GB973620A - Improvements in knife-feeding arrangements for sickle-shaped knives - Google Patents

Abstract

973,620. Cigarette-making machines. MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. April 18, 1963, No. 15325/63. Heading A2C. A knife-feeding device, for a cigarette machine cut-off rotatable about an axis 17 and having a sickle knife, of the kind comprising a knife clamp 24, 25 frictionally gripping the knife 20, a nut 23 engaging the knife near its inner end, a rotatable screw 27 threaded in the nut to feed the knife outwards from the axis about which the cut-off rotates and against the friction of the clamp, a ratchet wheel 32 coupled to the screw, a pawl 38 for rotating the ratchet wheel, a pawl-operating rod 35 reciprocable along the axis 17 and means arranged to reciprocate the rod at intervals to cause operation of the pawl, is provided with manual means for rotating the screw to move the nut back along the screw after the knife has been fed out to the full extent. The rod 35 is connected to one end of a lever 36, pivoted at 37, the other end of which is connected to the pawl 38. The ratchet wheel 32 is connected to a shaft 31 having a gear wheel 30 which drives a gear wheel 28 on the screw 27 via an idler gear 29. The rod 35 may be actuated intermittently either by a solenoid 33 or by mechanical means. When the knife 20 has been fed outwardly to its limit the nut 23 runs on to a plain part of reduced diameter of the screw 27 and bears against a spring 56. Return of the nut 23 when a new knife is fitted is effected by disengaging the pawl 38 and a click 42 from the wheel 32 by operating a cam 57 on a stem 58, and applying a spanner to a square on the end of the screw 27, the spring 56 urging the nut into engagement with the threads of screw 27.