US2262862A - Tobacco handling and preparing - Google Patents

Description

1941- R. E. RUNDELL TOBACCO HANDLING AND PREPARING Original Fi1ed Nov. 23, 1934 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR RUPERT E RU DE L NOV. 1941 H. RUM'QHEML,

TQBACCO HANDLING AND PR ZIPAPTNG' Original Filed Nov J l l I .z 4 ,diilj b E I. R W W O N T M) R W m V /T N A IE, 4/ k R v B Nov. 18, 1941. R. E. RUNDELL TOBACCO HANDLING AND PREPARING.

Original Filed Nov. 23, 1934 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR RT g,

R U BY fag wuss TORNEY 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 R. E. RUNDELL Nov. 1%, 194,1.

INVENTOR RUPERT E.RUN DELL W TORNEY Patented Nov. 18, 1941 TOBACCO HANDLING AND PREPARING Rupert E. Rundell', Rockville Centre, N. Y., assignor to American Machine & Foundry Company, a corporation of New Jersey Original application November 23, 1934, Serial No. 754,496. Divided and this application May 5, 1939, Serial No. 271,959

11 Claims.

This invention relates to tobacco handling and preparing, particularly to various steps in the preparation of shredded tobacco ready for manufacture into cigarettes, from whole tobacco leaves.

Heretofore in preparing cigarette tobacco, the tobacco leaves have usually been stemmed Without spreading or uncurling the laminae of the leaves and the bunched and crumpled leaves, having their lengths extending in various directions have subsequently been fed into a cutter of the guillotine type, in which the tobacco is compressed to a more or less solid column or cake from which a thin slice is cut to make the desired shreds. Since the leaves before being compressed are crumpled up and sometimes doubled on themselves and sometimes tangled or ropy and because their lengths lie at random rather than parallel to the cutter blade, the shreds are relatively short, frequently sharply kinked and are more easily broken. this sometimes results in short shreds which may spill out of the end of the cigarette and cause loose ends as well as crumbs in the mouth ofthe smoker.

Because the leaves are compressed, the tobacco may lose volume and resiliency so that the shreds do not occupy the volume they would otherwise occupy and more tobacco by weight is required to get a cigarette of the same feel or density, than is required of uncompressed tobacco. Also the compressing of the damp leaves often renders them darker in color,

It is therefore one of the main objects of the present invention to combine with the shredding operation a leaf opening and/or stemming operation, in such a manner that the leaves are delivered in optimum condition and position for best results in shredding and particularly shredding without compression by interengaging gangs of rotating shearing disks.

The invention however is applicable to the guillotine type of cutter for the purpose of improving the cutting thereby through improved feeding of the leaves thereto, since it has been found that proper spreading and positioning of the leaves also results in better shreds with the guillotine type of cutter.

Thus, a principal purpose of the invention is to deliver the leaves to the cutter relatively flat and outspread or open as compared with the crumpled and uniform condition in which domestic tobaccos are ordinarily fed to cutters.

It is also an important object of the invention to make improved use of an intermeshing disk type of cutter through which the loose tobacco In the finished cigarette leaves are fed in a thin stream, without compression, for the purpose of delivering long loose resilient shreds which Will have maximum cigarette filling effect for a given quantity of tobacco.

One of the principal difficulties in using a cutter of this type lies in feeding the leaves to the cutter at a reasonably uniform rate without bunches which choke the gang disk cutter and Without substantial intervals during which few or no leaves are cut, decreasing the efficiency and output of the cutter, and inv feeding the leaves into this cutter in a condition and position which will retain and add to the advantages of this type of cutter.

For this purpose one of the features of the invention is the opening and/or cleaning of the leaves prior to cutting. Another related feature is the delivery of the leaves to the cutter in a fiat outspread and in certain circumstances, booked or shingled condition to provide optimum feeding conditions for this type of cutter. This type of feeding is particularly valuable for the intermeshing disk type cutter because of the need for a thin relatively uniform stream of tobacco, a condition difficult to attain with the bunched and tangled domestic leaves delivered from. the conventional stemmer. So far as I am aware, the present arrangement affords the first practical one for feeding large leaf American type stemmed tobaccos to this type of cutter.

