EP2661183B1 - Feeding ground or cut tobacco material to a portioning device - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a homogenization module for a homogenizing device of a device of the tobacco processing industry for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning device. The invention further relates to a corresponding homogenizing device, to a corresponding device of the tobacco processing industry, to a method for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning device and to a use.

A machine for the homogenization of wet tobacco (snus) is out US-A-2010/0018539 known.

The invention thus relates to the field of processing and portioning of ground or cut tobacco material having a high moisture content. As a tobacco material ground or cut tobacco and possibly additives are eligible. The cut length is so short that the cut moist tobacco material a comparable consistency has like ground moist tobacco material. Such a moist ground or cut tobacco material is offered, inter alia, as so-called SNUS tobacco or smokeless tobacco and is used orally, ie in the oral cavity. SNUS tobacco has a moisture content of about 35% to 50% or more and is a fine-grained, lumpy substance that is similar in consistency to wet coffee grounds.

For consumption, SNUS tobacco is in some cases flavored with, for example, menthol, sal ammoniac or other flavoring agents, and is packaged in portions of 0.5 to 2 g in so-called SNUS bags. This is a porous paper, the so-called "pouch", which is completely sealed, but permeable to water and releases the ingredients of the "pouch" in the mouth and the mucous membranes of the mouth. The most common portion size is about 1 g per serving. After consuming the "pouch" this is taken out of the mouth and disposed of.

Devices for portioning and filling homogenized moist ground or cut tobacco material in sachets are known. A corresponding device is sold, for example, under the name TS 1000 of the company MediSeal GmbH. Therein, the tobacco material is filled into a pre-metering chamber and then filled into an open sachet, which is then sealed.

Since a ground or, in particular, short, cut tobacco material with a moisture content of 35% or more as fine-grained bulk material is very lumpy, it is difficult to process. It is therefore known from the prior art to supply the tobacco material with a lower humidity, at which it does not clump process and in this state to fill the sachets or "pouches". In a subsequent processing step, the sachets are then moistened to bring the tobacco material to the desired humidity. Since in this wet treatment ingredients are washed out of the tobacco material, these penetrate into the likewise wet porous paper of these sachets and discolor them unevenly. To mask this, in some cases a black or dark paper is used in which the corresponding discoloration is less visible.

In alternative known methods, the ground or cut tobacco material is processed in the wet state. For this purpose, the bulk material is sieved. However, sifting a ground tobacco material having a moisture content of 35% or more is associated with building up of clumps of clumped material in the screen so that the screens and other components of the respective processing equipment must be thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis.

In the processing of wet, fine-grained bulk material, which tends to clump, homogenization, as achieved by sieving, is very important, since this is the only way to ensure that a reproducibly consistent amount of tobacco material is contained in each sachet. The requirements for the consistency of the portion bag contents are approximately 5%, which means that for a portion bag with a content of approx. 1 g, the accuracy of the filling contents is approx. 0.05 g. Slight clumping in wet ground or sliced tobacco material is likely to exceed these portioning tolerances, resulting in an undesirable rejection of the sachets due to overshoot or undershoot.

A generic device of the Applicant is from the patent application DE 10 2010 029 243.5 known. The apparatus comprises a feed device, a homogenizing device and a portioning device, wherein the homogenizing device comprises a combination of a needle roller and a racket roller. The needle roller is disposed downstream of the feeder and receives tobacco material from the feeder. The racket roller is adapted to knock out tobacco material from the needle roller in the direction of the portioning device. Homogenized tobacco material is introduced into a plurality of portioning devices operated in parallel and positioned side by side by means of this homogenizing device. Thus, a combination of needle roller and racket roller is used to homogenize wet and lumpy ground or cut tobacco material. By means of the feed device, the wet ground or cut tobacco material is taken or accepted from an upstream unit or from a reservoir and conveyed to the homogenizing device. Here, the wet ground or cut tobacco material has its lumpy, reminiscent of wet coffee grounds consistency.

In the homogenizer, the needle roller receives the tobacco material. In this case, the space between the needles on the surface of the needle roller is filled with the material, up to the height of the needles of the needle roller. As a result, a controlled volume flow of the ground tobacco material is possible. At this point, the tobacco material also has its lumpy consistency and is held and conveyed by the needles of the needle roller.

