GB1253133A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,253,133. Testing cigarettes. HAUNIWERKE KORBER & CO. K.G. 20 March, 1969 [25 June, 1968], No. 14649/69. Heading A2C. In an apparatus for detecting faults in cigarettes or other rod-like articles having an outer wrapper and a permeable filling by passing a testing air current through them whilst they are being transported in a direction perpendicular to their longitudinal axes, the ends of the articles are engaged by sealing means which at at least one end is self-aligning by engagement with said end(s) of the articles. The invention is particularly applicable to the obtaining of a good seal to the filter end of a filter cigarette when the end face thereof is not precisely perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the cigarette. The apparatus used is basically similar in construction and operation to that disclosed in Specification 1,187,262 for the testing of double length cigarettes, but it makes use of a narrower drum 1 to accommodate single length cigarettes C and bears modified sealing means. In one embodiment, Fig. 1, the displaceable tubular connector 18 of the said Specification is provided with a short tubular extension to which a rigid concave-surfaced sealing member 42 is attached by means of a flexible tube 41. In a modification of this embodiment, Fig. 2, a connector member 48 (corresponding to member 18) is extended by a guide portion 49 having a ball member at its forward end about which a sealing member 47 can pivot freely. A flexible tube 46 connects the members 47, 48. In further embodiments (Figs. 3-5 not shown), longitudinally-resilient advancement of the connector member 18 and the provision of the flexibly mounted sealing member 42 are replaced by rigid advancement of the member 18 and by sealing members disposed in depressions in the flange 6 connecting with bores 11. In one form, centrally bored sealing members (92) are centrally mounted in individual diaphrams (91) which are clamped around their circumferences in depressions (101). In another form, the sealing members (112) are supported by a single ring-shaped diaphram (111), each member (112) being connected by a flexible tube (115) with a bore (116) corresponding to the bores 11. Optionally, the sealing member (112) may carry a soft elastic ring (113) on its sealing surface.