Method for forming wire stocks into coils

Claim 1

In the known method of handling wire stock wherein the wire is deformed into a continuous succession of coils that are deposited upon one another in a generally vertical stack until the stack has reached the desired height or weight, whereupon that coil stack is removed and a new coil stack started, the improvement which comprises (a) establishing an intermediate support zone for the accumulation of a bundle of coiled turns, (b) establishing a final zone for the accumulation of a plurality of bundles of coiled turns, (c) said intermediate zone being located at a fixed vertical height D above said final storage zone, (d) allowing a first bundle of coiled turns to accumulate at said intermediate support zone for a time interval T 2 , (e) at the end of time interval T 2 withdrawing the support from said first bundle that has accumulated at said intermediate support zone so that said first bundle with drop through the distance D and suddenly impact downwardly upon said final storage zone, said withdrawal of support being for a time interval T 1 , (f) repeating steps (d) and (e) with successive bundles whereby the successive impact forces created by the weight of each falling bundle reduces the gaps between the coil turns and forms a final compact coil stack, (g) removing a final compact coil stack from said final storage zone during the time interval T 3 , (h) time interval T 2 being greater than both time intervals T 1 and T 3 .