GB496729A - Improvements in or relating to treatment of cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

496,729. Feeding cigarettes. BEST, C., and MOLINS MACHINE CO., Ltd. June 3, 1937, No. 15416. [Class 117] [Also in Group VI] A device for compressing the tobacco at the ends of cigarettes and for rejecting defective cigarettes comprises a pair of presser elements yieldingly mounted to move inwardly towards each other, means to deliver cigarettes one at a time between the presser elements, and means to arrest the inward movement of the presser elements after they have moved a predetermined distance. The presser elements may be heated to facilitate their compressing action, for example by contact with a heating surface at some point during their rotation. Cigarettes in a hopper 6 are agitated by a plate 9 actuated from a cam 13 and are fed one at a time into flutes 7 in a rotatable carrier 8 ; or the flutes 7 may receive cigarettes delivered directly from a continuous-rod machine. The cigarettes pass beneath a spring steel band 16 similar to that described in Specification 496,413, [Group VI]. The ends of each cigarette are engaged by presser elements 19 carried by arms 20 pivoted at 21 on the carrier 8 and connected by a spring 22, so that tail pieces 24 engage stationary cams 23. An adjustable stop 25 on each arm 20 engages the side face of the carrier 8 to limit the inward movement of the presser. In order to test the cigarettes for ends that are too soft, feelers 26 slidable in the presser elements 19 pass between thin spring plates 27. Normally the feelers engage a plate 48 and cause a pivoted carrier 43 to break the circuit of a solenoid 33 ; on the passage of a soft-ended cigarette, the feeler will not turn the carrier 43 and the solenoid actuates an arm 34 to interpose projections 29 on a plate 28 into the path of the cigarette, which is diverted and rolls down a plate 57. The projections 29 are retained in position by a D-shaped element 51 until the defective cigarette has been delivered. Normal cigarettes are retained in the flutes by a shield 5 until a discharge point is reached. Specification 386,417 also is referred to.