GB1203662A - Cigarette or rod-like articles packaging machine and method - Google Patents

Abstract

1,203,662. Packaging cigarettes &c. AMF Inc. 28 May, 1968 [12 June, 1967], No. 25515/68. Heading B8C. A machine for packaging articles such as cigarettes comprises two conveyers, one having compartments in which a group of articles is formed and the other comprising mandrels on which packets are made, the conveyers having coincident portions of their paths along which the groups are inserted into'the packets and the latter ejected from the mandrels to end closing means. The two conveyers 1 and 2 have their straight runs at right-angles to each other (see Figs. 1, 1A, which show parts of the same view coincident on the lines A-A, B-B) but pass round sprockets 103, 203, Fig. 2, forming part of a common assembly 4 rotatable on a shaft 5. The conveyer 1 carries compartmented containers 8 passing beneath hoppers 110, 210, 310 equal in number to the number of compartments and which progressively build up the groups of articles with each hopper filling a respective compartment of the container. The conveyer 2 carries packet forming means 12 including mandrels 112, and a blank of metal foil is fed to each mandrel by feed means 20 from one or other of supply rolls 21, 121. When one roll is exhausted, the other is automatically brought into use (not detailed). As the mandrels move upwards, they rotate to fold the blanks about them and means (not shown) fold the foil to form an end closure. A paper blank from a magazine 22 is then applied and folded over the foil. Completion of the packet bottom end closure is effected by devices 23 (not detailed) on the conveyer sprocket 7. The assembly 4 includes also a series of guides 13, compression boxes 14 and packet receivers 25. These last are mounted in groups of four at peripheral intervals corresponding to the mandrel spacing and are rotatable, anti-clockwise as shown, about tangential axes to align each one of the group progressively with the respective mandrel. Each group of articles is forced from the container 8 by a corresponding aligned axially reciprocable push-rod 16 which pushes it through the guide 13 and into the compression box 14. It is then forced through the mandrel and into a receiver 25 taking the packet with it. The top of the packet is folded in and the receiver rotates to cause the packet top end to extend radially when means (not shown) apply a label or revenue stamp. The receiver rotates again to align the package axially and means (not shown) ejects it to further processing means, e.g. a wrapping device (not detailed). Automatic control devices (none detailed) include means to detect soft or missing cigarettes in the containers 8 and prevent their ejection into the packets and to prevent feeding a group when no wrapper is present. Photoelectric detectors and feelers 40, Fig. 1, which latter contact the metal mandrel or foil or paper on the mandrels and distinguish between them by their conductivity, determine whether both blanks have been applied to the mandrels and whether a packet is present on a mandrel. The light beam is arranged to shine through a bare mandrel. As earlier stated, foil feed rolls are changed automatically, the feed of the paper blanks being stopped while the foil is not being fed. Machine elements may be changed to produce different sized packages (no details given).