GB1038764A - Improvements in or relating to a method of and apparatus for filling rod-like articles (e.g. cigarettes) into a container - Google Patents

Abstract

1,038,764. Packaging cigarettes or the like. MOLINS ORGANISATION Ltd., D. W. MOLINS, and H. A. STONE. Feb. 19, 1963 [Feb. 20, 1962], No. 6572/62. Heading B8C. Apparatus for transferring the bottom row of a stack of rod-like articles on to the top row of an adjacent stack at a lower level comprises support means on which the bottom row rests, pusher means to push the bottom row in the direction of the axes of the articles and resilient means to apply to the trailing ends of the articles being transferred, a downward force so as to prevent their tilting prior to falling on to the second stack. The apparatus is particularly applicable to tipped cigarettes with which tilting might cause the leading ends of the moving cigarettes to engage the ridge due to the tips of the cigarettes in the second stack. Cigarettes in a hopper 1 pass between pairs of vanes 5 and agitators 2, 4 and are restrained from endwise movement by members 6, 7, both of which stop short of the cigarettes in the bottom two rows of the so-formed stack. The cigarettes C, in the bottom row rest between flutes 13b in a support plate 13 and the cigarettes C 2 in the row above rest on the flutes and both rows are moved through the resilient means by a pusher 8. The cigarettes in the hopper then rest on the pusher and at the same time the plate 13 is moved so that another two rows of cigarettes are formed in the same positions as before after the pusher has moved back to its original position. The plate 13 is then also moved back to its original position. The resilient means comprises three flexible polyvinyl chloride strips 10, 11, 12, strip 11 being thicker and less flexible than the other two. As the cigarettes are pushed through the means, strip 12 bends, the bending being localized by the action of strip 11 against strip 12 and grips the moving cigarettes, thus keeping them horizontal. Strip 10 also bends and exerts a downward force on the trailing ends of the articles as they are discharged to cause closer nesting in the second stack. The second stack is formed in an open-sided container 15 which is lowered in increments by a support 16. A hinged door 18 permits the contents to be removed and a plate 19 mounted on the door locates the incoming cigarettes endwise.