GB361998A - Improvements in or relating to cigarette making machinery - Google Patents

Abstract

361,998. Cigarette-making machines. IMPERIAL TOBACCO CO. (OF GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND), Ltd., East Street, Bedminster, and COATES, A. F., Codrington Grange, Broadway Road, both in Bristol. Sept. 4, 1930, No. 26367. [Class 130.] In a continuous-rod machine, the stream or part of the stream of tobacco passing to the moving paper web is diverted by striking against a movable counterbalanced element, the deflections of which control the speed of the tobacco feeding mechanism. As shown in Fig. I, tobacco is removed from the carded roller 3 of a hopper 1 by a picker roller 5 and fed by a belt 6 to a spiked roller 7, a concave shield 54, and a picker roller 8, by which it is showered into a trough 10 leading to the paper web 11. The element 9, counterbalanced by a weight or a spring, is pivoted at 12 and provided with a contact 14 movable between fixed electric contacts 15, 16 connected to solenoids 18, 19 for controlling the drive of the carded feed roller 3. The latter is driven through bevel gearing 25, 27 from a shaft 24, which is connected to a shaft by coned pulleys 21, 23 and an adjustable belt controlled by a fork 48 adjusted by a screw shaft 46. The adjustment is effected by a toothed wheel 34 connected by bevel gearing to the shaft 46 and actuated from the shaft 20 by means of bevel gears 28, 29, a crank 30 and connecting rod 31, and an arm 32 carrying pawls 35, 36. These are normally held out of engagement with the toothed wheel 34 by arms 39, 40 connected to the plungers 41, 42 of the solenoids 18, 19. On the deflection of the element 9 and the actuation of one of the solenoids, the arm 39 or 40 is displaced and the pawl 35 or 36 drives the wheel 34 until the speed of the feed roller 3 is adjusted and the element 9 returns to its mid position. In modifications, the tobacco falls directly from the belt 6 on the counterbalanced element 9 ; the element 9 controls the speed of an electric motor that drives the tobacco feeding-mechanism ; the element 9 intercepts only a part of the tobacco stream, and the counterbalancing means, such as a spring, acting on the element 9, is adjustable by an element which may be controlled by variations in humidity. The element 9 may be damped by a, Jiuid dashpot. Fig. 3 shows a modification in which feed rollers 49, 50 are employed in place of belts and the tobacco stream impinges on a baffle 52 before encountering the counterbalanced element 9. The provisional Specification states also that the movable counterbalanced element may actuate means for adjusting the speed of the moving paper web on which the tobacco is deposited ; or the element may actuate an indicating device to enable the operator to adjust the speed of the tobacco feeding-mechanism or of the moving paper web in accordance with the indicator readings. It is also stated that the operation of the electric circuits may be effected by beams of light acting on photo-electric cells or other light-sensitive elements.