Dancer accumulator systems

Dancer accumulator systems

A dancer accumulator for cables etc. is used to keep the tensile stress of the material at a constant tension level when pulling or winding. This is a proven method for controlling the tension of spoolable materials such as wire, cable, fiber, filament, yarn, paper or film. In most cases, a dancer accumulator is used to create a material buffer, for example for changing bobbins.
The accumulator path is defined in meters and specifies the size. There are also non-powered accumulator systems that only serve as a compensator to balance out train fluctuations. These are usually adjusted by hand using spring or weight force.

The position of the dancer is constantly determined via a potentiometer / laser sensor etc. and forwarded to the dancer control. The maximum and minimum of the so-called fill level are defined in advance by limit values and the control system must always keep the product within these limits. The height / length of the dancer is influenced by the feed and discharge speed of the material. However, a motor can also be used in conjunction with a potentiometer, in which case the potentiometer specifies the setpoint and the dancer control intervenes at precisely this point. Depending on the position of the dancer, the motors are accelerated or decelerated, e.g. by the rewinder through the dancer control. This achieves an optimum speed and the desired force on the bobbin and, above all, this tensile force is always the same over the entire bobbin.