GB839162A - Improvements in and relating to automatic inspection and rejection apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

839,162. Packaging-machines. INDUSTRIAL NUCLEONICS CORPORATION. May 29, 1958 [Dec. 5, 1957], No. 17234/58. Class 94(1). [Also in Group XL(b)] In a production line comprising means for assembling, conveying and packaging groups of items, an inspection apparatus comprising a plurality of photo-electric detectors produces an aggregate signal which in the event of a defective group produces a reject signal which is applied to means for rejecting the defective group. In Fig. 1, filter tipped cigarettes are assembled in a vertical stack 12 in a hopper 10 the bottom of which is cut away to expose the ends of the cigarettes nominally containing filter plugs. The ends of the cigarettes in the third and fourth rows from the bottom of the stack 12 are illuminated by a light source 46, Fig. 2, and the light reflected from each individual cigarette is directed on to a corresponding one of a plurality of photocells 48 in a detector head 42. An intermittently driven conveyer 14 is provided with cleats 16 each of which removes two horizontal rows of cigarettes from the bottom of the stack 12 and delivers them to a wrapping unit 20 from which the wrapped groups of cigarettes are transferred into partially formed boxes 26 travelling on an intermittently driven conveyer 24 from a box-forming or box unfolding mechanism 28 to a sealer machine 36 which closes and seals the boxes. A second further hopper 10, conveyer 14 and wrapping unit 20, deliver a second wrapped group of cigarettes to each box as it proceeds towards the sealer machine 36. If a filter plug is missing from one or more of the cigarettes viewed by the detector head 42 no light is reflected to the corresponding photo-cell or photo-cells. The signals produced by the photocells in the detector head are combined by a circuit in a unit 62 which produces a reject signal when one or more filter plugs is missing. The reject signal is transmitted to a solenoid 70 which displaces a plunger 76 in a memory drum 72 which rotates in step with the movement of the conveyers 14, 24. On further rotation of the drum 72 the displaced plunger 76 actuates a switch 84 which may be connected to operate any type of rejection means, or as described, is connected to the box former 28 so as to withhold the delivery of a box to the conveyer 24 so that the wrapped group of cigarettes with the missing filter plug proceeds unboxed on the conveyer 24 for subsequent removal before or after passing through the sealer unit 36. In order to avoid ambiguous signal from the photo-cells a switch 66 is provided for disabling the operation of the photocells and associated circuits except when the conveyer 14 and cigarettes in the stack 12 are at rest. The invention is applicable to the packaging of products other than cigarettes.