The combination of a needle roller and a racket roller effectively homogenizes the ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% and eliminates the clumps between the grains or short fibers of the tobacco material. The racket roller rotates at a peripheral speed many times higher than the needle roller and in the opposite direction to the direction of rotation of the needle roller and combs with its own needles, rods, scrapers and the like, the tobacco material between the needles of the needle roller. Since this is done at a high rate, the dressing is dissolved between the grains of the fine-grained wet tobacco material so that individual grains or fibers of the tobacco material are thrown toward the portioning device. Clumps are reliably dissolved in this case.

This solution avoids the problem of sieving that lumps and bridges build up over the sieve, so cleaning of a sieve can be dispensed with for lack of sieves. The combination of needle roller and racket roller is highly self-cleaning, so that cleaning of the rollers and the device must be done only comparatively rarely.

Based on this prior art, the present invention has the object to perform the feeding of ground or cut tobacco material to a portioning device in a homogenizing more efficient and with less downtime connected, than was previously possible.

This object is achieved by a homogenizing module for a homogenizing device of a tobacco processing apparatus for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning device, said homogenizing module comprising a combination of a needle roller and a racket roller, said needle roller downstream of the feeder is arranged to receive tobacco material from the feeder and convey it to the racket roller, the racket roller being configured to knock tobacco material out of the needle roller towards the portioning device, the homogenizing module having a fouling or cleaning sensor.

The homogenization module is designed according to the invention for feeding tobacco material to a single porting unit for a single portion. Multiple homogenization modules may be assembled into a homogenizer to allow for parallel processing of tobacco material and thus increase the production speed of a tobacco processing machine. A single homogenization module has the advantage that it is removable and can be inserted independently of other homogenization modules. The cleaning of a Homogenisierungsmoduls thus does not lead to complete stoppage of production. A removed homogenization module can also be replaced by an already cleaned fresh homogenization module, so that even in the production line, which relates to the affected homogenization module, production is only interrupted for a short time. In this way, production efficiency is maximized and downtime of the entire device is minimized.

According to the invention, the homogenization module comprises a contamination or cleaning sensor. For example, such a contamination or cleaning sensor may optically inspect the interior of a homogenization module, or measure the force needed to drive the needle roller and racket roller, increasing the required drive force at higher levels of soiling, or acoustically.

Preferably, a, in particular pivotable, tobacco outlet is provided, the outlet position is variably fixable. A tobacco outlet having a variably fixable outlet position allows the geometry of a homogenizer having multiple homogenizer modules to be matched to the geometry of a downstream multi-portioner portioner that may be spaced apart from one another by the distance of the homogenizer modules from one another. This distance may be greater than, less than or equal to the distance between the homogenization modules in a homogenizer comprising multiple homogenization modules.

Preferably, one or two separate connection couplings for motor drives are provided for the needle roller and for the racket roller. As drives are in particular electric motors, which are individually controlled, or other drive means used. The needle roller and the racket roller preferably rotate at a significantly different rotational speed. The needle roller, which receives tobacco from a tobacco inlet, determines the volume flow that is to be processed and can rotate relatively slowly. The racket roller serves to singulate the tobacco material by knocking out of the needles of the needle roller and rotates at a much higher speed. typical Values are, for example, two to four revolutions of the needle roller per minute, in particular three revolutions per minute, and 200 to 300 revolutions of the sticking roller per minute, in particular about 250 revolutions per minute in normal production operation.

For efficient cleaning, it is preferably provided that a housing with at least one removable side wall is provided. The removable side wall is in particular preferably releasably connected by a hook construction with the remaining housing of the homogenization module, without screwing. In this way, the side wall can be removed within seconds and the needle roller and the racket roller, which are preferably also detachable from their axes, can be removed and cleaned.

Since little space is available in the homogenization module, a drive mechanism for the needle roller and the racket roller with bevel gear drives and / or drive shafts and / or belt transmission is advantageously provided. These drive and translation mechanisms require little space.

A racket roller preferably has a milled racket structure, racket pins, bat spikes or racket knobs. In particular, a milled racket structure can be produced simply and quickly by milling deep grooves in a block, which extend, for example, in the circumferential direction and transversely thereto. The club milled from a material has a high resistance. The corresponding structures engage between the needles of the needle roller, preferably, without touching them.

