GB1356388A - Winding mechanisms for electric cables - Google Patents

Abstract

1356388 Cable reels BRITISH DOMESTIC APPLIANCES Ltd 8 Sept 1971 [1 July 1970] 31800/70 Heading B8M A winding mechanism for an electric cable 16 comprises a take up reel 15 supported for rotation by two electrically conductive bearing arrangement electrically insulated from each other and each adapted to afford electrical connection between a supply conductor of the cable and an external circuit, e.g. a motor of a domestic suction cleaner or floor polisher each electrically conductive bearing arrangement including an electrically conductive stub shaft 21, 22 and a relatively rotatable electrically conductive member 24, 25. In a preferred embodiment, the reel 15 comprises a hub 18 of electrically insulating material, the hub having two axial bores 23 which receive the electrically conductive stub shafts 21, 22. The inner ends contact electrically conductive members 24, 25 which pass radially through the hub, the outer ends of the members 24, 25 being electrically connected to the conductors of the cable 16 as by screws 38. The members 24, 25 are preferably accommodated in a recess in the hub which is closed by a member 27, the outer surface of which conforms to the cylindrical surface of the hub. The outer ends of the stub shafts 21, 22 are rotatably received in fixed electrically conductive member 30 in housings 28, 29. The conductive members 30 are connected by leads 34, 35 to an external circuit. Secured to the hub 18 there is a pulley 40 to which is attached one end of a coil spring 42. The other end of the spring 42 is attached to a pulley 43 secured to a frame 17. As cable 16 is unwound from the reel, the spring is unwound from one pulley and wound on the other pulley whereby the spring is tensioned to rewind the cable when it is released. The reel is preferably mounted in a suction cleaner and a clamp is provided in the casing of the cleaner whereby the cable may be pulled from the reel but is prevented from returning to the reel until the clamp is released as by a push button. In a further embodiment, the stub shafts are fixed and the reel rotates in the shafts by means of electrically conductive sleeves around the ends of the shafts and also by means of bearing sleeves inserted in the axial bores in the hub.