GB900387A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for collecting or arranging cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

900,387. Cigarette - making machines. ROWLANDS, T., and MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. Aug. 26, 1958 [Aug. 29, 1957; Sept. 6, 1957], Nos. 27242/57 and 28192/57. Class 130. A device for turning a row of cigarettes comprises feeding means to feed the cigarettes sideways and a rotatable member with a plurality of angularly disposed cigaretteholding devices arranged to receive the cigarettes one at a time and carry them in overlapping relationship generally lengthwise in an arcuate path about the axis of the member so as to reverse theirorientation. In Figs. 1 and 2 a double row of cigarettes, formed by bisecting cigarette and mouth-piece assemblages on a grooved drum 1, are transferred to a roller 5, which cooperates with a plate 6 to restore the mouthpieces to circular shape, and then on to chains 11 with cigarette receiving recesses which deliver the cigarettes to a turning station at which one row of cigarettes proceeds directly on to a catcher band 16 whilst the second row is turned through 180 degrees by a transfer member 18 before delivery on to a catcher band 17. The transfer member 18 comprises a rotating disc with inclined cigarette receiving grooves 24 provided with suction passages 25 connected at appropriate periods in the rotation to a suction drum 30. As the cigarettes fall off the chain 11, one end is supported by a guide 36 to tilt the cigarettes approximately to the angle of the grooves 24 in which the cigarettes are held in overlapping relationship by suction until they have been carried round to a ramp 34 down which they roll on to the band 17. In a modification, Fig. 3, the transfer member comprises a rotary drum 103 having flat faces 103 provided with rows of suction holes 107 which co-operate with a helical suction applying groove 109 in a stationary spindle 105 so that suction is applied to the holes 107 in succession from the bottom of each row to the top. As each cigarette is delivered down a ramp 101, it is held to a face of the drum by suction acting on the bottom holes 107 of the appropriate row and as the drum rotates the suction, moving up the row of holes 107, causes the cigarette to roll sideways along the face of the drum so that successive cigarettes can overlap one another, the cigarettes being discharged, after turning through 180 degrees, on to a ramp 113 leading to the catcher band.