It is also one of the principal objects of the invention to provide for. more efficient and uniform feeding of the stemmed leaves to the cutter, one of the purposes of the present invention being to make only one hand feeding necessary for cleaning, stemming, cutting and blending.

An important feature of the invention lies in the cleaning from. the leaves of sand, dust and grit prior to cutting. This avoids orient the main causes of wear on the cutters.

Another important object of the invention relates to the manufacture of blended cigarette tobacco, this object being to blend tobacco leaves automatically and more systematically and uniformly than heretofore to produce a continuous supplyof uniformly blended tobacco shreds in the proper condition for use in cigarette machines from unstemmed leaves of the different kinds of tobacco to be blended.

One of the most important objects of the invention is to so prepare cigarette tobacco that by I reason of the greater fiuffiness and volume of the shreds per unit of weight, more and better cigarettes can be made froma pound of tobacco than hitherto. Since cigarettes are judged by their firmness or plumpness of filling or feel rather than their weight, by so treating the tobacco as to produce the same or greater plumpness or firmness with less tobacco, it is possible to save an appreciable percentage by weight of tobacco over that previously used. The importance of a saving of even a small percentage of the tobacco used will be appreciated when it is considered that the value of the tobacco used in the United States yearly is in the tens of millions of dollars, and that in some countries the cost of the prepared tobacco at the factory is over three dollars a pound. The fluffier, more resilient tobacco also results in a more even burning cigarette.

Because of the longer and flufiier shreds, firm er ends will result and there will be less tendency for shorts to fall out and less likelihood of annoying crumbs of tobacco coming out in the mouth of the smoker. V v

Another important object of the invention is to prepare tobacco efiiciently by utilizing one manual feeding operation for a plurality of the tobacco preparing operations as for instance two or more of the following preparing operations-- spreading and cleaning, stemming, blending and shreddingas well as the additional conditioning, casing or flavoring and cooling operations. The importance of this will be realized when it is pointed out that the initial feeding of the individual leaves is the main labor consuming operation in connection with tobacco treatment in accordance with the invention.

The stemming machines herein used are of an improved design, disclosed in U. S. Patents Nos. 1,864,765, June 28, 1932, and 1,916,018, June 2'7, 1933, both to R. E. Rundell and G. E. Hagquist, and Patent No. 1,981,470 granted November 20, 1934, to R. E. Rundell and G. E. Hagquist, reference to which is made for further details, the leaf handling mechanisms of which are such that the stemmed leaves on their individual delivery belts are freed of such undesirable substances as dust, opened flat and are traveling endwise.

One of the main features of the invention is based on the discovery that the leaves as delivered from this type of stemmer are ideally conditioned and arranged for shredding.

With the above and other objects not specifically mentioned in view, the invention consists in certain constructions and combinations which will be hereinafter fully described and then pointed out in the claims hereunto appended.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is an enlarged side elevation, partly in section, taken on line [-1 .of Fig. 2 showing a system for carrying out the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan View of an assembly of certain system parts of the system shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged side elevation partly in section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, showing a transfer device;

Fig. 4 is an end elevation on line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a plan View on line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 isan enlarged end elevation on line 6--6 of Fig. 2, showing the delivery of the stemmed leaves to the shredding machine and the delivery of the shredded tobacco to the drying tower;

Fig. '7 is a plan view showing a modified arrangement of a. number of stemming units for crosswise delivery of the stemmed leaves onto the collector belt;

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a modification of the improved system employing a guillotine cutter and casing apparatus;

the gripping and cleaning means shown in Fig. 1;

Figs. 10 and 11 are details in sectional side and front elevation respectively, of the stemming unit employed in connection with the improved system;

Fig. 12 is a plan view illustrating the mechanical feed for feeding unstemmed leaves to the stemmer shown in Fig. 1.

Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, a number of stemming units Ul, U2, etc., are arranged in a group and the unstemmed leaves'L of each kind or grade of tobacco to be used in a given blend are fed to one or more of these units according to their proportion in the blend. Thus, if five parts of one kind of tobacco are to be blended with two parts of a second kind and with one part of a third kind, eight stemming machines would form one group, five of which would handle the first kind of tobacco, two the second kind and one the third kind, or certain of the machines might be operated at a different speed to produce the desired proportioning of the different varieties of leaves.

