GB1208282A - The "pressure drop" testing of cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

1,208,282. Testing cigarettes. AMF Inc. 28 May, 1968 [30 May, 1967], No. 24917/67. Heading A2C. In an apparatus for testing cigarettes for air leaks and/or defective filling, two side by side rows of single-length filter cigarettes 146 are fed from a transfer drum 144 into concave recesses of disc-shaped walls 66, 68, 70 and 82, 84, 86 mounted on cylindrical hubs (64, 80) respectively of two sections 30, (32) of a double testing drum, and are sealingly engaged at their filter ends for testing by a suction method; detected faulty cigarettes being subsequently ejected, while being transported through that segment of the drum's rotation lying between shrouds 150, 152, before the satisfactory cigarettes are discharged on to a conveyer belt 148. The cigarettes are held on the drum sections 30, (32) in the space lying between the shrouds 150, 152 by suction applied through four tubes 158. Each tube 158 includes a smaller tube 160 positioned within it for the application of an air blast to eject faulty cigarettes. Referring to the drum section 30, the cigarettes, after loading thereon, are contacted at their tobacco ends by pins (136) mounted on cam actuated members 120 and shifted axially to sealingly engage their filter ends with tapered bores 108 formed in a sealing ring 94. Alternate ones of the bores 108 communicate directly with openings 110 in the sealing ring 94 and the remaining bores 108 communicate with radially off-set openings 112. The openings 110, 112 communicate with arcuate recesses 114, 116 respectively when passing through the testing segment of the drum's rotation. The recesses 114, 116 are each connected to a separate pre-set testing suction supply and to a separate aneroid bellows switch (220). Actuation of either switch (220) by the pressure change caused by the presence of a faulty cigarette in the testing segment, in conjunction with a rotary control switch and memory control circuit, subsequently admits compressed air to the tube 160 to eject the faulty cigarette when it reaches the ejection segment. The ejecting air blast through the tube 160 may be replaced by a pneumatically actuated mechanical ejection system (320). Immediately prior to their reaching the ejection segment, the cigarettes are axially shifted out of engagement with the tapered bores 108 by an air blast fed to openings 200 in the sealing ring 94. The testing of the cigarettes on the other drum section (32) is effected in the same manner.