GB1042505A - Improvements in or relating to continuous rod cigarette-making machines - Google Patents

Abstract

1,042,505. Cigarette-making machines. MOLINS ORGANISATION Ltd., and N. W. JACKSON. April 26, 1963 [April 27, 1962], No. 16212/62. Heading A2C. A tobacco manipulating machine in which a continuous filler is conveyed lengthwise on an air-pervious conveyer band through which air is passed to hold the filler thereto, sidewalls being provided which confine the filler laterially, comprises a plurality of rollers arranged along the conveyer for their peripheries to support the conveyer band against the force produced on the conveyer band by the air flowing therethrough. As shown the machine is similar to that described in Specification 1,041,553 tobacco being showered from a hopper 1 on to a tape 2 from which it is transferred to the underside of an air-pervious band 8 and held thereon by suction applied through a channel 14 by a suction chamber 12. The band is supported by rollers 29 each mounted on a spindle 30. The outer end of each spinde 30 carries a gear wheel 32 and between each of the gear wheels 32 an idler gear 33 is mounted. The spindle 30 of the roller 29 on the left as viewed in Fig. 1 is provided with a pulley 36 which is driven by belts 37 and 38 and further pulleys from a pulley 41 mounted on the driving roller 9 around which the band 8 passes. The band is prevented from lateral movement by a pulley 43 of V-section and by flanges on the roller 29 whose spindle has the pulley 36. Supporting rollers 29 may also be used in a machine of the kind in which the tobacco is sucked directly up a duct on to the underside of a perforated band. The rollers extend along a band above the duct. Such rollers may be driven by gears 32, 33 or may be of larger diameter and chain driven. In an alternative embodiment the rollers 29 are each provided with central circumferential channels.