GB1209898A - Improvements in apparatus for feeding rod-like articles - Google Patents

Abstract

1,209,898. Pneumatic conveyers. MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. 21 Dec., 1967 [23 Dec., 1966; 28 Feb., 1967; 14 April, 1967], Nos. 57611/66, 9503/67 and 17364/67. Heading B8A. Figs. 2, 3 show apparatus for feeding rod-like articles such as plugs P of cigarette filter material comprising a hopper 3 serving a bank of plug guns 1, Fig. 1 (not shown), each plug gun 1 being fed with a single stack of plugs P by vertical extensions 59 of guides 14. A delivery rotor 9 and a discharge rotor 10 are mounted in bearings 11, 12 in gun block 2 for continuous rotation together about a common axis. The delivery rotor 9 receives the plugs P in eight flutes 13 each of which is successively moved past an air jet 16 whereupon the plug P therein is blown along the flute to the discharge rotor 10. A side wall 19 of housing 8 holds the plugs P in the flutes 13 for part of the travel of the delivery rotor 9 but below the rotor 9 the housing 8 and the gun block 2 are open so that rejected plugs P can drop away. The discharge rotor 10 comprises eight tubes 21 each of which is aligned with a flute 13. A buffer spring 27 secured to the housing 8 lies across the end of the lower part of the rotor 10 to contain the plugs P in the tubes 21. Each tube 21 has a bump 28 to slow the plugs down. A gap between the adjacent ends of the rotors 9, 10 accommodates an inlet 51 for a compressed air supply in position in line with the tubes 21 during the upper part of their travel. Stationary feed pipe 4 and the air inlet 51 are in line, a coupling member 32 with a laterally enlarged aperture guiding plugs P from the tube 21 into the pipe 4. If a plug P fails to enter its tube 21 properly or rebounds from the spring 27 out of the tube a photoelectric detector 36 is actuated, the rotors 9, 10 are stopped with the tube 21 containing the jammed plug P in line with a spring-loaded plunger 41 and compressed air is applied from a pipe 41 to eject the jammed plug P out through the opening in the housing 8. Fig. 7 shows an embodiment wherein the air jet 16 is replaced by a launching drum 46 having a plurality of spring-loaded studs 47 depressed by rotation under a cam 48 and released in line with the end of a plug P to flick it from the delivery rotor 9 to the discharge rotor 10. Figs. 10, 11 show an embodiment wherein plugs 102 from a magazine 101 are fed from flutes 112 on a delivery rotor 105 to chambers 113 in a discharge rotor 106 and from the chambers 113 into a barrel 103 by air admitted from a port 104 to an inlet 120 in line with the barrel 103.