Patent ID: 8429947

Claim:
An electric wire shaping apparatus for shaping a turn portion of an electric wire for a stator coil of an electric rotating machine, wherein the electric wire is comprised of an electric conductor with a rectangular cross section and an electric insulator that covers the electric conductor, and the turn portion of the electric wire is to be located outside of slots of a stator core of the electric rotating machine and connects a pair of straight portions of the electric wire which are to be respectively received in two of the slots of the stator core, the electric wire shaping apparatus comprising: a male shaping die having a shaping surface that includes a plurality of straight parts and a plurality of curved parts; a female shaping die having a shaping surface that includes a plurality of straight parts and a plurality of curved parts, each of the straight parts of the shaping surface of the female shaping die corresponding to one of the straight parts of the shaping surface of the male shaping die, each of the curved parts of the shaping surface of the female shaping die corresponding to one of the curved parts of the shaping surface of the male shaping die; and a pressing mechanism that moves one of the male and female shaping dies toward the other, thereby pressing the turn portion of the electric wire between the shaping surfaces of the male and female shaping dies in a width-wise direction of the turn portion, wherein the male and female shaping dies are so configured that when they are located closest to each other, a gap W 2 between a corresponding pair of the curved parts of the shaping surfaces of the male and female shaping dies is smaller than a gap W 1 between a corresponding pair of the straight parts of the shaping surfaces.