US1634690A - Cigar-bunching machine - Google Patents

Description

July 5,1927.

w. H. SCHUSSLER CIGAR suncume MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 15. 1922 g3 \INVENTOR.

July 5 1927.

W. H. scHussLER" 0mm auucnme. MACHINE Filed Da e. 15. i I 3 shets sheet z I Patented July 5, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER H. SCHUSSLER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE SCHUSSLER TOBACCO MACHINE CO. INC, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A.

CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

GIGAB-BUNCHING MACHINE.

Application filed December then automatically fed to a desired point of utilization, which may be a manually or au- 1 tomatically controlled weighing device or .any other sizingor registering device so that thesprigs which contribute to form a single cigar and which are of different characteristics in order to obtainthe proper blend will be brought into proper or assembled relationship. With the above and other objects in view which will hereinafter more fully appear my invention comprehends a novel construction and arrangement of a cigar bunching machine and a novel method ofmakig cigar bunches.

It further comprehends novel feeding mechanism, novel cutting mechanism and novel mechanism for feeding the long filler tobacco to other mechanism or mechanisms v which is to be subsequently treated such as,

for example. weighing mechanism and bunching mechanism. g ,7 c

It further comprehendsa novel conveyor and novel means for occasioning the cyclical operations of the conveyor mechanism and the other mechanisms with which it cooper-' ates. I

It further comprehends novel means to automatically feed a leaf of tobacco, novel means to cut it into a desired length and I novel means to deliver such lengths to weighing or sizingmechanism.

Other novel features of construction and advantage will hereinafter more fully ap pear in the detailed description and the appended claims.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention, I have shown in the accompanying "drawings a typical embodiment thereof which is at present preferred by -me, since this embodiment will be found in practice to 7 give satisfactory and reliable results- It is, however, to be understood that the various 13, 1922. SerialNo. 606,578.

instrumentalities of which my invention consists can be variously arranged and organ ized and that my invention is not limited to the precise arrangement and organization of these instrumentalities as herein shown and described.

Figure 1 represents a plan view of a cigar bunching machine, embodying my invention, and by means of which my method can be employed.

Figure 2 represents an end elevation thereof.

Figure 8 represents, in end elevation, a portion of the stopmechanism seen in Fig ure 2 but showing the parts in a different relation from that seen in Figure 2.

Figure t represents a section on line H of Figure 2.

Figure 5 represents a top plan view of. a conveyor in detached position.

Figure 6 represents, in front elevation, a guide member seen in Figure 4.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts.

Referring to the drawings.

In accordance with my present invention, the operator has the different blends from which the filler to be made segregated from each otherand a leaf is taken one at atime to cutting mechanism which automaticallly cuts the leaf to the desired length. The cut leaf or sprig of long filler tobacco as it is called in the trade is then fed into discharging position and is automatically discharged to other mechanism such as, for example, an automatic weighing scale, and from this scale the blended tobacco is automaticallyfed into the pocket of the apron of the bunching machine which latter forms the bunch. 1 v

In this manner cigar bunches can be made of long filler tobacco in which the tobacco is accurately blended. The bunches are uniform both as to size and as to weight desired and are of a soft spongy nature so that they will be free smoking. The machine can be operated by unskilled labor. which is not familiar with the art of cigar making or with the machinery employed in the makingof cigars.

The first step in the cycle of the operation is the placing of the leaves of blended tobacco on a conveyor and I will therefore describe the ditlerent mechanisms in the logical. order inv which they are brought into operation.

Conveying and feeding incc/iam's-m 1 designates a conveyor on which the leaves of filler tobacco are placed by the operator. The conveyor 1 is n'ovidcd with leaf holding members which, as illustrated, are in the form of lingers arranged in sets and pivotally supported at 5 by the con vcyor at a desired height above its bottom. A keeper -11 is employed to retain the conveyor 1 in a support The lingers 2' as shown are pivoted to the upwardly extending lugs 7 carried by the conveyor 1. t3 designates the leaves of tobacco. A tape 9 is secured to the conveyor 1 by means of a fastening device 9 and this tape is connected to mechanism which ellects the return movement of the conveyor and also controls its step by step advance.

1O designates a weight to which is connected the free end of the tape 8 which passes around a pulley 11 loosely mounted on a pin 12 carried by brackets 13 carried by the frame 11:. It will thus be seen that the tendency of the weight is to effect the forward movement of the conveyor 1.