The needle roller preferably has side walls, between which needles are arranged. The side walls serve as a lateral guide for the tobacco material flow and prevent the sticking of tobacco material to the stationary housing structures of the homogenization module. This ensures efficient and trouble-free material handling.

For improved cleaning, the needle roller and the racket roller are preferably detachably mounted on axles.

The object underlying the invention is also achieved by a homogenizing device of a device of the tobacco processing industry for supplying ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning device, comprising a plurality of homogenization modules according to the invention described above, arranged in particular side by side are. Preferably, the homogenization modules are independently removable from the homogenization device and can be used in the homogenization device. Thus, a homogenizing device for a plurality of tobacco material streams is provided, which supplies a plurality of production lines of portioning devices and portioning units with tobacco material and which can be cleaned without having to stop the production flow completely.

Preferably, the needle rollers and the racket rollers of the homogenization modules are each driven separately. For the Homogenisierungsmodule each own electric motors are preferably provided or one or more electric motors provided which drive one or more common shafts or a common belt drive, wherein the Homogenisierungsmodule each on the shaft or shafts or on the belt drive are coupled and disconnected. The common wave or common waves are therefore outside the Homogenisierungsmodule. Thus, by means of a single or a small number of powerful drives and corresponding switchable couplings to the shaft or shafts or the belt drive, efficient control of the needle rollers and the racket rollers of the individual homogenization modules is possible.

Preferably, four or more homogenization modules, in particular six to eight homogenization modules, can be used or used side by side in the homogenization apparatus.

The homogenization device preferably also has an interface for a homogenization module, which transmits the signals of a filling level sensor of a dosing unit to the homogenization module and / or transmits to motors or couplings that drive the homogenization module. In particular, the homogenization device has slots with corresponding connections for the homogenization modules, so that individual homogenization modules can be removed during operation and either cleaned again inserted in order to continue their work, or be replaced by fresh Homogenisierungsmodule perform the same function.

The object underlying the invention is also achieved by a device of the tobacco processing industry for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning device, comprising a feed device, a homogenizing device according to the invention described above and a Portioning device.

Furthermore, the object underlying the invention is achieved by a method for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning device, wherein tobacco material ground or cut by means of a feed device to a homogenizing device according to the invention described above having a plurality of inventive, homogenizing the tobacco material in the homogenization modules by means of a combination of one needle roller and one racket roller, the needle roller with its needles receiving tobacco material from the feed device and advancing to the racket roller and the racket roller the tobacco material from the needles the needle roller in the direction of a subsequent metering unit of the portioning out back, wherein for cleaning one or more rei cleaning required at certain maintenance intervals is initiated or in response to a signal from a cleaning sensor within the Homogenisierungsmoduls that detects a degree of contamination of the Homogenisierungsmoduls or individual components thereof and whose signal due to a high degree of contamination removed the homogenization module and is cleaned.

In the method according to the invention, one or more homogenization modules requiring cleaning are removed from the homogenizing device for cleaning, in which case in particular a withdrawn homogenization module is replaced by a clean homogenization module. The cleaning can be specific Maintenance intervals are initiated or in response to a signal from a cleaning sensor within the Homogenisierungsmoduls that detects a degree of contamination of the Homogenisierungsmoduls or individual components thereof and whose signal due to a high degree of contamination, the homogenization module is removed and cleaned.

Also, this method allows continuous homogenization and promotion of tobacco material, even if one of the Homogenisierungsmodule must be cleaned.

The delivery of tobacco material in the homogenization modules is preferably controlled independently of one another, in particular as a function of a fill level of a predosing chamber of a dosing unit of the portioning device adjoining the respective homogenization module. The dosing units have in some cases a predosing chamber, which has a level sensor whose signal is used to signal when falling below the minimum level of the associated upstream homogenization module to homogenize further tobacco material and to promote in the predosing until a higher, especially maximum, Level is reached in the pre-metering chamber.

Preferably, the removal takes place during operation of the device, wherein the portioning is interrupted in a dosing unit connected to the removed homogenization module, in particular, until a clean homogenization module has been used instead of the removed homogenization module. The homogenization module used can also be the same, now cleaned, previously removed homogenization module.

