EP1224874A2 - Method and apparatus for forming a tobacco rod for the production of rod-like articles in the tobacco industry - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a device for forming a tobacco rod (110) for the production of rod - shaped articles in the tobacco processing industry from tobacco fibers of different lengths, with a separating device (27) for separating short tobacco (78) and longer tobacco fibers, with a first feed conveyor (27,32,34,40,46,48,58,62,54) for conveying the longer tobacco fibers to a strand conveyor (4), and with a second feed conveyor (70,76,82) for conveying the short tobacco (78) to the strand conveyor. The invention is characterized in that the second feed conveyor has a combination device (82) which combines the short tobacco with the longer tobacco fibers in the region of a strand formation zone of the strand conveyor in such a way that the short tobacco is distributed heterogeneously in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco rod (110) thus formed. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for forming a Tobacco strands for the production of rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry Industry of tobacco fibers of different lengths, the short tobacco with a Separator is separated from the longer tobacco fibers, the longer Tobacco fibers are conveyed to a strand conveyor with a first feed conveyor, and the short tobacco is conveyed to the strand conveyor with a second feed conveyor becomes.

Rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry, such as cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars, are made according to the prior art with the help of so-called Extrusion machines manufactured. In such a strand machine is under one Suction line conveyor exacerbated a tobacco rod after leveling wrapped and then cut into individual items.

The tobacco used to form the tobacco rod can be roughly broken down into short tobacco and other tobacco fibers, such as medium and long tobacco fibers, divide. Short tobacco occurs during all processing steps in the manufacture such an article. He pays special attention to the manufacture of the articles to dedicate, especially since the longer tobacco fibers for the structural Ensure the stability of the article, while the short tobacco contributes little to this. He should therefore be stored in the articles as evenly as possible, for what there are also suggestions in the literary state of the art.

So it is for example from DE-PS 12 41 744 (that of US-PS 3,138,663 known) to fractionate tobacco in a cigarette machine in such a way that Short tobacco and medium-length tobacco fibers using a vibrating sieve of long Tobacco fibers and ribs are separated. The long tobacco fibers and long pieces of rib are placed on a layer of screened short tobacco and medium-length tobacco fibers sprinkled on. Thus a layer is formed, all of them original fiber components, including long ribs. The short, medium and long tobacco fibers are then used to form the Extracted tobacco rod with suction air, whereby the heavy rib pieces from the airflow fail. This results in a homogeneous distribution of the Short tobacco in the tobacco rod thus formed.

From its own DE 34 38 125 A1 it is known for fractionating tobacco to use a vibratory conveyor with two floors arranged one above the other, the upper bottom openings for the passage of medium-length tobacco fibers and of short tobacco and grooves running in the longitudinal direction, in which accumulate the long ribs. Then to form the tobacco rod the long tobacco fibers are removed from the upper floor and with the medium-length tobacco fibers and the short tobacco united from the bottom. In The long ribs remain behind the grooves and are removed. Here too the short tobacco is then distributed homogeneously in the tobacco rod.

Finally, it is known from DE-AS 15 32 231, the short tobacco in one Collect containers, the amount recorded in the container and depending on it the short tobacco is metered to a suction line conveyor. After acceptance an excess of the tobacco rod thus formed is also here Short tobacco is distributed essentially homogeneously in the article produced.

The object of the present invention is the method and the device of the type mentioned at the outset in such a way that a compared to the state of Technology increased structural stability of the articles produced is achieved.

This object is achieved by a method according to claim 1 and solved a device according to claim 9.

Heterogeneous in the sense of the invention means that in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco rod does not consider the same amount of short tobacco everywhere.

The invention includes the finding that along structural stability the longitudinal axis of the article produced and thus along the longitudinal axis of the The tobacco rod from which this article is separated has different strengths Requirements are made. To take this into account is one heterogeneous distribution of the short tobacco along the Longitudinal axis of the tobacco rod to a homogeneous distribution in the tobacco rod prefer.

In an advantageous embodiment of the method according to the invention the short tobacco portioned before combining with the other tobacco fibers. On In this way, a heterogeneous distribution of the short tobacco is particularly easy realize in the tobacco rod. The device according to the invention points to this Purpose preferably a suction-carrying drum for receiving and portioned delivery of the short tobacco.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the short tobacco is in Sections of the exaggerated tobacco rod introduced what sections after wrapping the tobacco rod between two cuts to separate the Tobacco strands in the individual items. This way it becomes advantageous avoided that short tobacco gets into the end areas of the manufactured articles which he would miss when processing the articles. The invention avoids this by making the suction cups shorter than the articles to be manufactured and using Distance to each other are arranged on the circumference of the drum, and the Drum synchronized with a cutting device for separating the wrapped Tobacco strand in the individual items is driven.

