US3028866A - Machines for manipulating cut tobacco - Google Patents

Machines for manipulating cut tobacco Download PDF

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Publication number
US3028866A
US3028866A US705252A US70525257A US3028866A US 3028866 A US3028866 A US 3028866A US 705252 A US705252 A US 705252A US 70525257 A US70525257 A US 70525257A US 3028866 A US3028866 A US 3028866A
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tobacco
conveyor
roller
stream
speed
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US705252A
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English (en)
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Molins Desmond Walter
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Molins Machine Co Ltd
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Molins Machine Co Ltd
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    • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
    • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
    • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
    • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
    • A24C5/14—Machines of the continuous-rod type
    • A24C5/18—Forming the rod

Definitions

  • Cigarette-making machines of the continuous rod type are provided with tobacco-feeding apparatus in which a mass of cut tobacco is placed in a hopper and subjected to various brushing and combing operations and finally showered on to a conveyor, where it forms a loose tobacco filler, and by means of which, or of a succeeding conveyor, it is formed into a tobacco rod or core which is afterwards wrapped in paper.
  • the shower is usually long and narrow in cross-section and the conveyor that receives the shower is often arranged horizontally so that considered in the direction of movement of the conveyor the tobacco falls at right angles thereto. It has long been realized that in such an arrangement, when the conveyor moves fast (as in modern highspeed cigarette manufacture) a falling tobacco particle striking the fast-moving conveyor tends to rebound and, being unable to change its motion instantaneously to that of the conveyor, tends to fall back on to some part of the conveyor other than that on which it originally fell. This displacement of rebounding tobacco particles lengthwise of the conveyor is itself irregular and thus results in irregular distribution of tobacco along the length of the stream formed on the conveyor.
  • Various proposals have been made, in an endeavour to overcome this difiiculty, for means to give the falling tobacco a component of movement in the direction of movement of the conveyor.
  • the falling tobacco particles are, relatively to the conveyor, moving rearwardly at an acute angle to the conveyor surface. If the upper surface of the tobacco already on the conveyor has an irregular or wavy contour, the higher portions of the semi-formed stream will tend to intercept falling tobacco particles, with the result that tobacco will tend to pile up on or in front of such higher portions while the lower portions will be to some extent shielded by the high portions and thus not receive as much tobacco as they otherwise would, In this way the irregularity already existing (due to irregular bouncing of the tobacco or to any other cause) is aggravated.
  • a method of forming a filler in a tobacco manipulating machine wherein tobacco is showered on to a slow moving conveyor moving lengthwise of the shower to form thereon a stream or carpet whose volume per unit length is several times the volume per unit length of the final filler, said stream being manipulated to average its inequalities as far as possible to provide a stream more uniform than the stream as showered, the manipulated stream being then transferred endwise to a faster moving conveyor and the relative conveyor speeds being such that the stream on the faster conveyor is of a volume per unit length of the order of the volume per unit length of the final filler.
  • the fast conveyor may be that on which the filler is formed to its final shape.
  • Manipulation of the first said stream may take place in various ways but is preferably elfected by feeding the stream into a passage from which it emerges at a slower speed than the speed of entry.
  • An example of such manipulation is described in U.S. Patent 2,671,452, granted March 9, 1954, to this applicant and another.
  • the stream in the present case is formed as a carpet, that is, a wide and relatively shallow stream, it is possible for tobacco to move'about laterally as well as endwise or, at least, the tobacco has more freedom for lateral movement than in a narrow stream, As will be seen later in the example specifically described, 'manipulation takes place on a stream containing a quantity of tobacco per unit length about three times the quantity per unit length of. a cigarette filler.
  • a tobacco manipulating machine e.g. a cigarettemaking machine of the continuous rod type
  • a fast conveyor to receive tobacco and carry it lengthwise as a stream at high speed (e.g. at or above the speed of the cigarette rod)
  • means to discharge tobacco e.g. from a hopper
  • slow conveyor arranged to move lengthwise of the shower at a slower speed than that of the said fast conveyor
  • said slow conveyor carrying the tobacco thereon into a passage having an entry of which said conveyor constitutes the bottom wall and having smooth faced side walls and a smooth faced top wall formed by an upper conveyor moving in the same direction as the slow conveyor but at a higher speed, the passage continuing beyond the delivery end of the slow conveyor with a bottom wall formed as a smooth plate, and transfer means to transfer tobacco from the outlet of the passage to said fast conveyor in such manner that the movement of the tobacco, as it reaches the said fast conveyor, has a substantial component in the same direction as the movement of the said fast conveyor.
