GB955596A - Improvements in apparatus for conveying cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

955,596. Conveying filter-tip cigarettes. G. F. PEMBROKE, J. G. E. HILLMAN, and MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. June 7, 1961 [June 8, 1960], No. 20094/60. Heading A2C. One of two rows of filter-tip cigarettes, while being conveyed from the cutting device of a filter-tip cigarette-making machine, is first slightly displaced axially by a wedge and then further displaced axially by an air blast directed against the ends of the cigarettes to separate the rows prior to the collecting tray filling operation. Assemblages consisting of two pieces of cigarette rod with a double length filter tip between, secured together by a wrapping strip, are fed by a fluted drum 1 (Fig. 1) to a cutting disc 4, which bisects each one to form two filter-tip cigarettes. The separated cigarettes roll down a stripper ramp 6, under a light spring plate 7, passing either side of a wedge 5 (Fig. 4), to a roller 8 on which the stub parts only of the cigarettes are subjected to rolling pressure under an arcuate plate 9. The cigarettes then fall into the flutes of a drum 11, passing either side of a plate 10 (Figs. 1 and 3) through which an air blast is directed from an aperture 19 against the ends of the near side row of cigarettes moving them axially to an extent determined by a stop disc 14 rotating with the drum 11. The near side row then roll down a stripper plate 12 to a conveyer 13 leading to a tray filling device. The far row is carried by a chain conveyer 15 to a rotatable suction head 16, which siezes and turns each cigarette through 180 degrees, as described in Specification 900,387, before depositing them on to another conveyer. In one modification (Fig. 5, not shown), the assemblages are conveyed in a controlled manner by a chain having vertical abutments, against which the cigarettes rest, which carries them through the cutting disc 4. The cut cigarettes are temporarily released from the chain to pass through a rolling device. On returning to the chain, the rows are axially separated, and one rows is passed to the stripper plate 12 and the other to the suction head 16. In another modification (Fig. 6, not shown), the cigarettes are stripped from the drum 1 by lugs on a plurality of axially spaced conveyer discs. The cigarettes, while on the conveyer, and after being initially controlled by a light spring, are raised slightly by a drum placed between the discs and the tips of the cigarettes are rolled between this drum and an arcuate plate. The cigarettes then return to the conveyer to be separated by an air blast, and one row is turned through 180 degrees as before.