In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the short tobacco stored in the tobacco rod so that it is in the middle of the tobacco rod reaches where it reaches the size of the finished article through long tobacco fibers is structurally supported. Will this embodiment with the above Embodiment of the invention combined, so there is an all-round Structural support of the short tobacco in the finished smoking article by means of the Short tobacco surrounding long tobacco fibers. The short tobacco will fail avoided. For this purpose, the device according to the invention has a such assignment of the drum to the strand conveyor, which ensures that the delivery of the portions controlled by switching off the suction air in the suction troughs of the short tobacco to the strand conveyor in the area of the partially raised String of tobacco happens, which later forms the central axis of the articles.

In further preferred developments of the method according to the invention or the separating device of the device according to the invention has a vibrating screen on, with the help of the short tobacco in a storage container for collecting the Short tobacco is separated, the storage container monitoring the fill level for determining the fill level of the storage container, which fill level monitoring interacts with a dosing device which the short tobacco depending on the level in the storage container to a vibratory conveyor emits from which the drum picks up the short tobacco and in the strand formation zone of the strand conveyor in synchronism with the conveying speed of the strand conveyor emits. Here, an excess of a predetermined portion size with the help of an equalizer removed from the drum and onto the vibratory conveyor recycled.

An embodiment of the invention will now be explained with reference to the drawing.

Figur 1

eine schematische Seitenansicht eines Fliesbettverteilers einer Zigarettenherstellungsmaschine mit integrierter, erfindungsgemäßer Vorrichtung;

Figur 2

eine schematische, vergrößerte Frontansicht des Abschnittes A des in Figur 1 dargestellten Verteilers;

Figur 3

eine stark vergrößerte Ansicht des Abschnittes A der Figur 1.

The drawing shows:

Figure 1

is a schematic side view of a fluid bed distributor of a cigarette manufacturing machine with an integrated device according to the invention;

Figure 2

a schematic, enlarged front view of section A of the distributor shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3

a greatly enlarged view of section A of Figure 1.

Figure 1 shows a schematic side view of a fluidized bed distributor 1 in a other cigarette making machine, not shown, for feeding tobacco to a schematically illustrated suction line conveyor 4. The distributor 1 works as follows:

The tobacco is placed in a lock 6. From there the tobacco gets into one Pre-distributor 8. With the help of a photocell (not shown) in the pre-distributor 8 is controlled via a drive 21 pivotable flap 17 to the To control replenishment of tobacco from lock 6 (for more details see the US 4,373,538 of the applicant). In the pre-distributor 8, the tobacco is from a Combing roller 10 along a cover plate 12 into a main storage container 14 funded. In the main storage container 14 passes through an oscillating conveyor 16 also excess tobacco, which at the end of the suction strand conveyor 4 according to arrow 18 was removed from the tobacco rod by a leveler 19 in FIG.

The tobacco is schematically extracted from the main storage container 14 with the aid of a Steep conveyor provided by drivers 20 shown by a broken line 22 upwards according to arrow 24 to a deflection roller 26 of the steep conveyor 22 promoted. The level in the main reservoir 14 can be adjusted with the help of Scan photocells 15a and 15b. With the help of the upper photocell 15a Control tobacco addition from pre-distributor 8 (for further details see the US 4,373,538 of the applicant). With the help of the lower photocell 15b Distributor 1 and the entire cigarette making machine stop when the Tobacco supply in the main storage container 14 below the level of this photocell 15b falls. After the driver 20 of the steep conveyor 22 has been deflected by the deflecting roller 26 the tobacco falls onto a vibrating screen 27 serving as a separating device. The vibrating screen 27 separates short tobacco 78 (see FIG. 3) from the longer ones Tobacco fibers. The short tobacco 78 falls through the vibrating sieve 27 into one Storage container 29. The storage container 29 also has two photocells 31 for Detection of an upper or lower limit of the level of the short tobacco 78 in the reservoir 29.

The longer ones that did not fall through the vibrating sieve 27 into the storage container 29 Tobacco fibers are caused by the swinging movement of the vibrating screen 27 on one Magnets 28 for sorting metal moved past in a storage well 32.

