GB446863A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of cigarettes having mouthpiece inserts or filter tips - Google Patents

Abstract

446,863. Cigarette - making machines. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO., 511, 5th Avenue, New York, U.S.A. May 16, 1935, No. 14330. Convention date, Jan. 24. [Class 130] Mouthpiece inserts or filter tips are fed at spaced intervals into a continuously moving filler trough and carried beneath a tobacco feeding mechanism which showers tobacco into the spaces between the inserts, to form a continuous composite mouthpiece and tobacco filler. Mouthpiece material M1, such as rolledup crepe tissue paper or cotton or wool of circular cross-section which may be treated chemically to provide medicated plugs, is drawn over a guide 31, Fig. 1, from a coil M2, by feeding belts 30, 30a and double-length plugs M are severed therefrom by a cutting device 29. The plugs are separated by belts 28 running at a greater speed than the belts 30, 30a and each plug is forced into a groove 135 in a rotating disc 27, Fig. 6, against one of a pair of diametrically opposed spring- pressed plungers 136, 136a by a plate 144 carried by eccentrically mounted pins 143 on gear-wheels 142. Simultaneously, an arm 146 carried by the plate 144 moves a slide 140 to force the other plunger 136a or 136 outwards and deliver the preceding plug M into a groove 107 in a wheel 16 which has the same linear speed as the disc 27. A guard 150 prevents the plugs from falling out of the groove 135 while the disc 27 rotates, and an abutment on the guard extends between the belts 28 to stop the longitudinal movement of each plug M while the plate 144 pushes it into the groove 135. While held by the plunger on a tape 20 in the groove 107 each plug is gripped by clamps 117, Fig. 3, which are closed by means of a cam roller 125 and a rod 121. As the plunger releases the plug a roller 148, Fig. 1, presses it into the groove 107. A scoopshaped receptacle 108, Fig. 3, is next moved over the plug by a cam roller 115 and an arm 114 and the gaps between adjacent receptacles, which are to receive a double-length tobacco filling, are closed' by shutters 126, Fig. 4, moved inwardly by cam rollers 133 and rods 131. While passing under a tobacco feed mechanism 32, a shower of tobacco T2 falls down a shoot 33 and fills the gaps between the plugs which are shielded by the receptacles 108. To prevent tobacco escaping when the gaps between the plugs are entering the shoot, a guard 35 is provided. A rotating wheel 34 throws back tobacco from the exit end of the shoot to prevent jamming. As the wheel 16 emerges from the shoot the receptacles 108 are swung outwardly by the cam rollers 115 and discharge the tobacco deposited on them into a conduit 43, from which it is drawn through a pipe 44 by a blower 45 and returned to the tobacco mass T1 in the feeding mechanism. The cam rollers 133 then move the shutters 126 outwardly and a guard 36, which extends to a roller 24 over which the paper web P is fed by a tape 25, retains the tobacco on the tape 20 where it is compressed while passing beneath a rotating wheel 37 which passes through a slot in the guard. The paper web P is drawn from a roll P1, printed by a die 38a and receives at points two cigarette lengths apart, patches of paste from a roller 40 on to which the plugs are pressed while the rod is compressed between the tapes 20, 25. If desired, double-length strips of cork or other tipping material are severed by a knife 154 from a web K1 drawn from a reel K2 and pressed by feed rollers 79, 151 on to portions of the paper web P which have been coated with adhesive by a roller 155. The cam rollers 125 open the clamps 117 just before the tapes 20, 25 carry the rod away from the wheel 16 and deposit on a belt 47 which carry it beneath a suction chamber 54 which revolves in a housing 54a and is timed so that it registers with an aperture in the housing 54a as the plugs pass beneath it to remove any tobacco shreds which may have lodged on the plugs. The belt 54 conveys the rod along an upwardly inclined path through a rod-forming tube 56 and past pasting and sealing devices 57, 58 to a cutter 60 and the cigarettes C are separated by belts 61, 62 running at a higher speed than the belt 47 and delivered to a collecting mechanism 63. The machine is driven by a motor 65 and the drive is controlled by a starting clutch-lever 105. A hand - wheel 106 is provided for manually operating the machine to adjust and time the various mechanisms and the moving parts on the wheel 16 are covered by an annular guard 134, Figs. 3 and 4. If desired, the mouthpiece plugs may be delivered to the plate 144 from a hopper.