GB1229808A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,229,808. Storage container. SERVICE D'EXPLOITATION INDUSTRIELLE DES TABACS ET DES ALLUMETTES. 29 March, 1968 [29 March, 1967], No. 15155/68. Heading B8C. A container having a base and three or more side walls extending from the base, is filled with rod-like objects, e.g. cigarettes, by introducing the objects into the container whilst the latter is inverted with the base uppermost and horizontal and providing means for preventing the objects from escaping from the container under gravity whilst the container is in the inverted position. In one embodiment, Fig. 7, an endless conveyer 55, carries cigarettes to a rotating wheel 26 having spring loaded blades 28 which are forced outwardly by cam 29 to engage and push the cigarettes up a shoot 27. The cigarettes enter the inverted open-topped container 9 by pushing blades 18 aside which fall back to prevent the cigarettes re-entering the shoot. Photo-cells 33 detect when the container is full whereupon the support 6 pivots about an axis 1 to deposit the container on an intermittently movable conveyer. A stop (21), Fig. 8 (not shown), disengages a spring loaded angle iron (25) to release the container from the support. The container touches a detector to cause the conveyer to advance and replace the filled container by an empty one. This contacts a switch to cause the support and angle iron to invert the new container ready for filling. In another embodiment, Fig. 1, cigarettes are fed along a shoot 27 to a reciprocating pusher 8 beneath the container support. When the filled container is pivoted a stop 44 prevents the support 6 from pivoting fully with the container. In further embodiments a lid may be fixed to the container. The container 9, Fig. 10, is tilted and emptied by a pusher 36 engaging a stop 35 to pivot a spring loaded lid so as to open it at its lowest side. In another embodiment a sliding lid, Fig. 19 (not shown), is opened by a rail (54) engaging a hook (57) and pulling against the bias of a spring (56). The lid, Fig. 21, may have two apertures 16a, 16b and an oscillating pusher 66 pushing cigarettes alternately through each aperture. In a further embodiment, Fig. 16 (not shown), full containers are emptied at a station (A) of a machine for processing the objects which are then fed to a filling station (B) which may incorporate any of the filling devices referred to above. In a still further embodiment, Fig. 24 (not shown), a pair of lids (6a), (6b) are operated alternately to place rows of objects into the container (9) from a conveyer 46.