The longer tobacco fibers from a dosing or Separation roller 34 removed. The separating roller 34 forms together a separating device with a comparatively rapidly rotating beater roller 40. A tobacco shower generated with this separating device longer tobacco fibers enter a funnel-shaped shaft 46. At the end of the shaft 46, a blowing air nozzle 48 blows a flow of viewing air across Fall direction of the tobacco and separates lighter tobacco fibers 50 from heavier ribs and conveys the former towards a guide surface 54 to form a tobacco tile 51 onwards.

Some light tobacco fibers 50 sink down with the ribs. You get through a rotary valve 56 into an inspection shaft 60, in which the heavy Ribs sink further down and are discharged by means of a conveyor 61 are, while the lighter tobacco fibers 50 in a shaft 58, by means of a by injector action of a blast of air coming from a nozzle, not shown in an air box 62, airflow generated upwards and also in Direction to the guide surface 54 are promoted. Get from the guide surface 54 the light tobacco fibers 50 shown in Figure 3 directly from below Suction conveyor belt 86 of the suction strand conveyor 4. The vibrating screen 27, the Accumulation shaft 32, the separating roller 34, the beater roller 40, the shaft 46, the blow air nozzle 48, the shaft 58, the air box 62 and the guide surface 54 form a first feed conveyor for conveying longer tobacco fibers to the suction train 4th

The short tobacco 78 separated in the reservoir by means of the vibrating sieve 27 29 is dependent on that determined by the light barriers 31 Fill level removed from the reservoir 29 via a metering device 70 and according to arrow 72 one shown enlarged in FIG. 3, below the Suction line conveyor 4 arranged vibrating conveyor 76 (by means of a shown slide, alternatively with a screw conveyor, not shown) fed. From the vibrating conveyor 76, the short tobacco 78 is used as a Suction troughs 80 (see FIG. 2) suctioned the carrying drum 82 for portioning the short tobacco 78. The Drum 82 is located vertically above the vibratory conveyor 76. The metering device 70, the slide / screw conveyor, the vibratory conveyor 76 and the Drum 82 essentially form a second feed conveyor according to the invention for conveying the short tobacco 78 to the suction line conveyor 4.

The drum 82 is rotatably supported by a drive shaft 83 in bearings 84 and is driven by a drive 85. The drum 82 is (with schematic suction air (represented by arrows 87) via a channel 88. The channel 88 acts on those provided on the peripheral surface of the drum 82 Suction cups 80 via corresponding ones arranged radially in the drum 82 Suction channels 92 with suction air. The drum 82 is an extension of the Guide surface 54 and thus within that indicated by dashed lines in FIG. 3 Tobacco shower 102 and vertically below the suction line conveyor 4.

In order to control the suction troughs 80, the drum 82 also has one stationary control slot 98, which ensures that the suction channels 92 and thus the suction troughs 80 are only supplied with suction air in the area of the control slot 98 become. In a control flange of the drum 82 there is 98 next to the control slot also include a vent hole 120. This vent hole is 120 necessary so that the short tobacco 78 from the suction line conveyor 4 from the troughs 80 of the Drum 82 can be removed. For this purpose the Vent hole 120 in the direction of rotation behind the end 100 of the control slot 98 at the point at which the suction troughs 80 move during the rotation of the Drum 82 are closest to suction belt 86.

The function of the suction drum 82 will be explained in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 described:

The drum 82 rotates according to arrow 94 counter to that indicated by arrow 96 Direction of conveyance of the vibratory conveyor 76. Thus, the in the vibratory conveyor 76 short tobacco 78 came against the direction of conveyance 96 from the suction troughs 80 aspirated. Seen in the direction of rotation 94, from point 104 onwards Drum 82, using the control slot 98, the suction effect of the suction troughs 80 activated. Short tobacco 78 picked up by the suction troughs 80 is only in the Area of the control slot 98 held by the drum 82. The drum 82 leads the absorbed short tobacco 78 on a scraper 106 for removing over short tobacco 78 projecting beyond the circumference of the drum 82. The so on the volume of the short tobacco 78 portioned into the suction troughs 80 then continues to enter Direction of rotation 94 of the drum 82 in the tobacco shower 102 below the Suction belt 86 of the suction strand conveyor 4, where it is seen in the direction of rotation 94 after the end 100 of the control slot 98 at the location of the vent hole 120 due to the lack of suction air and the ventilation of the suction troughs 80 the vent hole 120 in the tobacco shower 102 below a suction belt 86 of the suction line conveyor 4 is delivered.

The targeted positioning of the short tobacco 78 in the with the help of Suction line conveyor 4 tobacco line 110 to be formed is as follows:

The peripheral speed of the drum 82 corresponds to the speed of the Suction belt 86 of the suction strand conveyor 4, so that none on the suction belt 86 Relative speed between the longer tobacco fibers and the short tobacco 78 on the drum 82.

