US2886083A

US2886083A - Cigarette rod cutter

Info

Publication number: US2886083A
Authority: US
Inventors: Horgan George Daniel
Original assignee: AMF Inc
Current assignee: AMF Inc
Priority date: 1953-07-28
Filing date: 1954-04-21
Publication date: 1959-05-12
Anticipated expiration: 1976-05-12

Description

y 2, 1959 G. D. HORGAN 2,886,083

CIGARETTE ROD CUTTER Filed April 21, 1954 INVENTOR.

\\ esoRsE DANIEL HORGAN ATTORNEY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 12, 1959 G. D. HORGAN 2,886,083

CIGARETTE ROD CUTTER Filed April 21, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR GEORGE DANIEL ATTORNEY United States Patent 6 CIGARETTE ROD CU'ITER George Daniel Horgan, Kenton, Harrow, England, assignor to American Machine & Foundry Co., a corporation of New Jersey Application April 21, 1954, Serial No. 424,684

Claims priority, application Great Britain July 28, 1953 Claims. (Cl. 146101) This invention relates to cigarette cut-offs i.e., machines for severing cigarette lengths from a travelling cigarette rod delivered from a continuous cigarette rod making machine.

The invention more particularly relates to cigarette cut-offs of the type comprising a rotating head or carrier which supports a rotary fly knife so that the latter has a compound movement which consists in rotation about its own axis and an orbital movement about the axis of the carrier.

Hitherto the cutting edge of the fly knife has been eccentric to the axis of rotation of the knife and as the edge has to be sharpened during the operation of the cut-off difliculties have been experienced in the sharpening arrangements and in maintaining the correct shape of the cutting edge. In another type of cut-off a disc knife has been employed but such requires an axial reciprocation of the knife carrier and also the coacting ledger equal to the speed of the cigarette with the attendant disadvantage of reciprocation of relatively heavy masses.

The fly knife, however, has the advantage that the period of cutting may be so short that axial reciprocation of the carrier and ledger may be eliminated.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved form of cut-off by which the advantages of both forms of cut-off above described are obtained Without the disadvantage thereof. i

According to the invention the cigarette cut-off comprises a rotary carrier or head upon which a rotary fly knife is mounted, the cutting edge of such knife being concentric with the axis of rotation of the knife, the timing of the movement of the cut-off being such that when the leading edge or zone of the knife is in position to commence the cutting operation the axis of the rotation of the knife is spaced from the plane containing the axes of the carrier and cigarette rod or ledger, whereby the cutting action of the knife simulates that of an eccentric edged fly knife.

Preferably the timing of the knife is such that a cutting action occurs in non-successive revolutions of the carrier.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cigarette cutting attachment according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a slightly enlarged sectional plan taken on line II-II of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing the successive positions of the knife relatively to the cigarette rod during a noncutting revolution.

Figure 4 is an elevation of a sharpening attachment and indicating the successive positions of the knife during sharpening.

In carrying the invention into effect according to one convenient mode by way of example, a driving shaft 1 is provided with a pair of axially spaced helical gears 2 and .3, which are keyed by a suitable key 23, to. the shaft 1 and are located within a gear casing 4.

2,886,083 Patented May 12,- 1959 The helical gears 2, 3 mesh with a pair of gears 5 and 6 respectively located within the casing 4, one of which, 5, is mounted upon and drives a sun gear spindle 7, the other gear 6 being concentric with the spindle 7. The gear 6 has fixed thereto a driving sleeve 8 surrounding the spindle 7 and projecting through an aperture 24 in the end wall 9 of the gear casing.

On the outer end of the driving sleeve 8 a rotary or carrier 10 is secured.

This head or carrier 10 is in the form of a casing and encloses a sun gear 11 which is keyed to the outer end of the sun gear spindle 7. The sun gear 11 meshes with a pinion 12 which is provided with a knife spindle 13 to the end of which is secured a stud shaft 25 supported in a suitable bearing 27 of carrier 10.

A knife mounting member 14 is secured on the end of stud shaft 25. The knife mounting member comprises a pair of gripping plates, 14a and 1412 between which the knife is held.

To provide support allowing the knife mounting member 14- to rotate, it is supported on a knife spindle 13 with a stud shaft 29 suitably secured to pinion 12 by means of a bolt 31. Stud shaft 29 lies in the same axis as stud shaft 25 and is also supported free to rotate by a bearing 33 held in housing 10.

It is self evident that the rotary motion imparted by gear 11 to pinion 12 is transmitted by the pinion 12 through shaft 25 to knife mounting member 14 and consequently to the knife 15. i

The knife 15 is of the wafer type and has a cutting edge 15a which is concentric with the axis of rotation, i.e., the axis of the knife spindle 13. Conveniently the portion of the knife adjacent the cutting edge is laterally off-set to the shank portion which is located between the gripping plates 14a and 14b.

The carrier 10 is provided with a counterbalance weight 16 diametrically opposite the knife mounting and gear.

The gearing between the driving shaft 1 and sun gear spindle 7 are such that the sun gear is driven in the same direction as the head or carrier.

The gear ratios are such that the knife 15 moves into the cutting position once for each two revolutions of the carrier 10.

The position of the knife spindle 13 when the leading edge or zone of the cutting edge 15a thereof moves in cutting relation with the cigarette rod 17 (Fig. 1) is above the horizontal plane a-a containing the axes of the carrier and the cigarette rod sothat by the continued compound movement of the knife about its own axis and the axis of the carrier the cutting edge 15a moves along a path to provide a cutting operation which simulates that of an eccentric edge knife rotating only about its own axis.

