GB587210A - Improvements in or relating to cigarette making machines and other like machines - Google Patents

Abstract

587,210. Weighing-apparatus. MOLINS, D. W., and MOLINS MACHINE CO., Ltd. Dec. 12, 1944, No. 24880. [Class 143] [Also in Groups VI, XXIV and XXXV] A cigarette - making machine having an electric apparatus for checking or controlling the feed of the tobacco, has also a weighing device adapted to weigh selected cigarettes, or batches of cigarettes, to provide an overriding control of the machine. In a continuous - rod machine, Fig. 1, cigarettes are delivered to an endless band 14 by two deflectors 13, the right hand one being adapted to abstract cigarettes and deliver them to a scale pan 15, Fig. 6. The cigarettes 140 are held against blades 17 by a steel band 18 fixed at 19 and passing over a guide 20. A selector 23 pivoted at 24 to the rotating deflector 13 is moved by the engagement of a cam roller 25 with a cam 31 rotated at half speed by gearing 28, 29. By this means one cigarette in ten is lifted over the guide 20 and deposited in the scale pan 15, the fall being steadied by a pivoted flap 32. As the other deflector has no selecting means one cigarette in forty is extracted for weighing. This part of the apparatus is described in greater detail in Specifications 425,700 and 496,413. The device may be adapted to weigh batches of cigarettes by providing a cam-tripped door to the scale pan as described in Specification 421,551, [Group VI]. The number of cigarettes selected may be adjusted by altering the gear ratio and the selector may be duplicated to remove two cigarettes per revolution. The weighing apparatus is described in detail in Specification 420,755. As shown a beam 33, Fig. 3, carries a plate 34 having stepped edges which are engaged by two knife-edged devices 35, 36. When the beam is tilted one of these comes to rest on the stepped part of the plate and this causes a lever 38 to tilt a mercury switch 40, Fig. 4, and thus close a circuit, the lever 38 being held by pawl 41 until released by the operation of a cam 44 which also lifts the knife-edged devices 35, 36 ready for the next weighing operation. The speed-regulating device, also described more fully in Specification 420,755, comprises a pair of solenoids one of which is energized when one of the mercury switches closes to engage a reciprocating pawl with a ratchet wheel and so to rotate a shaft 51 Fig. 1, in one direction or the other. The tobacco-feeding mechanism is described in Specification 440,182, [Group VI]. The electrical apparatus for checking the feed of the tobacco comprises a pair of condenser plates between which the stream of tobacco passes. The plates are connected to a source of high-frequency current, and the change in capacity due to a varying quantity of tobacco causes rotation of a shaft 76 through a pair of relays and solenoids and pawls as described above. The condenser plates 71 are arranged at a point where tobacco moving on a faster moving tape 2 is compacted on to a tobacco rod moving on a slower moving tape 7. Rotation of shafts 51, 76, causes expansion or contraction of a drive pulley comprising opposed cone wheels 61, 62 and spring pressed segments 63. Sprocket chains 57, 78 rotate threaded bushes independently, but possibly also simultaneously, and move the cone wheel 61. The position of the condenser plate 71 is also adjusted by the shaft 51 through a grooved nut 84 which, through a lever 85 and a link 88, moves a parallel linkage, and thus the plate 71 in a straight line. The plates are placed behind inserts of di-electric material. By disconnecting the chain 57, the weighing apparatus will control the speed of the machine indirectly through movement of the condenser plate 71. Specification 422,789 also is referred to in the Provisional Specification.