GB359314A - Improvements in automatic cigarette stacker - Google Patents

Abstract

359,314. Cigarette-making machines. TRIGGS, W. W., 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.-(American Machine & Foundry Co.; 511, 5th Avenue, New York, U.S.A.) Jan. 3, 1931, No. 305. [Class 130.] Cigarettes are received from the cigarette machine and are stacked in layers in trays for transfer to a packing machine. The cigarettes C, Fig. 1, arrive on a belt 10 from the machine, being guided by rails 11 on to a cross belt 13 which advances them transversely between rails 12 to parallel bars 14 so arranged that imperfect cigarettes will fall into a receptacle 15. Spaced carrier bands 16 forward the remainder beneath a brush 17 which aligns them, over a bridge plate 18 and on to a belt 19, top guides 20, 21 preventing riding up. When sufficient to form a layer have passed on to the belt 19, a finger 22 arrests the stream, and a plunger 26, Figs. 2 and 4, transfers the layer into a tray T. The forward end of the plunger is formed with an overhanging lip to prevent premature tilting. The trays are supported by projecting links 36 on chains 34,35 which are traversed downwards a distance equal to the thickness of one layer of cigarettes for each stroke of the plunger 26. When a tray is filled, the next tray is brought downwards a distance equal to the space between the top layer of the full tray and the bottom layer of the next to be filled. This is effected by the engagement of a dog 48 on the tray supports with a trip lever which operates a clutch to drive the sprocket shafts of the chains 34, 35, the requisite distance at high speed. A conveyer may be arranged at the bottom of the chains 34, 35 to transfer the filled trays to the magazine of the packing machine.