The Role of the Private Sector In Health Service Delivery

Apparatus for forming twisted pairs of electrical conductor wire cut to predetermined lengths and having one wire end of a pair longitudinally offset from the adjacent end of the other wire of the pair. The apparatus includes plural wire preparation units which operate to cut predetermined lengths of wire and strip insulation from one or both ends of each wire. The wire preparation units are operable to feed prepared wires to a rotary wire carrier which includes a plurality of pairs of side by side elongated wire receiving tubes. The wire carrier is rotatably indexable from a wire receiving position to a position where a wire offsetting device comprising a fluid operated clamp and linear actuator operates to longitudinally offset one wire of a pair of wires prior to a twisting operation. The wire carrier is further indexable to a position wherein a pair of wires becomes engaged with a wire tensioning device and the adjacent ends of a pair of wires are gripped by a twisting and pulling apparatus. The twisting and pulling apparatus includes a linearly movable carriage having a pair of rotatable gripping jaws which grip adjacent ends of a pair of wires and withdraw the wires from the wire carrier tubes through the tensioning device while rotating. The combined linear and rotary movement of the gripping jaws is controlled to impart a predetermined number of twists to a wire pair.