The tape 8 passes partly around a pulley 15 and has its free end connected thereto at 16. a stud 17 carried by the frame 14;. The pulley 15 has fixed to it a pinion 18 which meshes with a gear segment 19 having an arm provided with a roller 20 said gear segment being loosely mounted on a stud 21 car ried by the machine frame 14. The roller 20 is carried by a pin 22 and cooperates with a cam 23 havingat its periphery the steps 2-1 and A. The cam 23 is fixed to a shaft.- 25 which is free to revolve in the bearingrln'acle ets 17 or 26, see more particularly Figure 1.

It will thus be understood that the conveyor 1 is advanced step by step to cutting mechanism which will now be described.

GUHZ'OZK/ mechanism.

27 and 28 designate knives or cutters which are pivotallv supported on the frame of the machine at 29 and 30, respectively, on the brackets 31 and 32, respectively. said brackets being carried. by the conveyor support 5.

In Figure 5. I have shown in broken lines, the relative position of the knife 98 and the conveyor 1 during the feeding stroke of the latter in order to more clearly illustrate the manner in which the long tiller tobacco is cutto form the proper length of the springs. 33 and 84 designate links which are connected by means of their respective studs 35 and 36 with their respective knives 27 and 28.

The pulley 15 is loosely mounted on The links 33 and are pivotally connected at 36 and 37, respectively to the levers 38 and 39. The lever 39 is fulcrmned at 10 to the machine frame and the lever 38 is fulcrnmed at 11 to the machine frame. The lever 39 has a cam 1-2 which cooperates with studs 1:3 carried by the cam 23. The cam 23 is also provided with the studs 4:1 which cooperate with the cam member forming a part of the lever 38.

After the leaves of tobacco have been fed in the manner described and cut. to form sprigs of long leaf tiller, the sprigs are as shown fed into the scale pan of automatic weighing mechanism from which they are discharged by discharging mechanism which will now be described.

Discharging incclmaismr 416 designates a bell crank leverfulcrumral at l? on the machine frame and controlled by a cam l8 ha vine cam projections -10 with which co-opcrate the roller of) loosely mounted on the stud 51 carried by the lever 46. The cam is is fixed to the shaft 25. Pivotally connected at 52 to the bell crank lever l6 is a link as which at its opposite end is connected to a lever 5-l and is provided with a slot 55. The lcvci 31 has a grasping handle 56 to operate it. The link 5?) is provided with an arm 57 The lever 51'; is fixed to a rock shaft 551 to which is also fixed a lever which is weighted at its free end and at its opposite end is pivotallv connected to a link at (51. The link (30 is pivotally connected by a rod 62 with the plunger rods 63 and 6 1-, respectively which slide in and are guided by a bearing' member carried by the conveyor support The plunger rods (33 and (El have connected to them a plunger head 6. and the ejecting members 68 which are in the form of downwardly depending faces.

As will be best seen in Figure 4-, the arm 57 eo-operatcs with a stud 39 carried by a lever T0. which fulcrumed to a rod 71 carried by bearings 72- extending from the bearing forming member (35. The lever is lilOVhlttl ith a dmvnwardly deflected arm '73. designates a lever the upper end of which fixed to the shaft 71. The lower ends of the levers 7 with the fulcrum studs 5 and 7th respectively, to which are pivoted the links 77 and 78. respectively. The links 77 and 78 are ItiX'Jtl to the bar 79 which latter has also connected with it tobacco feeding members S l in the form of fingers or projectimis. The bar 79 and its adjuncts is retained in its raised position by means of a cable 81 which at its upper end is secured, as at $32 to the arm 73 of the lever 70 and at its lower end it is connected as at 83 to the bar 79.

53 idesin'i'iates the tobacco stop which is carried by the conveyor support 5 and is in 3 and M are provided the form of a plate having the clearance rod 85 through which the feeding fingers 80 are adapted to pass during the operation. 86 designates the scale pan of the weighing mechanism which has a bottom 87 hinged theretoat 88. The scale pan is also pivotally supported at 89 by the scale beam 90 which is provided with an adjustable counterbalance 91, the position of which determines the weight of tobacco filler which is to be employed in making a. loose cigar bunch. The scale beam 90'is fulcrumed at 92 which latter is mounted in bearings 93 and 94, extending upwardly from the rolling table 95 of. the bunching portion of the machine.

