GB1256470A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,256,470. Testing cigarettes. R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO CO. 28 Aug., 1970 [10 Sept., 1969], No. 41422/70. Heading A2C. In an apparatus for inspecting the ends of cigarettes, the cigarettes 1 are conveyed in individual holders through a station where the ends of the cigarettes 1 are inspected for defects by a probe 23 mounted on one end of a pneumatically actuated piston 21. The cigarettes 1 are fed from a drum 2, between guide rails 3, and into individual holders comprising matching grooves 20 formed in two annular flanges 19a, 19b of a rotating inspection drum 4. The drum 4 carries the cigarettes 1 through an inspection zone A and thence onto a conveyer chain 5. The drum 4 includes a plurality of chambers 22 each having an opening adjacent the end of a cigarette 1 held in an individual holder, and each housing a piston 21. In the inspection zone A, a predetermined pneumatic pressure is applied from a source 28, via a chamber 16 in a stationary ring 11 and a port 10a in a bearing ring 10, to end 22b of the chamber 22 so as to act on the face of the piston 21 and move it to the left until the probe 23 engages the near end of the cigarette 1 in the respective holder, the left end of the cigarette 1 having been aligned by a guide rail 24. Where the cigarette 1 has a texturally loose end, the probe 23 will penetrate the end and cause the piston 21 to move further to the left than it would with a normal cigarette and so uncover a slot 25. The uncovering of this slot in the chamber 22 allows the testing air to pass therefrom, via a passage 9c, and port 10c and a chamber 17, to a memory system 27. Following inspection, the end 22a of the chamber 22 is vented to atmosphere by connection to a chamber 18a and pneumatic pressure is applied to the other end of the chamber 22, via passages 9a, 9b, a port 10b and a chamber 18, to return the piston 21 to its original position. The memory system 27 (Figs. 3, 4 not shown) which includes a rejection system, comprises; a plurality of pneumatic indicator valves (39) contained in chambers (38) in a rotatable memory drum (30) and corresponding in number to the inspecting pistons 21; each valve (39) being displaceable by the release of testing air by its corresponding inspecting piston 21 on detection of a defective cigarette, and the valves (39) allowing in their displaced position, after a further predetermined rotation of the drum (30), a reject air pressure to be applied to a nozzle (48) to reject the corresponding defective cigarette when it reaches a preset position during its travel on the conveyer chain 5. The displaced valves (39) are subsequently pneumatically returned to their original positions. The memory drum (30) may form part of the inspection drum 4, or may be a separate drum rotating in synchronism with the drum 4.