GB1115923A - Method and apparatus for testing the filling of the ends of tobacco articles - Google Patents

Abstract

1,115,923. Testing cigarettes. K. KÍRBER. 11 May, 1966 [11 May, 1965], No. 19815/65. Heading A2C. A method for checking the filling in the open ends of cigarettes, cigarillos, and similar rod-like tobacco articles, or filters, is characterized in that the filling is checked separately at several cross-sectional end regions. As shown in Fig. 1 the cigarettes to be tested are carried in grooves in a suction drum 4. Testing devices 14 and 38 are provided opposite guide plates 12 and 36 and faulty cigarettes are ejected by a blowing nozzle 48. The testing devices, as 14, comprise four feeler pins of which three, 16, 18 and 19, are shown. Each feeler tests a quadrant of the end of a cigarette and is supported by four springs 24 and one spring 26, the free ends of which are connected to a casing 22. The casing 22 is provided with a cam follower 25 so that it is reciprocated in the direction of the arrow 13 by a cam 29. As the casing 22 and feeler pins are moved against the end of the cigarette to be tested, in timed relationship to the step by step motion of the drum 4, movement of the feeler pins is resisted by the end of an unacceptable cigarette, the springs 26 are fixed and a plate 28 obstructs the light path of a photo-electric device, e.g. 30, 32. If the cigarette end is faulty the spring 26 is not flexed, the device as 30, 32 is not obstructed, and a rejection pulse is passed to an operating magnet 44 which, after a suitable time delay, operates a pneumatic valve 46 controlling the nozzle 48. The delay is four cycles in the case of the device 14 and two cycles in the case of the device 38. The drum 4 is mounted on a shaft 2 driven by a motor 140 which also drives the shaft 21 of the cam 29 and the shaft of the corresponding cam 20 for the device 38. The motor 140 also operates a cyclic signal source 141 which feeds pulses to a signal storage device 42. The device 42 includes "AND" gates which pass a rejection pulse to the magnet 44 only when a pulse is received from the source 141 (i.e. during testing only) and also from an unobstructed photo-electric device as 30, 32. The storage device 42 may include circuits for counting the number of cigarettes with faults in each particular segment, the total number of cigarettes tested, the number of acceptable cigarettes, and the number with faults in one, two, three or all segments respectively. Instead of being mounted on springs the feeler pins may be mounted for longitudinal movement within the core of a solenoid. In this case, Figs. 7 and 8 (not shown), the pins actuate contacts instead of photo-electric devices. In a further embodiment, Figs. 9 and 10 (not shown), the feeler consists of an insulated body having a number of electrodes therein which form individual measuring capacitors with the drum 4 and with a further drum, between which the cigarettes are held during testing, the drums forming the counter electrode.