GB1036889A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of wrapped rods - Google Patents

Abstract

1,036,889. Cigarette-making machines. D. T. N. WILLIAMSON and MOLINS ORGANISATION Ltd. July 5, 1963 [July 6, 1962; Jan. 14, 1963], Nos. 26111/62 and 588/63. Heading A2C. The wrappers of cigarettes are tested by sealing of the exterior of the wrapper from the unwrapped ends of a cigarette and applying suction to the sealed off exterior part of the wrapper. The cigarettes C (Figs. 1 and 2) are conveyed in flutes 3 of a band 1, the flutes being provided with pads 4 which co-operate during testing with pads 9 in flutes 8 of a drum 6. The pads 4 and 9 seal off the exterior of the wrapper from the ends of the cigarette and a chamber 19 is thus formed between the pads, the drum 6 and the band 1 to which suction is applied through holes 10 and 11 in the drum 6. The holes 11 cooperate during testing, with slots 16 in a stationary carbon ring 14, the slot 16 being connected to a suction source via a pipe 19a. Should the wrapper be faulty air is sucked in through the open ends of the cigarette being tested to alter the capacity of capacitors comprising fixed plates 20 and movable plates 21. The change in capacity is utilized to operate rejecting mechanism. In a second embodiment (Figs. 3 and 4) the cigarettes C are held between flutes 31 in a band 30 and flutes 34 in a drum 33. A band 30 and a drum 33 are provided with co-operating parts 35 and 41, 37 and 43, 38 and 44, 39 and 45, 40 and 46, and 36 and 42 respectively, so that the cigarette is held against the end parts 36 and 42 and chambers 48 and 47 are formed at one end of and around the cigarette. Suction is applied to the chamber 47 by a pipe 63 via holes 50 and 51. The chamber 48 is connected by holes 53 and 54, slot 60 in a carbon rings 57 and pipes 64 and 66, to a detector device 67. Any pressure drop arising in the chamber 48 as a result of a faulty wrapper is thus detected by the device 67 and transformed into an electrical signal for operating a rejecting device. The rejecting device may comprise a secondary suction drum to which suction is selectively applied under the control of the detector device so that faulty cigarettes are taken by the secondary drum (Figs. 5, 6 and 7, not shown). Alternatively the detector device may cause selective operation of a blower device operating to blow faulty cigarettes from a line of delivered cigarettes on a conveyer (Fig. 8, not shown).