' The table 95 is supportedby the standards 96 and 97 which are carried by the machine frame 14. 98 designates the rolling apron which is secured to the table 95 by means of the clamping plates 99 and 100, respectively. 101 designates the roller which is mounted in bearings 102 and 103 carried by the slide 104.. The slide 104 is'slidablymounted on the rods 105 and 106 which are carried by a support107 on the machine frame 14 and one of the standards 97, as at 108, see Figure 4.

Referring now more particularly to'Figure 2, the frame 14, see also Figure 4, is

provided. with an arm 109 which carries a stud 110 which forms a fulcrum for a lever 111 which is provided with abalanced weight 112. The upper end of the lever 111 is. provided with the stop or detent 113 which extends beneath the scale beam 90. The

of a spring 116, theother end of which is securedto the frame and in a similar manner the lever38 has connected to it one end ofa spring 117, the other end of which is connected to themachine frame. The tendency of these springs is tohold these res ective levers in their operative position.

he shaft 25 has loosely'mou-nted on it a pulley 118. The pulley 118 is positionedon the shaft 25 by means of a stop pin 119, see Figure 1. The pulley'118 has fixed to it a ratchet wheel 120; The shaft 25 has fixed to it an min 121 and this arm .is'provided with the laterally extending stop pin 122.

y The arm 12].; is provided with a fulcrum pin 123 on which is fulcrumed a pawl 124 which latter is provided with an arm 125. Lugs 126 and 127 are carried by'a ratchet wheel 128 which is loosely mounted on a shaft 25 and is retained in position by a washer 129. 130 designates a spring which is connected to the ratchet wheel 128Iand the arm 121.

In front of the tobacco stop 84, see Figure 4, and above thescale'pin 86, a chamher 131 is provided, into which the tobacco filler fed during the operation. The rolling apron of the bunchil'lg machine forms in the usual manner a pocket 132. The downward movement of the arm 114 of the lever 111,. see Figure 2, is limited by a. stop 133 on the machineframe 14. 134 is a driving belt.

The operation will now be readily apparent to those skilled in this art and is as follows r In Figures 1, and 2, the parts are shown in the initial position which they assume. The operator has at oppositev ends of the machine the different sources of tobacco supply which it is desired to blend, or if the tobacco is of the same kind, a supply is at each end of the machine.

The operator places a single leaf of tobacco on the conveyor 1. The pulley 118 which as before explained is loosely mount ed on the shaft 25 is driven by means of any desired source of power which drives the belt 134.

The ratchet wheel 128 is in the locked position seen in Figure 3 and the operator moves the lever 111 to the left of the'position seen in Figure 2 thereby causing the pawl 115 to be disengaged from the ratchet 128. This permits the spring 130 to partially rotate the ratchet 128 in a counterclockwise direction. The lug 126 carried by the ratchet 128- engages the arm 125 and moves the pawl 124 into mesh with the teeth of the ratchet 120 which is fixed to the pulley 118. This causes the shaft 25 to revolve and also the cams 23 and 48, which are fixed to it, in the direction of the arrow seen in Figure 2. I I

As the cam 23 revolves one of its steps 24 permits the roller 20 to move downwardly due to the pull of the weight 10 by means of the tape 8 on the pulley 15 which is inter geared with the segment 19. This causes a step by step advance of the conveyor 1. This brings the conveyor into cutting position beneath the knife 28. At this time the pin 43 comes into the path of the cam 42 of the'lever 39 thereby drawing on the link 34 and. thereby causing the cutter or knife 28 to make its out. The spring 116 then causes the lever 39 to'be raised and thereby its link 34 and knife 28 and the conveyor is advanced thenext step in the manner de scribed. 'This brings the sprig of long leaf filler which has been cut into position to feed it into the chamber 131. c This feeding crank lever 46 to raise the link 53 and thereby rock the lever 54 and the rock shaft 58 to which it is connected. It will be seen that as the link 53 moves upwardly and before the shaft 58' is rocked, the arm 57in its up ward'movement will permit the lever to rock due to the weight carried by its arm 73 so that the fingers will eject the sprig of leaf tobacco from the conveyor into the chamber 131. At this time due to the provision of the lever 54 and the link 53, the lever will engage the pin extending into such slot and carried by the lever 59 to rock the shaft 58 and at the same time cause the rods 63 and 64; to move downwardly. This causes the member 68 to feed the sprig of tobacco from the chamber 131 into the scale pan 86, the bottom 87 of which is at this time closed, by means of asuitable spring carried by its fulcrum. In a similar manner to that just described, the other sprigs which have been cut from the leaf are automatically fed into the scale pan. The conveyor 1 continues its travel until it reaches the right hand portion of the machine, as indi ated in dotted lines in Figure 2.