In the machines shown, which are of the improved type described in the patents above referred to, the crumpled, curled up leaves L as received from the hogshead are placed upon a table I.

The operator of the machine lays the leaves side by side with the butts on the right (Fig. 1) and the lengths all extending approximately in the same direction on the side delivery belts la, which belts may be arranged to feed the leaves in synchronism with the. movement of grippers 3 to deliver the leaf butt to each gripper, as illustrated in Patent No. 1,916,018, above referred to.

The operation of the feed mechanism shown in Fig. 12 for delivering leaves to the grippers 3 is similar to that shown in the patent issued to Rundell etal, No. 1,981,470, and may be described as follows: A sprocket 82 keyed to the same shaft 83, which imparts driving motion to chains 2, drives the belts I by means of the sprocket chain 84 running over sprocket 85. The sprocket 85 drives shaft 86 which is provided with a bevel gear 81 intermeshing with bevel gear 88. Bevel gear 88 is keyed to shaft 89, and also keyed to shaft 89 is a series of pulleys 90 carrying belts l Another sprocket keyed at the end of shaft 89 imparts operating motion to spacer chain 9| having openings 92 adapted to receive the stemmed ends S of leaves L. It will be noted that the belts I and the spacer chain 9| operate at the same speed, and the openings 92 are operated in synchronism with the grippers 3 to deliver the stemmed endsS of leaves L thereto.

From the table I the leaves are carried by chains 2 having spaced grippers 3 advancing the leaves by their butt ends between them through suction chambers 4 wherein a stream of air is directed from the stem outwardly toward the edges of the leaves to spread, straighten out and clean the same. The suction chambers of all machines of the group are connected to suction pipes 5 and 6.

The outspread, cleaned and relatively flat 1 leaves are forwarded on the bottom loops of suc- 'Fig. 9 is an enlarged view partly in section of tion belts 1 and are then dropped upon belts 8 running in the opposite direction to deliver the leaves tip first to the stemming unit. A valve 9 in suction pipe I0 periodically shutting off the suction in chambers II of belts 1 at the proper moment, effects the transfer. The belts 8 together with companion belts l2 guide the leaves into the stemming mechanism l3 which. removes; the: stems. and permits the stemmed leaves L to be carried away, tip first, by an endless delivery belt I4 running in the forward direction on which the leaves are delivered in outspread condition. The chains 2, and belts I, 8, l2 and M of each stemming unit are synchronously driven in any suitable manner as by a motor l5.

To collect the stemmed leaves from the different stemming units Ul, U2 (Fig. 2), the leaves are delivered by the belt M of each unit onto a row of spaced rollers I6 driven in the direction of the delivery belt by sprockets I! connected by a chain I8 with a sprocket I 9 on drive shaft of belt 14, see Figs. 3 to 5. Between these rollers two rows of parallel fingers or prongs 2| mounted diametrically on a horizontal shaft 22 are intermittently revolved one-half turn by a sprocket 23. The shaft 22 of the fingers 2| is set at such an angle that the leaves picked up by a row of fingers from the rollers l 6, upon one-half revolution of shaft 22, in which the ends of the fingers describe the paths 24 shown in Fig. 4, point in the direction of the collector belt 25. As the fingers 2| dwell in their turned position, the leaf drops upon the collector belt 25, which is at a distance below the rollers I5 sufficient to clear the return paths 24' of the fingers, and thus the leaves are forwarded endwise in a single stream to the shredder unit, presently to be described.

The speed of collector belt 25 may be adjusted so that the leaves deposited upon it by the fingers 2| form a single layer with spaces between the leaves, or a continuous overlapping layer, or separate books of stacked leaves, as desired. In each case if blending is desired, it is secured by proportioning the output of the different stemmer units, fed with different varieties of leaves, while passing all stemming units, in an exact and systematic fashion instead of being pitch-forked together in a more or less haphazard fashion, as has been the common practice.

It should be understood that the blending arrangement may be dispensed with in some cigarette factories or be unnecessary when unblended tobacco is used, in which case the arrangement just described is employed with the same kind of leaves to feed from more than one stemming unit into a single stream for delivery to the cutter, or that illustrated in Fig. 7, may be employed.