The suction troughs 80 are shorter than the articles to be manufactured and are at a distance arranged to each other on the circumference of the drum 82. In addition, the Drum 82 is synchronous to one (not shown here, but for example in the US 5,050,471 described) cutting device for separating the coated Tobacco rod drivable in the article that the short tobacco 78 in the longitudinal direction of the cut article spaced from the cuts and thus spaced from the Head area of the article is introduced.

The lines 114 in FIG. 2 schematically represent the spaced apart and with short tobacco 78 introduced in portions. Furthermore, the drum 82 is spaced from the suction belt 86 such that the Portions 114 of the short tobacco 78 in the middle 108 of the finished (that is completely upset and equalized) tobacco rod 110 to lie come, that is, they are surrounded by longer tobacco fibers.

Fig. 2 further shows that with the leveler 19 head reinforcements 112 in the Tobacco strand 110 are introduced. The head reinforcements 112 are located due to the synchronization between the portions 114.

Claims (17)

Method for forming a tobacco rod (110) for the production of rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry from tobacco fibers of different lengths,
with the steps: Short tobacco (78) is separated from longer tobacco fibers, the short tobacco (78) is combined with the longer tobacco fibers in the area of a strand formation zone to form a tobacco strand (110) such that the short tobacco (78) is distributed heterogeneously in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco strand (110). Method according to claim 1,
the short tobacco (78) being portioned before being combined with the longer tobacco fibers. Method according to one of the preceding claims,
the short tobacco (78) being introduced into sections of the tobacco rod (110) which, after the tobacco rod (110) has been wrapped, lie between two cuts in the articles to separate the tobacco rod (110). Method according to one of the preceding claims,
the short tobacco (78) being stored in the tobacco rod (110) such that it comes to rest in the middle of the tobacco rod (110). Method according to one of the preceding claims,
the short tobacco (78) being separated from the longer tobacco fibers by sieving using vibration. Method according to one of the preceding claims,
the short tobacco (78) being accumulated before portioning. Method according to claim 6,
the short tobacco (78) being metered into portions depending on the amount of short tobacco (78) accumulated. Method according to claim 2 and according to one of the preceding claims,
wherein an excess exceeding a predetermined amount of short tobacco (78) in the portions is removed from the portions prior to being combined with the longer tobacco fibers. Device for forming a tobacco rod (110) for the production of rod-shaped articles in the tobacco processing industry from tobacco fibers of different lengths,
with a separating device (27) for separating short tobacco (78) and longer tobacco fibers,
with a first feed conveyor (27, 32, 34, 40, 46, 48, 58, 62, 54) for conveying the longer tobacco fibers to a strand conveyor (4),
with a second feed conveyor (70, 76, 82) for conveying the short tobacco (82) to the strand conveyor (4),
characterized in that the second feed conveyor (70, 76, 82) has a combination device (82) which combines the short tobacco (78) with the longer tobacco fibers in the region of a strand formation zone of the strand conveyor (4) in such a way that the short tobacco (78) in Longitudinal direction of the tobacco rod (110) thus formed is distributed heterogeneously. Device according to claim 9,
wherein the combining device (82) has a suction cup (80) carrying drum (82) for portioning the short tobacco (78). Apparatus according to claim 10,
wherein the suction troughs (80) are shorter than the articles to be produced and are arranged at a distance from one another on the circumference of the drum (82), and wherein the drum (82) can be driven into the articles synchronously with a cutting device for separating the wrapped tobacco rod (110) , Device according to one of claims 10 or 11,
wherein the drum (82) is assigned to the strand conveyor (4) such that the portions of the short tobacco (78) come to rest in the middle of the finished tobacco rod (110). Device according to one of claims 9 to 12,
the separating device having a vibrating screen (76). Device according to one of claims 9 to 13,
a storage container (29) is provided for collecting the short tobacco (78) separated from the separating device (27). Device according to claim 14,
wherein the storage container (29) has a fill level monitor (31). Device according to one of claims 9 to 15,
wherein the second feed conveyor (70, 76, 82) has an oscillating conveyor (76) which receives the short tobacco (78) from the separating device (27) and which is associated with the combining device (82) in such a way that the short tobacco (78) can suck from the vibratory conveyor (76). Device according to one of claims 14 to 16,
wherein the second feed conveyor (70, 76, 82) has a metering device (70), by means of which the short tobacco (78) can be removed from the storage container (29) and metered to the union device (82).

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