US2902140A

US2902140A - Conveyor devices for cigarettes or the like

Info

Publication number: US2902140A
Application number: US639670A
Authority: US
Inventors: Pollmann Max
Original assignee: Koerber & Co KG
Current assignee: Koerber & Co KG; Kurt Korber & Co KG
Priority date: 1956-02-15
Filing date: 1957-02-12
Publication date: 1959-09-01
Anticipated expiration: 1976-09-01
Also published as: GB825889A

Description

CONVEYOR nsvrcss FOR CIGARETTES OR THE LIKE Filed Feb. 12. 1957 Sept. 1, 19'59 M. PIOLLMANN 2 Sheets-Sheer. 1

W \\\\\\V\\\\\\\\\N 1 Sept. 1, 1959 M. POLLMANN 7 I CONVEYOR DEVICES FOR CIGARETTES OR THE LIKE Filed Feb. 12. 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet. 2

INVENTOR! J [ax :;0Z( man I BY I by United States Patent 2,902,140 CONVEYOR DEVICES FOR crcxnnrrns e on THE LIKE 11 Claims. (Cl. 19825) The present invention relates to conveyor devices suitable for conveying rod-like articles, such as cigarettes, and particularly to a system wherein articles are fed to or removed from fluted drums by means of trough chains.

Trough chains are sometimes used on their own for conveyance purposes, for example for feeding or delivering cirgarettes or other rod-like-articles coming from -a magazine; similar chains are also known in the cigarette industry which operate in the same way as fluted drums, for example for producing filter mouthpiece cigarettes, in which the cigarettes are fed axially towards the mouthpiece, or conversely, in the grooves of such chains and the groups so formed are joined together at their butting points.

The object of the present invention is a transfer device or conveyance system employing a trough chain which transfers cigarettes or other articles to or from a fluted drum by the fact that the chain partially encircles said drum; for example to deliver cigarettes from a cigarette rod machine or cigarettes disposed on a first fluted drum, to a further fluted drum serving for oining these cigarettes with ,filter mouthpieces. In this latter case the chains partially encircle both the drum supplying the cigarettesor the like and the drum to be supplied with the cigarettes or the like. In either case the parts are so arranged that the cigarettes or other articles are picked up from and/or deposited on the fluted drums with a smooth and disturbance-free action.

According to the invention this is obtained by the fact that the chain wheels of the trough chain are in each case arranged coaxially to the fluted drums and the flute spacing of the drums is larger by a suitable amount than the spacing of the grooves of the trough chain when disposed in a straight line.

One constructional example is shown on the accompanying drawings for transferring cigarettes coming from chains.

Two endless trough chains 1, 1 (Fig. 1) arranged with a spacing A between them as shown in Fig. 2 are driven respectively by chain wheels 2, 2 of the cigarette rod machine and are guided on the filter cigarette machine side by chain or sprocket wheels 3, 3' respectively (see also Fig. 2). consist of individual trough links M, M which embody on their lower side in each case two rollers R, R of a roller chain and are connected together by chain links L, L'. The two chain wheels 2, 2 are secured on a The trough chains 1 and 1- 2,902,140 Patented Sept. 1, 1959 spindle coaxial with the known delivery drum arranged beyond the cutting device of the cigarette rod machine,-

and are composed of a centre drum section and two sidepart drum sections as described hereinafter for the fluted drum of the filter cigarette machine.

The two chain wheels 3, 3' (Fig. 2) together with the two toothed discs 4, 4' and the fluted centre part 5 of the drum are secured to a shaft 6 of the filter cigarette machine, so that the

parts

4, 4' and 5 form a two-part fluted drum operating as a magazine drum and the two chain wheels in each caseare disposed between the outer toothed discs 4, 4' and the centre part 5 of the drum. The shaft 6 runs in a sleeve 7 of the machine frame 8 and a gear wheel 9 drives the remaining parts of the filter cigarette machine (not otherwise shown) in the usual way.

When the trough chains 1, 1 (Fig. 1) move away from the two delivery drums of the cigarette rod machine in each case a cigarette Z, Z is picked up by the trough 10, 10' (Fig. 1) of the trough links M, M and is fed to the fluted drum of the filter cigarette machine serving as a magazine drum. In this case the cigarettes are guided on both sides of the trough chain in each case by a

guide rail

11, 11' and 12, 12' (Fig. 2). Further on the lower run of the chain there is provided in each case an adjustable chain wheel 13, 13' for tensioning the chain.