The leaves are carried endwise by belt 25 through a chamber 26 in which they are conditioned by steam or by dry or moist air, according to requirement. cause somewhat less moisture is generally required for disk cutting than for stemming. From the end roller 21 the leaves are delivered outspread and flat as received from the stemmer endwise and edgewise, to the shredder. While the leaves might be delivered otherwise, as directly from belt 25 into the cutters, to insure greater control of the leaves as they pass into the cutters, the leaves pass over a perforated suction roll 28 (Fig. 6), rotated by sprocket 29 around a stationary suction chamber 30 connected to a suction pipe 3| and having a peripheral opening towards the leaf delivered from belt 25.

The drum 28 guides the oncoming leaves into the shredding mechanism which consists of two gangs of inter-engaging or intermeshing circular shearing disks 32 rotating in opposite directions on parallel shafts 32 by means of intermeshing gears 33 driven by a sprocket 34. While the leading portions of the leaves are being shredded,

Ordinarily dry air is used bethe leaves are. held somewhat taut and straight by a roller 35 bearing against drum 28 and holding' back the! trailing portion of the leaves.

The shredding unit is not shown in detail since details thereof do not form a part of the present invention but is of the general type disclosed in the patent to Korbuly No. 1,485,418, March 4, 1924. This type of shredder has a number of advantages some of which have also been referred to in connection with the statement. of objects of this invention, in that. the leaves are not compressed so as to lose their resiliency as. well as,

their color and if the leaves are properly fed thereto, can produce long uniform, relatively fiuffy shreds. This type of. shredder requires uniform feeding of the. tobacco in. a very thin layer for best results. Hitherto so far as known to me, no feed supplying leaves. in condition to take advantage of the capabilities of this type of shredder has been available for feeding the large American type tobacco leaves which come to the stemrnery or tobacco factory in a tangled, crumpled mass, generally in hogsheads. When leaves in this condition are fed into a shredder of this type, the disks cut across so many doubled, folded. and crumpled leaf portions that relatively short shreds are produced, and moreover the leaves ordinarily pass into the cutters crosswise so that shreds can be no longer than the width of the leaf. Owing to the condition of the leaf referred to, shreds are ordinarily much shorter and, due to the kinks therein, often broken. Also the tangled and crumpledv leaves tend to go through the disks in bunches which choke the disks and reduce the output of the cutter.

I have discovered that the leaves in the condition in which they issue from stemmers of the type referred to in the patents above identified, are in ideal condition for shredding in this type of shredder and result in a quality of shreds not hitherto obtainable from American. type leaves.

Thus the leaves delivered by the belt 25 and roll 28 into the disks 32 of the shredding unit, are cleaned by the suction boxes 4 so that the disks are not subject to wear from grit and sand on the leaves, and the leaves are disposed by the suctional. effect in fiat outspread condition and are delivered edgewise and preferably, though not necessarily, endwise relative to the plane of nip of the disks. Since the leaves are delivered endwise and there are few folds or doubled-over portions in the leaves, the majority of the shreds are as long as the portion. of the leaf from which they are cut, that is, they average in length about the. same as the average length of the leaves. Moreover, as compared with shreds ordinarily produced, being relatively free from kinks and sharp angles, the shreds are less liable to break intov shorts. Since the leaves are fed loosely in uncompressed condition, as compared with the compressed cake of leaves fed into the conventional guillotine cutter, the shreds are more resilient and of greater volume than the same weight of. shreds from guillotine cutters, with most types of leaves.

