US2995404A

US2995404A - Pneumatic conveyors for leafy or fibrous material, particularly tobacco

Info

Publication number: US2995404A
Application number: US814247A
Authority: US
Inventors: Bodner Fritz
Original assignee: Hauni Werke Koerber and Co KG
Current assignee: Koerber AG
Priority date: 1958-05-23
Filing date: 1959-05-19
Publication date: 1961-08-08
Anticipated expiration: 1978-08-08
Also published as: DE1107576B; GB892321A

Description

1951 F. BODNER PNEUMATIC CONVEYORS FOR LEAFY OR FIBROUS MATERIAL, PARTICULARLY .TOBACCO 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 19, 1959 1961 F. BODNER 2,995,404

PNEUMATIC CONVEYORS FOR LEAFY 0R FIBROUS MATERIAL, PARTICULARLY TOBACCO Filed May 19, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR FRITZ BODNER ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,995,404 PNEUMATIC 'CONVEYORS 'FOR LEAFY 0R FI- BROUS MATERIAL, PARTICULARLY TOBACCO. Fritz Bodner, Hamburg-Lohbrugge, Germany, assrgnor to Hauni-Werke Kiirber & Co. K.G., Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany Filed May 19, 1959, Ser. No. 814,247 Claims priority, application Germany May 23, 1958 2 Claims. (Cl. 302-28) The invention relates to improvements in pneumatic conveyors for leafy or fibrous material, particularly tobacco. The tobacco is to be conveyed to a plurality of tobacco processing machines, for instance to a cigarette making machine. The tobacco is alternately removed by suction lines from a distributor device. Devices of this type are known in which mechanical switches or guides are employed which connect the tobacco conveyor line with the respective tobacco processing machines. Such mechanical switches and guides are, however, subject to break-downs, because they become clogged after longer use and this has the result that the moving parts become jammed.

It has also been proposed heretofore to connect to a tobacco conveyor line a plurality of distributing lines by means of the interconnection of a switch or a plurality of. switches. In such devices there is provided a throttle flap in the suction air line of the tobacco conveyor line to be supplied with tobacco and at the same time the tobacco conveyor line is connected by means of a switch to the main conveyor line.

The principal object of the invention is a device in which a suction air line is alternately connected with a plurality of conveyor lines and the novelty consists in this that the suction fittings of the tobacco conveyor lines are connected to a common distributor hopper.

It was discovered that the device of the present invention has the surprising advantage that the conveyor lines which are not connected with the suction line will admit to the conveyor line, which is connected to the supply hopper, a certain amount of auxiliary air and that this auxiliary air will favorably influence the tobacco supply to the conveyor line connected with the supply. Heretofore it was believed that, if only auxiliary air passes through the not connected lines, the tobacco would remain simply in its rest position. According to the discovery made by the present invention, however, it is now possible to connect without any additional mechanical means a plurality of conveyor lines alternately with a source of supply.

The drawing shows diagrammatically a number of embodiments of the device of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates in a top plan view an embodiment of a distributor hopper provided with three connections.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the distributor hopper along the line A-B of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates in a top plan view a distributor hopper provided with six connections.

FIG. 4 illustrates still another top plan view of a modification in which a distributor hopper is provided with three connections.

FIG. 5 illustrates an elevation view of a distributor hopper shown in FIG. 4, and

'FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view of an arrangement of the distributor device in connection with a suction line serving three cigarette machines.

In the arrangement shown as an example in FIG. 6, a distributor device 1 has three

suction fittings

3, 4, 5 separately connected through tobacco conveyor ducts 21,

2,995,404 Patented Au 8,1961

22, 23 to

discharge chambers

24, 25, 26, each

servinga cigarette machine

37, 38, 39, respectively. Each of the

discharge chambers

24, 25, 26 is connected through a

suction duct

27, 28, 29 to a common suction line 30 which is in communication with a vacuum source (not shown). The

discharge chambers

24, 25, 26 may be of any suitable kind such, for example, as disclosed in Patent 2,812,217, and of the discharge chambers only one at a time is made active by means of the

throttle flaps

31, 32, 33 which are operated by the

magnets

34, 35, and 36, respectively.

The distributor device comprises a hopper 1, the lower end or bottom of which is closed. The sidewall 2 in the lower portion of this hopper 1 is provided with apertures to which are connected the three

suction fittings

3, 4 and 5 which in turn are attached to the three

conveyor ducts

21, 22, and 23, respectively. The inlet ends 3a and 5a of the

suction fittings

3 and 5 are out 01f at an angle in order to improve the drawing of the tobacco into the conveyor lines.

According to FIG. 2, the tobacco is supplied by any desired source of supply and is dropped in the direction of the arrow 6 into the upper open end of the hopper 1. From the interior of the hopper the tobacco enters, as a result of the suction air line, into the selected conveyor line and, of course, in doing this the tobacco moves through the respective suction fitting. If, for instance, the suction fitting 4 is connected with the suction air line, then the tobacco enters in the direction of the arrow 7 into the suction fitting 4. In addition, the air passes through the distributor hopper 1 in the direction of the arrow 10 and also the

suction fittings

3 and 5 are being used for furnishing auxiliary air into the suction fitting 4, in that the air flows in the direction indicated by the arrows 8 and 9.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of the invention in which the common distributor hopper 17 is connected with six pneumatic conveyor lines provided with the

suction fittings

11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.

If it is desired that the width of the entire conveyor device is not much greater than the width of the tobacco feeding stream, then one may employ the modification illustrated in FIG. 4. In this last named embodiment the suction fittings are connected to the sidewall 2 of the hopper 1 in the same manner as shown in FIG. 1. The two

outer conveyor lines

18 and 20, however, are displaced with respect to the center conveyor line of the device in an upward respectively downward direction, so that the three

conveyor lines

18, 19 and 20 are arranged one above the other with the conveyor line 19 in the center, in other words, the center axes in the

conveyor lines

18, 19 and 20 are arranged in a common vertical plane. The connection to a common suction line is according to US. Patent 2,843,429.

What I claim is:

1. A tobacco distributor device for selectively supplying tobacco to a plurality of cigarette machines through separate conveyor ducts alternately connect-ible to a common suction line, comprising a gravity feed hopper having an open upper end and a closed lower end and adapted to receive the tobacco to be distributed through the conveyor ducts, and a plurality of suction fittings in communication with the lower portion of said hopper and each connected to one of said conveyor ducts whereby, when suction is applied to one of said fittings through the corresponding conveyor duct by said suction line, air is sucked into said conveyor duct through the falling tobacco in the hopper from the open top of the hopper and from the other conveyor ducts.

3 r 4 2. The tobacco distributor as set forth in claim 1 pro- References Cited in the file of this patent vided with three conveyor ducts connected side by side UNITED STATES PATENTS to the hopper, in which the ends of the two outer ducts are inclined towards the middle duct within the hopper 2,502,741 Norbom 1950 to facilitate the passage of air from one duct 'to another 5 2,650,726 Amer Sept 1953 within said hopper Dec.