In one arrangement the cigarettes are ejected alternately in successive troughs when delivered from the rod to the take-off drum; hence there is only one cigarette in each trough initially, namely the first in the front part of one trough and the next in the rear part of the next trough and so on. In order to be able to deliver in each case two coaxilly disposed cigarettes simultaneously and constantly to the magazine drum the chain 1' according to Fig. 4 is deflected in its path to the magazine drum so far by a chain tensioning wheel 13" that by the elongation of the path when passing on to the magazine drum the troughs of one chain which carry cigarettes are brought into alignment with the troughs of the other chain which carry cigarettes.

The pitch of the trough chain (Fig. 3), that is the spacing from trough to trough of two successive troughs when in a straight path, is marked T1 while T2 represents the pitch of the fluted drum 4, 4' 5, Le. the spacing between two successive flutes 14 of the drum, measured at the pitch circle. For satisfactory transferring of the cigarettes from the grooves of the trough chain'to the flutes of the drum the spacing T2 is made larger to a suitable extent according to the invention than the spacing T1.

As will be seen from Fig. 3 the grooves of the trough chain on running on to the chain wheel 3, 3' approach the teeth spaces of the discs 4, 4' or the flutes of the drum 5 from above, until the trough bottoms 20' lie at the same level at the flute bottoms 15', and thereby the cigarettes are deposited without disturbance in the grooves 14. Thereafter the bottoms 20 of the troughs are further depressed by about 1 mm. Moreover, the rear wall 16' of the troughs is set back by about 1 mm. behind the rear wall 17' of the grooves 14 as seen in the direction of travel on running off the drum.

The cigarettes are deposited from the trough chain into the flutes 14 of the drum and are axially aligned in these flutes and are no longer in contact with the troughs of the chain.

Since according to the invention the pitch T2 of the flutes of the toothed discs 4, 4' or of the drum 5 is greater .central drum section from a magazine not shown, so

that the groups, each of two cigarettes Z, Z with an interposed filter element 18 and aligned one with the other in their longitudinal axes, can be delivered in their further travel to another drum 22 by fingers 20 in known manner, which engage in circular grooves of the fluted drum and by engaging below the cigarettes and filter rods lift these out of the flutes. The following drum 22 holds the groups stationary by suction; no suction is necessary for retaining the groups on the toothed discs 4, 4' although protector plates may hold the groups from fallin out.

Ihe lifting of the cigarettes by the grooves of the trough chain out of the flutes of the take-ofi drums occurs in like manner to the lifting of the cigarettes out of the troughs of the trough chain into the flutes of the drum.

it will be observed from Fig. 2 that the drum body 5 is recessed on each side to accommodate the chain wheels 3, 3' and the toothed discs 4, 4'. The receiving drum body is provided with relatively short central flutes 19 to accommodate the mouthpieces 18 and projecting flanges on each side thereof which are toothed in like manner to the teeth of the discs 4, 4', the gaps between the teeth forming flutes to accommodate the cigarettes Z, Z. The discs 4, 4' and the chain wheels 3, 3' are conveniently in the form of annuli bolted to the drum body 5. A similar construction may be adopted for the other drum with the chain wheels 2, 2' but in this case the flutes 19 need not be provided.

Further the pitch circle of the chain wheels 3, 3"

is substantially smaller than that of the flutes accommodating the cigarettes to allow for the thickness or radial dimension of the trough chain i.e. the distance between the roller components R, R' thereof and the recessed part forming the trough which accepts the cigarettes. The upper faces of the trough chain are formed as shown on Fig. 3 with an inclined surface on one side (the leading side) of the trough opposite to the forwardly directed raised parts 16.

What I claim is:

1. In a device for transferring rod-like articles, a drum having a series of circumferentially spaced article receiving groves on said drum, an endless conveyor chain moving in a path part of which is concentric to said drum and extends over a part of the peripheral surface thereof, said drum being provided with an annular recess for receiving said chain, sprocket teeth on said drum extending into said recess, and a plurality of flight elements on said chain having article receiving notches adapted to align with the grooves in said annular ribs during the movement of said chain around said drum.

2. In a device for transferring rod-like articles, a drum, a series of circumferentially spaced article receiving grooves on said drum providing axially spaced sets arranged in axial alignment, said drum being provided with an annular recess arranged between said sets of grooves between said ribs, sprocket teeth on said drum extending radially into said recess, an endless conveyor sprocket chain moving in a path part of which is concentric to said drum during its travel therearound, a series of conveyor flight elements arranged on said chain having transverse article receiving notches adapted to align with the grooves, said flight elements being connected to said chain and arranged to travel in said annular recess and thereby transfer articles from the chain to the grooves in said drum.

