ES369811A1 - Apparatus for feeding wire or similar filamentary material at a long distance. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

In arc welding consumable electrode wire feed apparatus, wire 2 is taken from a supply reel 4 by feed rolls 6 and passed through a flexible conduit 8 to the first of several, spaced apart, feeding devices 10 which are connected in series by lengths of flexible wire-passage conduit 18 and are driven at substantially the same speed. The devices 10 may be driven by separate electric, pneumatic or hydraulic motors energized from a common supply line or, as shown, by seriesconnected cables 14 carried in flexible sheaths 16 and driven by a single motor 12. As shown, each device 10 comprises a feed roll 38, driven by a cable 16 through gearing 26, 36, and a spring- biased idler roll 32. Wire guides (Fig. 3, not shown), on a common tangent of the rolls 38, 32, terminate wire-passage conduit lengths. Desirably, means is provided whereby the drive rolls may slip relatively to the wire or, as via a friction coupling, their associated driving members. The torch 20 to which the wire is passed is also supplied with current and shielding gas.