As a result of this greater volume and resiliency, cigarettes of greater firmness or plump ness, 1. e. which feel,better and firmer, can be produced with less tobacco, an exceedingly important item in View of the immense quantities of tobacco used in cigarettes, valued at many tens of millions of dollars. One percent saving in the quantity of tobacco in cigarettes will therefore result in the saving of hundreds of thousands of dollars and. the. savings. are particularly great in countries where import duty and shipping raise the price to several dollars per pound. In this connection it should be noted that cigarettesare mainly judged so far as quantity of tobacco is concerned by their appearance and feeling of firmness and by their plumpness rather than their weight, and by the firm appearance of the ends and the resistance of the ends to the dropping of shreds and crumbs of tobacco. Also in modern packers detectors having spring pressed pins such as disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 1,682,464 to Arelt are used which engage the ends of the cigarettes, and firmness of the ends in resisting these detectors results in fewer cigarette packages being rejected because of cigarettes having loose ends, all desirable results enhanced by the present method and apparatus for pre paring and handling tobacco. 1

The leaves may be aided in their progress through the cutter disks by suction from below the disks, drawing a current of air from above through the casing 36 and into one of the peripheral compartments of a suction drum 31 rotated by a sprocket 38 around stationary suction chamber 39 connected to a suction pipe 40. This suction may bedispensed with in some forms of the invention and the'shreds dropped by gravity.

The chamber 39 has an opening 4| registering with the radial partitions of one of the compartments of drum 31 when in its receiving position facing the shredding knives. The bottom of radial wall 31a of the compartments is of perforated or sieve construction to pass air but not tobacco. After a partial turn of drum 31, the contents of each compartment drops into a chute 42 which empties into a drying tower 43 on the floor below. The partition walls of drum' 31 constitute locks against passage through the drum of the heated air rising from the drying tower into chute 42, and the radial partitions of said drum serves to separate the tobacco from the air current through said drum, and also to remove dust. A cylindrical casing 350. communicating with chute 42 surrounds the drum 31 to prevent loss of tobacco'from the filled compartments of the drum 31. 1

In tower 43, Fig. l, the tobacco shreds T are carried over a series of superimposed horizontal perforated belts 44, exposed to the drying action of heated air admitted by the inlet 45 and leaving by outlet 46. Alternate belts have their ends projecting beyond the travel in opposite directions from the remaining belts so that one delivers to the next one.

The lowermost of the belts 44 discharges the dried shreds into the pockets of a conveyor 41 which carries them to a cooling tower 48 in which on similarly arranged belts 49 they are exposed to conditioned air entering at the inlet 50. The lowermost of the belts 49 deposits the shreds, which now contain the proper amount of moisture for use in cigarette making, upon an endless belt which carries them to trucks or a conveyor system for transporting the tobacco to the cigarette machines. 1

Thus, a continuously operating unitary tobacco handling and preparing method and system for supply shredded cigarette tobacco from whole tobacco leaves is provided. It is particularly notedthat the one feeding operation of laying out the leaves from hands of tobacco, approxileaves required for cleaning, spreading out, stem-v ming, blending, conditioning for cutting, feeding the leaves L to the shredder, drying and cooling. Also, only.

one main conditioning or moistening operation prior to feeding to the stemming unit is required, the conditioning operation 26 being merely a suppleme'ntary one for varying more or less slightly the moisture content to that found best for cutting, as herein pointed out. Casing or flavoring units may also be included in this unitary system.

While the .several units and operations above referred to have been described by way of example in combination, it is obvious that some of these units are useful in lesser or sub-combinations, or by themselves, and such use is contemplated. Moreover, some manufacturers will want to arrange some of the units in a different order or to eliminate some. Accordingly, the invention is not to beunderstood as being limitedto any particular combination of units or operations except insofar as specified in the claims.

In Fig. '1, a number of stemming units U1, U2, etc., each provided with an auxiliary suction belt 53, are grouped side by side and the collecting belt 25 is run at right angles below the individual auxiliary belts 53. The stemmed leaves are delivered by gravity from the belts 53 to the collecting belt 25, If necessary, reference may be made to Nejedly U. S. Patent No. 2,019,721 for a disclosure of how tobacco leaves may be transferred by means of a suction belt and gravity to a collecting belt. The belt 25 may then carry the leaves into a guillotine type cutter as shown in Fig. 8, wherein the crosswise arrangement of the leaves arranges the same parallel to the cut of the transversely extending conventional guillotine knife 55 which cuts transversely across the stream of compacted tobacco fed thereto, to make long, more uniform shreds than the usual guillotine cutter to which crumpled,

leaves are fed more or less at random.