Finally, the object of the invention is also based on the use of a homogenizing device according to the invention described above with a plurality of homogenizing modules according to the invention for homogenizing ground or cut tobacco material with a moisture content of at least 35% and for feeding to a plurality of parallel operated metering units a multi-lane portioning device solved.

To the invention described above, ie the homogenization module according to the invention, the homogenizing device according to the invention, the apparatus according to the invention of the tobacco processing industry, the method according to the invention and the use according to the invention, mentioned properties, features and advantages are without limitation also for the respective other subjects of the invention. These subjects of the invention are related to each other.

Fig. 1

eine schematische perspektivische Darstellung einer erfindungsgemäßen Homogenisierungsvorrichtung,

Fig. 2

eine weitere schematische Perspektivdarstellung der erfindungsgemäßen Homogenisierungsvorrichtung gemäß Figur 1,

Fig. 3

eine schematische perspektivische Detailansicht eines erfindungsgemäßen Homogenisierungsmoduls,

Fig. 4

eine weitere schematische perspektivische Ansicht des Homogenisierungsmoduls gemäß Figur 3,

Fig. 5

eine schematische Schnittdarstellung durch das Homogenisierungsmodul gemäß Figur 3 und

Fig. 6

eine weitere schematische Schnittdarstellung durch das Homogenisierungsmodul gemäß Figur 3.

The invention will be described below without limiting the general inventive idea by means of embodiments with reference to the drawings, reference being expressly made to the drawings with respect to all in the text unspecified details of the invention. Show it:

Fig. 1

a schematic perspective view of a homogenizing device according to the invention,

Fig. 2

a further schematic perspective view of the homogenizer according to the invention according to FIG. 1 .

Fig. 3

a schematic perspective detail view of a Homogenisierungsmoduls invention,

Fig. 4

a further schematic perspective view of the Homogenisierungsmoduls according to FIG. 3 .

Fig. 5

a schematic sectional view through the homogenization according to FIG. 3 and

Fig. 6

a further schematic sectional view through the homogenization according to FIG. 3 ,

In the following figures, identical or similar elements or corresponding parts are provided with the same reference numerals, so that a corresponding renewed idea is dispensed with.

In Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a homogenization device 1 according to the invention shown. It is a homogenization device 1 with eight juxtaposed Homogenisierungsmodulen invention 11. The mutually identical homogenization devices 11 are attached to a common support frame 2 and each have a housing 12 which has a removable side wall 13 for easier cleaning. This homogenization module 11 has on its upper side a tobacco inlet 14, through which the homogenization module 11 is supplied with moist tobacco material. At the bottom there is in each case a pivotable tobacco outlet 16, which is connected via a permeable for tobacco material pivot joint 17 with the housing 12 of the corresponding homogenization module 11.

At the front, each homogenization module 11 also has a handle 15 with which the corresponding module 11 can be removed from the homogenization device 1.

Each of the homogenization modules 11 can be removed individually from the homogenization device 1 and can be cleaned individually.

At the in Fig. 1 Homogenization module 11 shown on the right is in the removable side wall 13 each have an axle bearing 18 of a needle roller and a pivot bearing 19 of a racket roller shown.

The pivotable tobacco outlet 16 of the Homogenisierungsmodule 11 are shown in a pivoted position in which the metering units of a downstream portioning device, not shown, are closer together than the homogenization modules 11 in the illustrated homogenizer 1. Also, a greater distance is adjustable.

A corresponding portioning device is offered for example by MediSeal GmbH under the name T1000 with six to eight lanes. The entire device 1 has, for example, a width of 600 mm. By means of the pivotable or variable tobacco outlets 16, the distance of the tobacco outlets 16 is adapted to the distances of the product format at the portioning device and can be adjusted from module to module between, for example, 60 mm and 100 mm. The difference in height of the tobacco outlets 16 due to the pivoting is compensated by an adjustable variable height of the receptors of the dosing units, not shown.

In Fig. 2 is a further schematic perspective view of the homogenizing device 1 according to the invention Fig. 1 shown from a rear view. It can be seen on the rear side of the holding frame 2 that each homogenization module 11 has an upper retaining bolt 20 and a lower retaining bolt 21, which serve to secure the respective homogenization module 11 to the retaining edge 2. For this purpose, the retaining bolts 20, 21 fastening elements, which are not shown for clarity, on, in particular quick-release devices, spring-biased locking devices, bayonet locks or the like.

