GB462748A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

462.748. Cigarette-making machines. WIX, A. Aug. 15, 1935, No. 23018. [Class 130] Cigarettes and stubs are assembled in abutting groups by or during axial movement of the cigarettes, and the groups are conveyed to means, operating while the groups are stationary or moving non-axially, which apply a uniting band or bands around the elements of the group, or a wrapping enveloping the assemblage. The assembly of the stubs in axial alignment with the cigarettes may be effected by accelerating cigarettes from a continuous stream emanating from a continuous-rod machine or hopper to form spaces for the insertion of stubs, or by diverting alternate cigarettes into separate streams to provide spaces into which stubs are inserted before the lengths are butted by decelerating the parallel streams. As shown in Fig. 1, a group of two cigarettes 1 and a double-length stub‹ 2a is accelerated from a moving stream of cigarettes and stubs by projecting parts 4f, 5f of belts 4, 5 and fed into fixed or rotatable supports 7, where the group is held stationary or rotated during the application of a uniting band as described in Specification 424,491. After feeding one group, the belts 4, 5 are moved apart by a toggle linkage 4e, 5e operated by a cam 6a until the projecting parts 4f, 5f are in a position to engage the next group. The united group is fed axially by bringing rollers 9, 9a into contact with the cigarettes and is positioned against a stop 11 by the feeding of the next group. To ensure that the groups abut and that the united group abuts against the stop 11, a pivoted finger 12 engages behind the group to be united. The cigarettes are bisected by a cutter 13 and carried away by a belt 14. In a modified construction, the accelerated groups are fed axially into grooves in an intermittently rotated drum and located against an end-plate by the finger 12 ; the groups are transferred laterally and united to bands carried by a suction drum by rolling as described in Specification 457,033. In the construction shown in Fig. 5, the groups are accelerated by projecting parts 4f, 5f of belts 4, 5, which are intermittently separated by a cam 36, and successive accelerated groups are fed into different flutes 37b, 37c in an oscillating member 37 and moved into engagement with an end stop 38 by a pivoted finger 12. When one flute is in alignment with the group being accelerated by the belts 4, 5, the group in the other flute is being transferred to grooves in a drum 39 or 40 which feeds the group laterally to uniting mechanism. In the construction shown in Fig. 2, double-length cigarettes 1a fed through a guide 15 are successively accelerated by pairs of belts 17b, 18b carried by an oscillating member 16 and divided into two streams, which pass through bores containing double-length stubs 2a in drums 21, 21a. In each stream the cigarettes are completely withdrawn from the drum by a roller 24 co-operating with a belt 23. A band 23 unites the group, consisting of a double-length stub and cigarette, to the preceding group to form a continuous rod. To ensure that the groups abut, a finger 25 carried by a camactuated slide 26 moves the front end of the rod into contact with a stop 31. After the band has been applied, cigarettes are severed from the rod by cutters 29, 30 and delivered on to a band 14a. In another modified construction, a pivoted deflector alternately moves groups, consisting of several double-length cigarettes and double-length stubs, into parallel paths on a table, and in each path a continuous rod is formed by applying several uniting bands around the cigarettes and the stubs, one of which unites the group to the preceding group in the same path. To ensure that the groups abut, a pivoted finger moves the front end of the rod into engagement with a stop. While the bands are being applied, cigarettes are severed from the rod by cutters and fed by movable guides through a central slot in the table. The stubs may consist of wrapped or unwrapped filter wads or mouthpiece insertions, or of tubes which may be empty or filled or partly filled with filtering or non-filtering material and/or tobacco of a different kind from that in the cigarette. Specification 435,755 also is referred to.