
     Control knobs and indicators may be used to vary and monitor, for example, air pressure, hydraulic pressure, variable resistance settings, manually activated switches, etc., that are used to configure a winding system for operation. In some instances, the operator may need to manually activate a specific drive unit or winding flyer to insure that it is operating properly. Thus, it may be preferable for panel  270  to be substantially in the same plane units  210 ,  220 ,  230 , and  240 , rather than being inaccessible as in conventional systems. Thus, even though control indicators  272  and control knobs  274  are only used to configure the system (and possibly for maintenance), it is preferable to have those controls be readily accessible and viewable to substantially improve the initial setup process for operator  205 . 
     A further feature of the present invention also is apparent from FIG.  5 . Control panel  270  is configured such that indicators  272  and knobs  274  are accessible by operator  205  without requiring additional conduits and/or piping to conceal and protect the wires, air lines, and hydraulic lines that are used to connect indicators  272  and knobs  274  to individual components in the winding apparatus. As configured, all of the feed lines are run to indicators  272  and knobs  274  underneath console top  280 . This is contrary to conventional systems, such as that used for monitor  260 , which includes external wiring conduit  262  to provide a protected pathway for the wires that provide power and signals to monitor  260 . 
     It will be understood that the foregoing is only illustrative of the principles of the invention, and that various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.