In the modified arrangement shown in Fig. 8, emerging from the conditioning chamber 26, either lengthwise from the arrangement of Fig. 2 or crosswise as in Fig. 7, but preferably crosswise, are carried by the end roller 21 of collector belt 25 into a reciprocating tobacco cutter 54 of the guillotine type in which the vertical knife 55 having its edge transverse to the stream of leaves L actuated by a pitman 56 driven by an eccentric on drive pulley 51, shreds them horizontally. I

The shreds T dropping from a chute 58. are

carried by a conveyor 59 into a casing drum 60 in which they are sprayed by a pipeBl connected to a tank 52 containing the usual casing fluid or a suitable flavoring liquid or both. The drum 60 rests on rollers 53 and is rotated by gears 64 and 65 driven by bevel gears 66 and 61. From the drum 6B, the flavored shreds T are discharged into chute 42 through which they drop into the drying tower 43, whence they are carried by the conveyor 41 to the conditioning tower 48 and are finally delivered to the conveyor belt 5| as before.

It will be obvious from the above that many of the advantages resulting from the cleaned outspread fiat and uniformly positioned leaves will be of value in cutting leaves with the guillotine type cutter for the same reasons.

While it is pre ferred to feed the leaves endwiseto the cutter disks so that the disks may shear or slit the leaves lengthwise of their length and direction of movement, many of the advantages other than extreme length of shreds will be retained if the outspread leaves are fed crosswise, so that it is contemplated that the simpler arrangement of Fig. '7 may deliver to the disk type cutter shown in Fig. 2; also the casing or flavoring unit shown in Fig. 8 may be positioned with its feed belt 59 under the drum 3'! to receive shreds therefrom.

In connection with the delivery of the leaves to the gangs of disk knives, it is noted that the disks .rotate with .much higher surface speed at the cutting parts than the conveyor 25 and rolls 28 and 35, all less than a leaf length fromv the nipping point where the disks come together and thus these parts 25, 28 :and 35 act to retard the trailing part of the leaf While the leading part is passing into the disks and thereby straighten the leaf and hold it taut and flat.

The gripper mechanism of the type of stemming unit selected for illustration, though other types may be used, is illustrated in Fig. 9. The leaves are fed by their butts through the cleaning and leaf spreading and straightening chambers. As shown in the figure, a current of air is directed from the stem portion of the blades or laminae toward the edges thereof, effectually spreading, straightening and cleaning the leaves. The crumpled and sometimes ropy leaves L on table I are picked up, one by one as they arrive in position, by the grippers 3, Fig. 9, the jaws of which are pivoted on pins 68 attached to bars 69 fastened at spaced intervals across the chains 2, the holder of each jaw carrying a roller 10. The grippers 3 are periodically held open for a short time by cam pieces H and 12, Fig. 1, with which the rollers 10 engage near the ends of the lower loops of chains 2 to allow the stems S of the leaves L to pass into .the jaws, and again at the upper ends of the chains to release the leaf butts.

As shown in Figs. 10 and 11, the straightened and cleaned leaves vL carried by the belts 8 and II, are stemmed by tearing the stem from the leaf blade from tip to butt and for this purpose are received by a perforated drum [3, Fig. 10, revolving on a stationary suction chamber 14 connected to suction pipe 6 by a pipe 75. Upon being carried by the drum 13 .into contact with the co-acting drum I3, the stem S of the leaf L is pressed into one of a series of annular grooves 16 into which the periphery of drum i3 is divided, whereupon a pin or gripper element 11, Fig. 11, projecting into that groove through a radial slot in drum l3 from a horizontal plunger 78, clamps it against a partition of groove 16.

The drum I3 carries plungers 18 about its circumference, the plungers having pins Tl in the groove 76 so that, as the drums l3 and 13 advance together, the stem S is gripped by the respective pins 1'! acting against the opposed wall of the grooves 16, and the plungers 18 are forced axially toward the right-hand (Fig. 11) by springs 79 when cam followers on the plungers are released by a stationary cam 80 which holds the grooves open until the stems have entered. As soon as a suflicient length of stem S has been inserted into the grooves 16 to be securely held therein, the drums l3 and 13 momentarily draw apart to permit a stripping roller 8| to enter between the stem and the leaf which by this time is held on drum 13 by belt M. The rapidly rotating roller 8| aids in cleanly separating the stem from the leaf as they are drawn forward in unison by the drums l3 and 13. The stemmed leaf L, still outspread, since this type of stemmer maintains the leaf spread, is carried away by belt l4 while the stem S is ejected from the drum l3 by an oppositely revolving star'wheel 8 The means and steps above referred to may be widely variedin construction within the, scope of the claims, without departing from the invention, for the particular means and steps and combinations thereof selected to illustrate the invention are but few out of many possible concrete embodiments of the same; furthermore, certain of the means and steps referred to "are useful by themselves or in separate sub-combinations from the general combination illustrated and such separate use is contemplated. The invention therefore is not to be restricted to the particular structure and steps shown and-de scribed.

