Making armatures for electrodynamic machines

An operator sequentially inserts magazines containing a required number of hairpin conductors HC for an armature to be made, an armature core comprising a plurality of substantially aligned laminations preassembled to form the core and a commutator, and removes armatures completed by assembling these components. The use of a hairpin magazine M, including the hairpin conductors required for an armature, permits simultaneous transfer of all the hairpin conductors into upper twist tooling 110 wherein upper ends of the hairpin conductors adjacent end turn portions of the conductors are moved apart relative to one another. The frog leg conductors thus formed are removed from the upper twist tooling 110 and inserted into slots of an armature core which has been earlier inserted into the system. The frog leg conductors are fully pressed through the armature core into lower twist tooling 124 which then is operated to move the ends of the conductors extending beyond the armature core away from one another and into alignment with other conductors for insertion into a commutator for the armature, which commutator was earlier placed into the system. The commutator is properly positioned by tolling 130 beneath the armture core which is then pressed onto the commutator. The operator removes the completed armature and replaces it with a commutator for the next armature.