E W Barton Automatic DC Electrolytic Capacitor Winding Machine 2928 shown Circa 1986. Look at bottom for variations on capacity.
If you have one of these E W Barton Company Capacitor Winders we do retrofit these, as a conversion to a conventional foil winding machine.
The automatic winding Multi-Tabbing is based on an ancient microprocessor. The controller & operating program is just as ancient. My company has made the decision that we will not service an electrolytic capacitor winding machine. However, they are worth converting to conventional foil winding machine to make very large size caps. There is an emerging market for large caps for hybrid vehicles, as the trends point to phasing out electrolytic caps. Electrolytic's are unreliable in the operating temperature requirements. And with an operational life of about 2000 hours, electrolytic caps must be phased out for in favor of higher operating temperatures and operational life. So, it makes perfect sense to convert these, right? Eventually there will be the correct dielectric.
Another variation for conventional foil/film caps that is interesting for this type of machine is speaker crossover networks. Right at the moment they are made by hand winding. Imagine there might just be more profit in this if made by winding automatically?
These capacitor winding machines are very specialized, both mechanically and in the controls. Hydraulics are utilized for cold welding tabs to the foil. In order to diagnose these machines, special electronics are needed. There is no need for this with a conversion, as the old controls are worthless. Newer, far more powerful controls are utilized in the conversion. Far less complicated, and extremely affordable electronics are applied. And the electrolytic specific mechanical assemblies are removed. This reduces the mechanical complexity about 75% and the weight about 30%. The control pedestal disappears also, and the lack of failure in the connectors increases electrical reliability about 10,000 times.
The diagnostic electronics and documentation disappeared along with E W Barton Company when sold. KR International has no plans whatsoever of dealing with these diagnostic boxes, ever.
HOWEVER, THERE IS EXTREME INTEREST IN RETROFITTING THESE WINDING MACHINES. THEY CAN MAKE GREAT LARGE FOIL WINDERS. TELL ME IF YOU WANT TO DISPOSE, I CAN GET A BUYER!