In connection with the conditioning chamber 26, it is noted that it is sometimes quite important that the leaves be dried before shredding.

This is because certain of the operations on the tobacco leaves, prior to shredding, particularly stemming, require a quite moist condition of the leaves. It has been found that the same moisture content does not result in satisfactory shredding because of too great a tendency to gum up the shredder disks. With the construction illustrated therefore the leaves may be stemmed at the proper moistness, and then shredded when relatively dry, without the interposition of :any'manual ordering operation.

Since the operation of the mechanisms and methods disclosed has been fully described in connection with the description of the several parts or steps thereof, for brevity, and to avoid repetition additional description of the operation I isomitted.

This application constitutes *a division-of:my =co-pending application, Serial No. 754,496, filed November 23, 1934, which has 'eventuate'd in Letters Patent No. 2,179,644, issued November 14, 1939 to applicant, assignor to American Machine and Foundry Company.

The invention above described may be varied in construction within the scope of the claims, for the particular'device selected to illustratethe invention is but one of many concrete embodiments of the same. The invention therefore is not to be restricted to the precise details of the structureshownand described.

What is claimed is:

1. A stemming and blending apparatus for tobacco comprising, a plurality of stemming machines for stemming individual leaves ofa particular grade or type; mechanical'feeds for feeding unstemmed leaves to each of said stemming machines at mechanically spaced intervals; a motor for each of said stemming machines, the respective motors operating each machine at a speed causing a desired number of stemmed leaves of each grade to be delivered by-each stemming machine to a collecting device; and a collecting device for receiving from each-of said machines stemmed leaves of diiferent grades-to form a controlled and uniform blend of tobacco.

2. Astemming and blendingapparatus for tobacco comprising, a plurality of stemming machines for stemming individual leaves of a particular grade or type, mechanical feeds for feeding unstemmed leaves to each of said stemming machines at mechanically spaced intervals, a driving mechanism for operating each of said stemming machines at a predetermined rate of speed to cause a desired number of stemmed leaves of each grade to be delivered by each:stemming machine to a collecting device, and a col- 'lecting device for receiving from each of said machines stemmed leaves of different grades to form a controlled'and uniform blend of tobacco.

3. A stemming and blending apparatus for tobacco comprising, a plurality of stemming machines arranged in echelon for stemming in- --di'vidual leaves of a particular grade or type, mechanical feeds for feeding unstemmed leaves to each of said stemming machines at mechanically'spaced intervals, a driving device for operating each of said stemming machines at a predetermined rate of speed to cause a desired number of stemmed leaves of each grade to be delivered by each stemming machine to a collecting device, and an obliquely arranged collecting device for receiving from each of said machines stemmed leaves of different grades to form a controlled and uniform blend of tobacco.

4. A-stemming and blending apparatus for to- :bacco comprisinga plurality of stemming machines for stemming individual leaves of a particular grade or type; mechanical feeds for feeding unstemmed leaves to each of said stemming machines at mechanically spaced intervals; a driving mechanism for operating each of said stemming machines at a-predetermined rate of speed to cause a desired number of stemmed leaves of ea'ch'grade to be delivered by each stemming machine to a collecting device; a traveling collecting device for receiving from each of said machines stemmed leaves of different-grades to stemming machines to receive said stemmed leaves in side by side formation to'form a stream of uniformly blended leaves. i

