Wire measuring and cutting apparatus and wire changing method using the same

Claim 1

A wire measuring and cutting apparatus comprising: a wire retrieving section for retrieving wires stored in a wire storing section, a wire cutting location set at a location a predetermined distance from the wire retrieving section, a passline having a predetermined length which guides the wire retrieved from the wire retrieving section and leads it to the wire cutting location, a wire feeding means provided on the passline for feeding wire in the direction of the wire cutting location along the passline, a wire length measuring means provided on the passline for measuring the length of the wire passing through the passline, a production condition setting means wherein at least the following conditions such as type of wire to be employed, length of the wire to be produced and number of wires to be produced are set, a wire cutting means arranged on the wire cutting location which operates to cut wire whenever the wire length measuring means measures the same length as that of the wire to be produced which is set to the production condition setting means, a displaying means for displaying data, and a wire change control means which counts the number of cutting of the wire cutting means and stops the wire feeding means when the number of cutting reaches a value smaller by a predetermined number N than the number of wires to be produced which is set to the production condition setting means and to cause to display of instructions for performing wire change on said displaying means.

Claim 14

A method for changing wires, from a first type wire W 1 to a second type wire W 2 , to be fed through a passline of R in length to a cutting location of a wire measuring and cutting apparatus for measuring and cutting the first type of wire W 1 to produce Q size-adjusted wires of L in length, wherein an exit of the passline is said cutting location and an entrance side of the passline is a wire changing location, said method comprising: stopping operation of the apparatus temporarily when a number of cutting operations T of the wire W 1 becomes as follows: T=Q-{INT(R/L)+1} wherein INT is a code for conversion to an integer, and cutting the first type wire W 1 and splicing it to the second type wire W 2 in the vicinity of a location at a distance X from the entrance of the passline, said distance X being represented by an equation: X=L-{R-INT(R/L)×L}+α wherein α is a constant not less than zero.

Claim 15

A method for changing wires, from a first type wire W 1 to a second type wire W 2 , to be fed through a passline of R in length to a cutting location of a wire measuring and cutting apparatus for measuring and cutting the first type of wire W 1 to produce Q size-adjusted wires of L in length, wherein an exit of the passline is said cutting location and an entrance side of the passline is a wire changing location, said method comprising: stopping operation of the apparatus temporarily when a number of cutting operations T of the wire W 1 becomes as follows: T=Q-{INT(R/L)+1} wherein INT is a code for conversion to an integer, and cutting the first type wire W 1 and splicing it to the second type wire W 2 in the vicinity of a location at a distance X from the entrance of the passline, said distance X being represented by an equation: X=L-{R-INT(R/L)×L}+α wherein α is a constant not less than zero.