Patent ID: 7610787

Claim:
A control method of a spring manufacturing apparatus having: a wire feeder which feeds a wire; a wire guide which guides the wire fed out of the wire feeder to a spring forming space on a forming table; a tool unit, a plurality of which can be arranged radially around the spring forming space on the forming table, which supports a tool so that the tool can be slidable toward the spring forming space; and a grip unit having face-to-face fingers for gripping part of a yet-to-be-cut spring that has been formed into a partially finished shape in the spring forming space and which can be moved adjacent to an end portion of the wire guide, said method comprising: a primary forming step of forming the wire fed out of an end portion of the wire guide into a first coil portion using said tool; a gripping step of gripping the first coil portion using the fingers of the grip unit; a cutting step of cutting the wire which extends from the first coil portion to the wire guide, while the wire is gripped by the fingers; and a secondary forming step of forming a yet-to-be formed wire part extending from the first coil portion, which is gripped by the fingers after being cut, into a second coil portion by winding the yet-to-be formed wire part on a rotational tool while it is controlled so that a moving speed of the fingers which are gripping the first coil portion is synchronized with the wire winding speed which is determined by rotation of the rotational tool.