Automatic armature winding

Claim 1

In a machine for winding armatures having commutator tangs, the machine being of the type having a flier for winding wire onto said armatures, cutting means for cutting wire from a freshly wound armature in a winding station and then cutting said wire from the next armature to be wound after said wire is connected to one of the commutator tangs of said next armature, and power operated clamp means for clamping the wire extending from said flier during the interval between the winding of said freshly wound armature and the cutting of said wire from said next armature, the improvement comprising means for moving said clamp means from an extended position wherein said clamp means is positioned to clamp said wire closely adjacent the commutator tangs of said armatures to an intermediate position to take up slack in said wire between the parts thereof which are clamped and said armatures, and to a retracted position remote from said winding station.