GB947048A - Cigarette making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

947,048. Cigarette-making machines. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. April 20, 1960 [April 21, 1959], No. 13908/60. Heading A2C. [Also in Divisions B2 and G3] Tobacco thrown outwardly by a fan 56, Figs. 1 and 2, builds up as an annulus on an endless foraminous band 70 forming, with side walls 62, 64 driven thereby, a hollow rotor turning independently of the fan 56, sufficient tobacco to comprise a stream feeding a cigarette rod-former 104 being peeled off the annulus by a shoe 108 and a continuously-sharpened band knife 88. The outer surface of the band 70 may be exposed to atmosphere or the band may be surrounded by a suction chamber 142 subdivided into compartments each having a valved outlet 144 leading to a common duct forming part of a recirculatory air system as described below. A suction box 94 pivoted at 116 and holding the peeled-off tobacco to the band 70 is adjustable in position to vary the thickness peeled off, manually or as shown by an electric motor 120. The spacing of the walls 62, 64 may also be varied by a screw 114 and the speed of the band 70 be variable whilst that of the cigarette paper 96 remains constant. All three variations may be controlled electrically from gauging means which measure the tobacco stream adjacent its peeling-off point. A window 110 in the wall 62 or 64 allows photoelectric means 112 to maintain tobacco annulus thickness by controlling a tobacco feed therefor described below. The knife 88 may be replaced by two endless-band knives crossing at an acute angle at the cutting point and with a speed component in the direction of motion of the band 70 equal to its speed, the peripheries of the walls 62, 64 being chamfered and the bank 70 correspondingly troughshaped. In a modification (Fig. 10, not shown) peeling-off may be dispensed with, the whole of the tobacco annulus being delivered to the rod-former past a compression roller which together with walls flanking it and a packing piece above it prevents air leakage at the delivery point. The tobacco feed to the fan 56 has a winnower 10, Fig. 3, delivering to a stem box 14 and to a high-speed conveyer 12 which carries a single layer of separated tobacco strands past an optionally rubberfaced metal roller 20 to a duct 22 connected at one end 24 to a supply pipe 54, Fig. 2, for the fan 56 and through which air is drawn by a fan in the pipe 54 or by the fan 56. The other end of the duct 22 may be open as shown or connected to the common duct referred to above to form a recirculatory air system. The pipe 54 may incorporate a supplementary winnower, Fig. 5, comprising vertical telescopically adjustable pipe sections 32, 38. Helical vanes 62 in the section 32 cause air rotation in a windowed conical portion 36 with consequential separation of stems which fall to a door or rotating valve discharge 44. An alternative supplementary winnower comprises a stem box 50, Fig. 4, coacting with two telescopic pipe sections 46, 48.