According to one arrangement, by way of example, for the severing of 1000 cigarettes per minute, the following gear ratios and speeds are suitable: the gear ratio of the sun gear 11 and knife spindle 13 is 7 /2:1; the speed of the sun gear is 1600 r.p.m.; for a complete revolution of the knife 15 about its own axis the carrier 10 rotates 240.

With such conditions the position of the knife 15 during a non-cutting revolution (see Fig. 3) is rearwardly displaced 180 with regard to the position on a cutting revolution (see Fig. 1) so that the knife will miss the cigarette rod as indicated by the successive positions of the knife edge shown in Fig. 3.

It will be appreciated that the cigarette rod passes through a cutting ledger tube 18 and due to the short period of time that the knife takes to pass through the rod such tube can be mounted fixedly without the customary lateral reciprocation.

head

It Will be appreciated that by the use of a fly knife having a cutting edge which is concentric with the axis of revolution of the knife the sharpening of such edge is greatly facilitated. Figure 4 shows a mounting for a sharpening disc 19 and a burring disc 20 adjustably carried by the mounting 21. The figure also indicates successive positions of the knife edge during the sharpening operation.

The invention hereinabove described may be varied in construction Within the scope of the'claims, for the particular device selected to illustrate the invention is but one of many possible embodiments of the same. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted to the precise details of the structure shown and described.

What is claimed is:

1. A cut-off comprising a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a knife spindle carrier driven by said shaft, a gear mounted in said carrier, a pinion driven by said gear and supported in the periphery of said carrier, a knife spindle connected to said pinion, a segment fly knife cutter having a shank portion and a cutting edge concentric to the axis of said knife spindle and mounted on said knife spindle for cutting, said cutting edge being laterally off-set relative to the shank portion so as to reduce the contact of the sides of the knife with the material to be cut to a minimum.

2. A cut-off comprising a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a knife spindle carrier driven by said shaft, a gear mounted in said carrier, a pinion driven by said gear and supported in the periphery of said carrier, a knife spindle connected to said pinion, a segment fly knife cutter having a cutting edge concentric to the axis of said knife spindle and mounted on said knife spindle for cutting wherein the portion of the segment fly knife adjacent to the cutting edge is laterally off-set to the shank portion to so reduce the contact of the sides of the knife with the material to be cut at a minimum.

3. A cut-off comprising a stationary supporting ledger to hold material to be cut, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a plurality of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft and adapted to be replaced by other size driving gears, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a second driven gear driven by another of said driving gears, a sun gear traveling Within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driven gears being adaptable to be replaced by other size driven gears to effect different driving ratios between the said carrier and the said sun gear, a pinion driven by said sun gear in an opposite direction, a knife carrying spindle connected to and rotated by said pinion in said opposite direction, a segment fly knife mounted on said knife spindle and having a cutting edge concentric to the axis of said knife spindle, so that an eccentric cutting action by said knife is effected by the reverse rotation of the carrier with respect to the knife.

4. A severing device comprising a housing, a drive shaft supported in said housing, a plurality of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears at a predetermined ratio, a rotary spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a second driven gear driven by another of said driving gears at a different predetermined ratio than said first mentioned ratio, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, a pinion driven by said sun gear in an opposite direction, a spindle connected to and rotated by said pinion in said opposite direction and a severing element secured to said spindle and rotated thereby in an orbital path of travel.

5. A severing device comprising a severing station past which material to be severed travels, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a spindle rotatably supported on said carrier, a severing element secured to said spindle, a second driven gear driven by the other of said driving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gear sizes being such that a severing action by said severing element occurs at the same severing station but not at successive traverses of the severing element past the severing station.

6. A cut-orf comprising a stationary supporting station to support material to be cut, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a spindle supported in said carrier, a knife mounted on said spindle, a second driven gear driven by the other of said driving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gear sizes being such and the timing and arrangement of the knife being such that a cutting action occurs at the same supporting station during non-successive passes of the knife past the supporting station.

7. A cut-off comprising a stationary supporting station to support the material to be cut, a knife sharpening station, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a segment fly knife supported on said spindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of said driving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gear sizes being such that a sharpening action of said segment fly knife occurs at the knife sharpening station as the cutting edge of the knife travels in a concentric arc.

8. A cut-off comprising a stationary supporting station to support the material to be cut, a knife sharpening station, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a segment fly knife supported on said spindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of. said driving gears, a sun gear traveiing within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gear sizes being such that a sharpening action of said segment fly knife occurs at the knife sharpening station while the cutting edge of the knife travels in a concentric are but not at successive traverses of the cutting knife past the sharpening station.

9. A cut-off comprising a supporting station to support the material to be cut, a knife sharpening station, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear driven by one of said driving gears at one ratio, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a

segment fly knife supported on said spindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of said driving gears at a different ratio, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier said driving ratios being such that a sharpening action of said segment fly knife occurs at the same sharpening station during each alternate traverse of the segment fly knife past said cutting station.

10. A cut-off comprising a supporting station to support the material to be cut, a sharpening station, a stationary housing, a drive shaft supported in said stationary housing, a set of driving gears co-axially mounted on said drive shaft, a first driven gear, driven by one of said driving gears, a rotary knife spindle carrier co-axially attached to said first driven gear, a knife attached to and rotatable on said spindle carrier, a second driven gear driven by the other of said driving gears, a sun gear traveling within said carrier driven by this other of said driving gears and in the same direction as said carrier and at a different rate than the carrier, said driving and driven gear sizes being such that the sharpening occurs during one revolution and the cutting action by said knife occurs on the next revolution alternately as the carrier rotates.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,851,334 Stein Mar. 29, 1932 2,093,323 Lamoreaux Sept. 14, 1937 2,140,720 Ruau Dec. 20, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS 463,577 Great Britain Apr. 2, 1937 676,387 Germany June 2, 1939 652,842

Great Britain May 2, 1951