To the homogenization module 11, two electric motors 22 are also shown, each driving a needle roller or a racket roller. A quick coupling connects the electric motors 22 to the mechanisms that drive the needle roller and the beater roller of the respective homogenization module 11. In particular, a contact switch is preferably provided, which switches off the electric motors 22 at the latest at the moment in which a homogenization module 11 is removed. The electric motors 22 can also be switched off beforehand. The switches are used in particular as a breaker, so that the electric motors 22 can not work as long as no homogenization module 11 is inserted in their place.

This in Fig. 2 shown drive concept by means of separate electric motors 22 can also be replaced by the drive of one shaft or two shafts, or more, in particular segmented, shafts to which the mechanisms for driving the needle rollers and racket rollers are connected by means of clutches.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic perspective detail view of a Homogenisierungsmoduls invention 11 Here, some side walls and solid bodies are not shown to get a clear view of the moving parts of the Homogenisierungsmoduls 11. At the rear of the housing 12 are an upper guide pin 20 and a lower guide pin 21, as described above. In addition, connection couplings 23 and 24 are arranged for a needle roller 40 and a racket roller 50, to which, for example, the electric motors 22 from Fig. 2 are pluggable.

From the connection coupling 23, a drive shaft 25 leads to a Bevel gear 26, which rolls on a conical drive surface 44 of the needle roller 40 and thus drives them. The needle roller 40 also has needles 41 on its circumferential surface, which are trimmed on both sides by side walls 42, 43.

The needle roller 40 is removably mounted on an axis 45. It receives from above moist tobacco material that is not yet homogenized. This settles between the needles 41 of the needle roller 40 and is at a relatively slow speed in Fig. 3 in a clockwise direction towards the whipper roll 50 out.

The whipper roll 50 has a milled racquet structure having a plurality of longitudinal grooves and transverse grooves that are machined such that the structures engage between the needles 41 of the needle roller 40 and propel tobacco material driven at high speed out of the needles 41 of the needle roller 40, thus homogenizing the moist tobacco material becomes. Instead of the milled structure also needles, nubs etc. can be used.

The racket roller 50 is driven by an electric motor 22, which drives a long drive shaft 27 directly via a connection coupling 24. The rotation of the long drive shaft 27 is transmitted via a toothed belt 29 to a deflection roller 28 and from there to a short drive shaft 33. The toothed belt 29 also runs on a combination of a clamping element 31 and a rotor roll 30, which ensure that the toothed belt is always under a constant voltage, so that the rotational movement of the long drive shaft 27 is always reliably transmitted to the short drive shaft 33. The short drive shaft 33 terminates in a bevel gear 34, which rolls on a conical drive surface 52 of the racket roller 50 and drives them at high speed. The racket roller 50 is removably mounted on an axle 53. The mechanism of long drive shaft 27, pulleys 28 and 33 and short drive shaft 33 for the racket roller 50 is laterally offset from the circumference of the racket roller 50 and needle roller 40 so far that knocked-out tobacco material has room to ejected from the homogenization module 11 become. The corresponding baffles or solid bodies, which form an outlet channel and a tobacco inlet channel, are in Fig. 3 not shown.

Also is in Fig. 3 recognizable that the removable side wall 13, the in Fig. 3 is shown at the back, has hooks 13a for easy detachable attachment to the housing 12 has.

On the right in Fig. 3 is also shown that a part of the drive mechanism for the drum 50 is housed in a gear box 35, of which a side wall is shown on the front surface, which is followed by the handle 15.

In Fig. 4 is the homogenization module 11 from Fig. 3 shown in perspective from the other sides, but this time with baffles and solid bodies, the drive mechanism is hidden except for the connection couplings 23, 24. On the left side joins the handle 15 of the closed gearbox 35 shown. In the housing 12 of the homogenization module 11, the racket roller 50 and the needle roller 40 are shown attached to their respective axis 53, 45 plugged. Above the needle roller 40 is a tobacco inlet 14 in the form of a tobacco inlet channel 61, which is partially formed by a solid body of the housing 12 and on the other side by a cover plate 63. At the bottom there is a tobacco outlet passage 62 defined between the needle roller 40 and the beater roller 50 and through two baffles or solid bodies, which is one of the in the Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 shown tobacco outlets 16 leads.

