GB299736A - Improvements in cigarette making machinery - Google Patents

Abstract

299,736. Imperial Tobacco Co. (of Great Britain & Ireland), Ltd., and Coates, A., F. June 27, 1927. Cigarette-making machines. - In a cut-off mechanism for severing a continuously moving cigarette-rod into lengths, a knife, or a carrier for a rotary knife, is given a bodily movement in a plane inclined to the cigarette rod but is prevented from having any rotary movement. In one form, Figs. 1 and 2, the knife 30 is mounted on a coupling element 14 connecting crank arms 10, 11 on two rotating cranked shafts 6, 7 which are out of square with the knife. The knife is clamped to an extension piece 27 adjustably secured to a stud 26 on the element 14, so that the knife can be set square with the cigarette rod. The shafts 6, 7 rotate in bearings 8, 9 in the vertical portion 5 of a frame 3 mounted on the bed-plate 2 and adjustable about the driving- shaft 1 in order to provide for cutting cigarettes of different lengths. The cigarette rod 48 passes through guides 32, 33 on a ledger element 31 sliding on horizontal bars 35 and reciprocated from the shaft 1 by means of a crank disc 41 and connecting-rod 40. Grinding discs 45, 46 are loosely mounted on the element 31 and act on opposite sides of the knife. The bearing 47 for the grinding disc 46 can be adjusted about a vertical axis. In a modification, Fig. 5, a rotary knife 61 is carried bv an arm 57 having a forked end pivotally secured to a vertical axle 51 on the coupling element 14. The knife is driven by a belt 67 passing over a pulley 62 on the knife spindle 50 and a, pulley 63 driven by a gear wheel 64 rotatable on the coupling element 14 and meshing with a stationary gear wheel 65. The belt passes over jockey rollers 55 on an axle 54 carried by arms 52 on the axle 51. In a further form, the plate 5, in which are mounted the cranked shafts 6, 7, is fixed to the bed-plata, and the coupling element 14 has an extension 70, Fig. 10, at right angles to the cigarette rod. A bearing for the spindle 60 of the rotary knife 61 is adjustable in a slot 71 in the extension 70. This adjustment causes the cutting to take place at a different part of the circular movement of the coupling element 14, and the cutting preferably takes place at a time when the speed of the knife in the direction of the cigarette rod is increasing. Means may be provided for adjusting the axis of the knife in a direction transverse to the slot 71 in order to compensate for wear. The knife is driven by a belt passing over a pulley on one of the cranked shafts and over jockey rollers on the coupling element 14. A non-circular rotary knife, for instance a radial knife secured to the spindle 60, may be employed, the belt drive being replaced by positive gearing. The Provisional Specification states also that a ledger plate may be constituted by an endless chain, the links of which are grooved to support the cigarette rod and slotted for the passage of the knife, sharpening means for the knife being provided by a continuation of the walls of the slots.