5. A stemming and blending apparatus for tobacco comprising, a plurality'of stemming machines for stemming individual leaves of a particular grade or type; mechanical feeds for feeding unstemmed le'avesto each of said stemming machines at mechanically spaced intervals; a driving mechanism for operating each" of said stemming machines at a predetermined rate of speed to cause a desired number of stemmed leaves of each grade to be delivered by each stemming machine to a collecting device; a traveling collecting device for receiving from each of said machines stemmed leaves of difierent grades to form a controlled and uniform blend of tobacco, each of said stemming machines including a leafspreader for spreading out each of the tobacco leaves; a transfer for "delivering said-leaves in substantially outspread condition to said collecting devicej and means for operating said traveling collecting device in timed relation with said stemming machines *to receive said stemmed leaves to form a continuous overlapping stream of blended leaves. i

- '6, A stemming and blending apparatus for tobacco comprising, a plurality of stemming machines for stemming individual leaves of a particular grade or type; mechanical feeds for feeding unstemmed leaves to each of said stemming machines at mechanically spaced intervals; a driving mechanism for operating each of said stemmingmachines at apredetermined rate of speedto causea desired number of stemmed leaves'of each grade to be delivered by each stemming machine to a collecting device; a traveling collecting device for receiving from each of said machines stemmed leaves of different grades to form a controlled and uniform blend ,of tobacco, each of said stemming machines including a leaf spreader for spreading out each of the tobacco leaves, a transfer for delivering said leaves in substantially outspread condition to said collecting device, and means for operating said traveling collecting device in timed relation with said stemming machines to receive said stemmed leaves to form separate books of stacked leaves.

79A stemming and blending machine for tobacco leaves comprising, a plurality of stemming machines for stemming the different varieties of tobacco leaves to be blended, each of said stemming machines having cooperating and interconnected mechanisms constructed to pick up, stem and deliver tobacco leaves to a collector element at a desired rate of speed; a collector element coacting with said machines to receive the stemmed leaves from each of said stemming machines to form a positive and uniform blend of 'tobacco leaves and forward them in a stream of blended leaves, said stemming machines including a leaf spreader for spreading out each of the tobacco leaves; spaced rotating rolls over which said stemmed leaves are advanced; and means for transferring tobacco leaves from said rolls in outspread condition to a collector member, said means having prongsmovable upwardly between said rolls to lift the leaves from the rolls and transfer them to said collector element while maintaining said leaves in outspread condition.

8. A stemming and blending apparatus fortobacco comprising, a plurality of stemming machines, each of which stems individual leaves of a particular grade or type and delivers the stemmed leaf to a leaf collector, said stemming machines being constructed and arranged to take up v at spaced intervals unstemmed leaves of tobacco for stemming; a stemmed leaf collector cooperating with said stemming machines to receive stemmed leaves therefrom; and a drive for each of said stemming machines for operating each machine at a different rate of speed ming machines having cooperating and interconnected mechanisms constructed to receive, stem and deliver tobacco leaves to a collector element at a desired rate of speed; and a collector element coacting with said machines to receive the stemmed leaves from each of said.

stemming machines to form apositive and uniform blend of tobacco leaves and forward them in a stream of blended leaves, said stemming machines including a leaf spreader for spreading out each of the tobacco leaves and a transfer for delivering said leaves in substantially outspread condition to said collector element.

10. A stemming and blending mechanism for tobacco leaves comprising, a plurality of stemming machines for stemming the different varietiesof tobacco leaves to be blended, a mechanical feed for each of said stemming machines constructed and arranged to deliver tobacco leaves to said stemming machines at a predetermined vrate of speed, and collectingmeans to receive machines to form a mechanically controlled uniform blend of tobacco and forward them in a stream of blended tobacco leaves.

11. In stemming and blending machine for tobacco leaves comprising, a plurality of stemming machines for stemming the difierent varieties of tobacco leaves to be blended, each of said machines having a mechanical device for picking up unstemmed tobacco leaves at predetermined spaced intervals to deliver the same to a stem- 10 ming mechanism of the stemming machine, a drive for each of said stemming machines to determine the rate at which each of said stemming machines stems and delivers leaves of tobacco to a collector member, and a traveling collector member coacting with said machines to receive the stemmed leaves from each of said stemming machines to form a mechanically controlled and uniform blend of tobacco leaves.

RUPERT E. RUNDELL.

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