The solid bodies are parts of a single contoured, milled or cast solid body.

At the top and the bottom of the housing 13 are respectively receiving openings 13b for hook 13a of a removable sides 13, as shown in FIG Fig. 3 is shown.

In the Fig. 5 and 6 are each schematic sectional views through the homogenization module 11 according to Fig. 3 respectively. Fig. 4 represented along lines VV and VI-VI, which in Fig. 4 are shown at the top of the housing 12. The in Fig. 5 illustrated section VV passes through the tobacco inlet channel 61 and the rollers 40, 50, while the section VI-VI in Fig. 6 parallel to it runs through the drive mechanism, which also in Fig. 3 is shown.

In Fig. 5 can be seen in the gear box 35 on the left side of the timing belt 29 with pulleys 28 and 30 and the rotor roller 32, which serves to tension the toothed belt 29.

In the housing 12, two parts of a milled or cast solid body 64 are shown. These form between them a tobacco inlet channel 61 and a tobacco outlet channel 62 and in between a conveying channel 68, in which tobacco material which has passed through the tobacco inlet channel 61 on the surface of the needle roller 40 between the needles 41, is conveyed to the racquet roller 50, which is the tobacco material between the needles 41 of the needle roller 40 in the direction of the Tabakauslasskanal 62 ausschlägt. In this case, the tobacco material, not shown, is homogenized. The racket roller 50 rotates in the illustration in Fig. 5 clockwise, the needle roller 40 counterclockwise. The parts of the solid 64 also define a needle roller space 66 which is substantially circular and receives the needle roller 40, and a rack roller space 67 which is also substantially round in cross-section and receives the racket roller 50.

In Fig. 6 is from the opposite perspective the cut VI-VI off Fig. 4 shown in cross section. In the lower part of the connecting coupling 24 and the long drive shaft 27 of the drive for the whipper roll 50 are shown. In the gearbox 35, the long drive shaft 27 terminates in a deflection roller 28, over which a toothed belt 29 runs. Also shown are a pulley 30 and a rotor roll 32 in the gearbox 35. The pulley 30 drives a short shaft 33 for the whipper roll 50 at. This ends in a bevel gear 34 shown in cross section, which rolls on a conical drive surface 52 of the racket roller 50. The reference numeral 54, an axle for the club roller 50 is shown.

A connection coupling 23 on the rear side of the housing 12 drives a drive shaft 25 for the needle roller 40. The drive shaft 25 terminates in a bevel gear 26 which runs on a conical drive surface 44 of the needle roller 40 and drives them. This is included in an axle 46.

It is also shown that in this area, the housing 12 is a solid body 64, in which the corresponding structures, such as the axle receivers 46, 54, and the in Fig. 5 structures illustrated tobacco inlet channel 61, tobacco outlet channel 62, needle roller chamber 66, racket roller chamber 67 and delivery channel 68 milled or by casting in a correspondingly shaped mold have been generated.

This is a simple and very robust solution which, due to the small number of moving parts, is also easy and quick to clean, which has an efficiency-increasing effect.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

homogenizing

2

holding frame

11

Homogenisierungsmodul

12

casing

13

removable side panel

13a

hook

13b

Receiving opening for hooks

14

tobacco intake

15

handle

16

swiveling tobacco outlet

17

pivot

18

Axle bearing of the needle roller

19

Axle bearing of the bat roller

20

upper guide pin

21

lower guide pin

22

electric motor

23, 24

connection coupling

25

Drive shaft for needle roller

26

bevel gear

27

long drive shaft for racket roller

28

idler pulley

29

toothed belt

30

idler pulley

31

clamping element

32

runners role

33

short drive shaft for racket roller

34

bevel gear

35

gearbox

40

needle roller

41

needles

42, 43

Side wall

44

conical drive surface

45

axis

46

axle mount

50

Beater roller

51

milled club structure

52

conical drive surface

53

axis

54

axle mount

61

Tobacco intake port

62

Tabakauslasskanal

63

cover

64

full body

66

Needle roller chamber

67

Bat roller chamber

68

delivery channel

Claims (15)

