GB961731A - Improvements in or relating to tobacco-manipulating machines - Google Patents

Abstract

961,731. Cigarette-making machines. MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. June 3, 1960 [June 3, 1959; Sept. 25, 1959], Nos. 19062/59 and 32648/59. Addition to 929,338. Heading A2C. Variations in air-permeability of a tobacco filler operate devices to adjust trimmer blades and/or the tobacco feed. The filler is formed by suction on a perforated band 2 and air is drawn through the filler before and after trimming by suction chambers 6, 102, the variations in pressure in which indicate the amount of tobacco in the filler. The chamber 6 is connected directly by a pipe 8 to a capsule 9 and chamber 102 is connected through a restriction 103a to a capsule 104, whereby capsules 9, 104, are responsive respectively to short-term and long-term variations in the filler resistance. The capsules are connected to a lever 101 which controls the position of the trimmer blades 5 through a servomotor 11 as described in the parent Specification. If the pressure in chamber 6 increases, indicating a smaller amount of tobacco in the filler, capsule 9 expands to move trimmers 5 away from the band 2 so that less tobacco is trimmed off. Capsule 104 acts similarly in response to long-term variations in the filler resistance. The pressure variations in pipe 103 are also transmitted to capsule 109 whereby long-term variations in the filler resistance control, through capsule 109 and servomotor 111, a valve 114 in the hydraulic drive of a motor 117 driving the shaft 118 of the feed means of a tobacco hopper. A reduction in resistance of the filler, as shown by a rise in pressure in pipe 103, results in an increase in speed of the feed shaft to supply more tobacco to passage 1 to increase the amount of tobacco in the filler. In a modification the pipe 108 is connected to the pipe 8 and contains its own restriction and in another embodiment the tobacco feed control is omitted.