As before explained, the steps 2-1 on the ratchet 23 permit the roller 20 to move downwardly but when the steps 24*. come into operation they cause the roller 20 to be moved upwardly step byv step thereby reversing the direction of travel of the conveyor 1 and effecting its feed rearwardly instead of forwardly, as before explained. The only difference in the operation during the rearward stroke of the conveyor 1 is the knife 27 does the cutting instead of the knife 28. The operator new places 2 leaf of tobacco on the conveyor 1 and the sprigs are cut from it in a similar manner to that already described, except that the knife 27 has liflerent mechanisms for operating it than that of the knife 28. As the cam 23 revolves, a pin 44 contacting with the pawl 15 causes the lever 38 to rock on its fulcrum 4-1 and thereby 'draw downwardly on the link 33 to effect the cutting stroke of the knife 27. The lever 38 and its adjuncts is returned to initial position by means of the spring 117. The forward and rearward stroke of the conveyor 1 continues until a snflicient number of sprigs have been fed into the scale pan 8b to form the desired weight of filler. At this time the scale pan will drop due to the predetermined weight of tobacco which it has recived thus permitting the lever 111 to swing to the right of the position seen in Figure 2 thus causing the pawl 115 to engage the ratchet 12?, see Figure 3, thus retarding the motion of the ratchet 128 and causing the lug 12. to strike the arm 125 and move the pawl 24L out of engagement with the ratchet 120. This stops the machine. The operator now takes hold of the handle 56 and rocks the lever 59 to cause the plunger to move down *ardly its full stroke and move the tobacco from the scale pan 86 into the pocket 132 of the rolling apron of the bunching machine. The plunger then returns to its initial position seen in Figure 4 due to the weighted end of the lever 59. A binder is placed on the apron when the hunch is formed in the bunching machine in the usual or conventional manner. After the tobacco is discharged from the scale pan its hinged bottom 8'? automatically closes due to the action of its spring. The operator now moves the lever 111 into the position described to start the machine and the cycle of the operation is repeated.

A long filler cigar ordinarily has from seven to nine sprigs of long leaf tiller tobacco in it and in accordance with my present invention, any desired blending of the tobacco can be made by unskilled labor and the necessity of employing a skilled cigar maker is eliminated.

In so far as I am aware, I am the first in the art to devise a machine of this character wherein sprigs are automatically cut from a leaf and fed one by one to a sizing or weighing device and also automatically discharged to a bunching machine and it is therefore to be understood that I desire my claims to such features to receive the broad and generic interpretation to which a pioneer in the art is entitled. It will of course be understood that instead of placing one leaf at a time on the conveyor a plurality of leaves can be placed thereon and automatically cut and fed through the machine.

It will be apparent from the 'lorcgoing that my present invention embodies a novel method of forming and feeding sprigs of long leaf filler tobacco to sizing or weighing mechanism and therefrom to a bunching 1na chine.

It will now be apparent that I have devised a new and useful cigar bunching machine and method of making bunches which embodies the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the staten'ientof the invention and the above description, and while I have, in the present instance, shown and described a preferred embodiment thereof which will give in practice satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that this embodiment is susceptible of modification in various particlars without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention or sacrificing any of its advantages.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Let ters Patent, is

1. In a cigar bunching machine, tobacco feeding mechanism to feed one leaf at a time, mechanism to cut one leaf of tobacco at a time into sprigs, mechanism to a mble the sprigs and means to occasion the cyclical operation of said mechanisms.

2. In a cigar bunching machine, tobacco leaf feeding mechanism to feed one leaf at a time, mechanism to mechanically cut one leaf at a time into sprigs, weighing mechanism in which the leaves are assembled and from which they are discharged, and means for occasioning the cyclical operation of said mechanisms.

3. In a cigar bunching machine, leaf feed- 5 ing mechanism, cutting mechanism to which the leaves are fed and which cut a leaf at a time into sprigs, weighing mechanism to which the leaves pass from said cutting mechanism in which the leaves are assembled, and from which they are discharged 10 when a predetermined welght of sprigs is contained therein, and means controlled by the discharge operation of said weighing mechanism to stop the machine.

WALTER H. SOHUSSLER.

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