1. Homogenising module (11) for a homogenising apparatus (1) of an apparatus of the tobacco processing industry for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning apparatus, characterised in that the homogenising module (11) comprises a combination of a needle roller (40) and a beater roller (50), wherein the needle roller (40) is disposed downstream of the conveying apparatus in order to receive tobacco material from the conveying apparatus and convey tobacco material to the beater roller (50), wherein the beater roller (50) is configured to throw tobacco material from the needle roller (40) in the direction of the portioning apparatus, wherein the homogenising module comprises a contamination or cleaning sensor.
2. Homogenising module (11) according to Claim 1, characterised in that a, in particular pivotable, tobacco outlet is provided, the outlet position of which can be variably fixed.
3. Homogenising module (11) according to Claim 1 or 2, characterised in that one common or two separate connection couplings (23, 24) for motor drives are provided for the needle roller (40) and the beater roller (50).
4. Homogenising module (11) according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, characterised in that a drive mechanism for the needle roller (40) and the beater roller (50) is provided with bevel gears (26, 34, 44, 52) and/or drive shafts (25, 27, 33) and/or belt transmission (28-32).
5. Homogenising module (11) according to any one of Claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the beater roller (50) comprises a milled beater structure (51), beater pins, beater spikes or beater studs.
6. Homogenising module (11) according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the needle roller (40) comprises side walls (42, 43) between which needles (41) are arranged.
7. Homogenising module (11) according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the needle roller (40) and the beater roller (50) are removably fitted onto axles (45, 53).
8. Homogenising apparatus (1) of an apparatus of the tobacco processing industry for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning apparatus, characterised in that said homogenising apparatus comprises a plurality of, in particular adjacently arranged, homogenising modules (11) according to any one of Claims 1 to 7.
9. Homogenising apparatus (1) according to Claim 8, characterised in that the plurality of homogenising modules (11) can be removed from the homogenising apparatus (1) and inserted into the homogenising apparatus (1) independently of one another.
10. Apparatus of the tobacco processing industry for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning apparatus, comprising a conveying apparatus, a homogenising apparatus (1) according to Claim 8 or 9, and a portioning apparatus.
11. Method for feeding ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% to a portioning apparatus, wherein ground or cut tobacco material is conveyed to a homogenising apparatus (1) according to Claim 8 or 9 having a plurality of homogenising modules (11) according to any one of Claims 1 to 7 by means of a conveying apparatus, wherein the tobacco material is homogenised in the homogenising modules (11) by means of a combination of one respective needle roller (40) and one respective beater roller (50), wherein the needle roller (40) receives tobacco material from the conveying apparatus with its needles (41) and conveys it on to the beater roller (50) and the beater roller (50) throws the tobacco material from the needles (41) of the needle roller (40) in the direction of a subsequent dosing unit of the portioning apparatus, wherein one or more homogenising modules (1) in need of cleaning are removed from the homogenising apparatus in order to be cleaned, wherein cleaning is initiated at specific maintenance intervals or in response to a signal of a cleaning sensor within the homogenising module, which detects a degree of contamination of the homogenising module or of individual components thereof, and upon which signal as a result of a high degree of contamination the homogenising module is removed and cleaned.
12. Method according to Claim 11, characterised in that the conveying of tobacco material is independently controlled in the homogenising modules (1), in particular as a function of a fill level of a pre-dosing chamber of a portioning apparatus dosing unit connected to the respective homogenising module (11).
13. Method according to Claim 11 or 12, characterised in that a removed homogenising module (11) is replaced with a clean homogenising module.
14. Method according to Claim 13, characterised in that removal takes place during the ongoing operation of the apparatus, wherein the portioning in a dosing unit connected to the removed homogenising module (11) is interrupted, in particular until a clean homogenising module (11) has been inserted in the position of the removed homogenising module (11).
15. Use of a homogenising apparatus (1) according to Claim 8 or 9 having a plurality of homogenising modules according to any one of Claims 1 to 7 for homogenising ground or cut tobacco material having a moisture content of at least 35% and for feeding to a plurality of dosing units of a multi-track portioning apparatus which are operated in parallel.

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