3. In a device for transferring rod-like articles, a drum, a series of circumferentially spaced article receiving grooves on said drum arranged in axially spaced apart sets, said drum being provided with an annular recess arranged between said sets of grooves, sprocket teeth projecting radially into said recess, an endless conveyor chain trained over said sprocket teeth to move in a circular path during its travel around said drum in a plane ofiset radially inward from the peripheral surface of said drum, a series of flight elements secured to said chain having article receiving notches extending transversely thereof with their centers spaced a distance slightly smaller than the spacing of the grooves whereby said flight elements when moving around said drum will be received in said annular recess such that the articles carried thereby will be transferred to the grooves in said drum and solely supported thereby during the remaining travel around said drum.

4. In a device for transferring rod-like articles, comprising a drum having a pair of spaced annular fluted portions, said drum being provided with an annular recess arranged between said fluted portion, sprocket teeth in said recess, an endless conveyor chain trained over said sprocket teeth and movable through said recess during the travel of said chain with said drum throughout a portion of its rotary movement, a series of conveyor flight elements secured to said chainhaving transverselyextending article receiving notches adapted to align with the notches in the fluted portions and means for rotating said drum, the notches in said flight elements being spaced such that rod-like articles therein will be deposited in the grooves of the fluted portions during the travel of said chain about the axis of said drum with the flight elements moving inwardly within said recess and the articles being solely supported in the grooves of said fluted ribs during the travel of said chain in a circular path.

5. In advice for transferring rod-like articles, comprising a pair of fluted drums, each of said drums being provided with an annular recess between fluted portions of said drum, sprocket teeth extending into each recess of each drum, an endless conveyor chain trained around the sprocket teeth of said drums, said chain being arranged to partially encircle the drums and extending away therefrom in a rectilinear path, a series of conveyor flight elements on said chain having transversely extending notches for receiving rod-like articles, said notches being adapted to align with the flutes in the drums and said flight elements being arranged to be received in the annular recesses during their travel around the periphery of said drums whereby rod-like articles on one drum will be lifted from the flutes thereof into the notches of the flight elements and conveyed by said conveyor chain in a rectilinear path toward the other drum where said rod-like articles will be deposited and solely supported in the flutes of the other drum.

6. In a device for transferring rod-like articles, a drum provided with central flutes and a fluted flange ring on each side thereof, a sprocket wheel concentric with said drum having a smaller pitch diameter than the flutes on said flange rings, a conveyor chain transversing said sprocket wheel and extending toward and away therefrom so as to encircle part of its periphery, conveyor flights on said chain having article receiving notches alignable with the flute elements to permit articles to pass smoothly from one element to the other, and means to rotate the drum and to displace the conveyor chain to elfect displacement of the articles in a path formed in part by the rectilinear path of the chain and in part by the concentric path around the drum, said central flutes being adapted to accommodate separate articles in axial alignment with other articles supported by the fluted flange ring and by the flutes of the toothed ring.

7. In a device for transferring rod-like articles, a drum having an annular recess, aligned circumferentially spaced article receiving grooves on both sides of said recess, sprocket teeth in said recess, an endless conveyor chain adapted to be trained over said sprocket teeth, conveyor flight elements on said chain having transverse article receiving notches adapted to align with the grooves in said ribs during their travel around a portion of said drum, means for rotating said drum to move said conveyor chain in a circular pathway, said conveyor flights being of such dimensions as to travel in said recess such that their inner portions lie slightly lower than the bot toms of the grooves in said ribs during their travel around the axis of said drum.

8. In a conveyor device according to claim 7 wherein each conveyor flight includes an article receiving recess of particular form, having a forwardly directed lip on one side and an inclined surface on the opposite side.

9. A conveyor device according to claim 6 comprising separate chains arranged on each side of the drum to accommodate separate articles disposed on each side of the device.

10. A conveyor device according to claim 6 adapted for systems in which successive articles are delivered alternately to each side of the device in staggered relation,

wherein deflector means are provided to impart asymmetry to the paths of the two chains so that articles on the two sides of the device on the two chains are brought into axial alignment.

11. A conveyor device according to claim 6 wherein the chains are disposed between two separate drums to one of which the articles are fed in staggered relation and the other receives the articles from the chains for further treatment in axial alignment and adapted to receive a further article between them so that each group of three articles may be brought into abutting contact ready for assembly in such alignment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,422,600 Molins July 11, 1922 1,885,892 Bronander Nov. 1, 1932 2,109,617 Gwinn et al. Mar. 1, 1938 2,757,778 Lyons Aug. 7, 1956