  • said component is so substantial that the tobacco reaching the fast conveyor is moving substantially at the speed of said conveyor.
  • the said transfer means may comprise picker mechanism to remove tobacco from the outlet of the passage and impel it at the desired speed and in the desired direction towards the said fast conveyor.
  • the said fast conveyor is arranged at a lower level than the said slow conveyor.
  • it may be located beneath the slow conveyor, and may be arranged to run in the reverse direction to that of the slow conveyor. In the latter case, the direction of the tobacco will of course be reversed when it is transferred from the slow to the fast conveyor.
  • the transfer means may further comprise a toothed conveyor, for example a carded roller, on to which tobacco is fed from the outlet of the passage and from which it is picked by picker pins and thrown down on to the said fast conveyor in such a direction and at such a speed as to give the tobacco particles a component of movement as aforesaid on reaching the said fast conveyor.
  • the transfer means may also comprise means, such as fan blades or vanes on the picker roller, whereby an air current is directed in the general direction of movement of the thrown tobacco so as to assist in imparting the desired speed and direction to said tobacco.
  • the said toothed conveyor may be arranged to move with a surface speed lower than that of the said slow conveyor and the speed of the tobacco at the outlet from the passage so that tobacco while being fed on to the toothed conveyor becomes packed into the teeth of the latter.
  • the said slow conveyor will of course be much more heavily loaded with tobacco than will the fast conveyor.
  • the slow conveyor is preferably made considerably wider than the fast conveyor.
  • means is provided to restrict the width of the path through which tobacco pmses from the slow to the fast conveyor.
  • such means comprises converging guide walls to guide tobacco as it is thrown towards the fast conveyor.
  • the speed of the slow conveyor is preferably made as low as is reasonably practicable and convenient. This, however, is limited by the extent to which it is permissible to load the slow conveyor while enabling the tobacco to be transferred to the fast conveyor in a satisfactory way.
  • the slow conveyor may be arranged to slope downwardly in its direction of movement, and in that case it will be seen that vertically falling tobacco particles will have a component of movement in the direction of the conveyor and this may be made equal to the speed of the latter, which will further reduce the tendency of the falling particles to slip or to rebound irregularly on the slow conveyor.
  • a method of forming a filler in a tobacco manipulating machine comprising the steps of forming a. stream whose mass per unit length is at least a multiple of the mass per unit length required in the filler, feeding the said stream lengthwise into and through a passage in which its speed is reduced, whereby inequalities in the stream are reduced, and thereafter, while continuing the lengthwise feeding of the stream, accelerating it so as to reduce its mass per unit length to that required in the final filler.
  • the said stream is formed by showering tobacco on to a conveyor whose speed is substantially less than the speed of the final filler.
  • apparatus for forming a filler comprising means to form a stream whose mass per unit length is at least a multiple of the mass per unit length required in the filler (e.g. by showering tobacco onto a relatively slowly moving conveyor), a passage through which said stream is fed lengthwise, means to reduce the speed of the stream within the passage, means to continue the forward feeding of the stream and means to accelerate the tobacco during the continued forward movement of the stream so as to reduce its mass per unit length to that required in the filler.
  • FIGURE 1 is a view partly in section looking at the root of a tobacco hopper of a cigarette-making machine and showing the collector conveyor and associated parts.
  • FIGURE 2 is a plan of the collecting conveyor of FIGURE 1.
  • FIGURE 3 is a section of FIGURE 1 on the line 3-3 and also shows part of the interior of the tobacco hopper.
  • FIGURE 4 is a diagram of the whole machine showing how the tobacco reaches the rod-forming mechanism.
  • FIGURE 5 shows a slightly modified construction of FIGURE 1.
  • FIGURE 6 is a section of FIGURE 1 on the line 6--6.
  • FIGURE 7 shows a modification to a picker roller.
  • FIGURE 8 shows another modification to a picker roller.
  • FIGURE 9 shows a modified arrangement of the collecting conveyor.
  • tobacco is showered down in the direction of the vertical arrows by devices shown in FIGURE 3 and falls on a slow conveyor consisting of a collecting conveyor belt 2. If desired this belt may slope downwardly in the direction of its movement as shown in FIGURE 9.
  • FIGURE 3 3 is a combining roller in a hopper 4, and 5 is a picking roller which picks tobacco from the carding on the roller 3.
  • the picking operation takes place at the edge of a sloping plate 6, and the tobacco is forthwith thrown upwards at an angle by a winnower 7. Stalks and other heavy pieces are thrown over a partition, formed by a shield 9 and are thus separated from the tobacco and collected.
  • the fall on to the slow conveyor is slower than if the picked tobacco were thrown down on to the said conveyor and this is advantageous.
  • the remaining tobacco partly slides down the shield 9, on to the belt 2, while some just falls freely on the belt.
  • the shield 9 is canted with respect to the belt so that its bottom edge 9A, FIGURE 2, runs obliquely across the belt from one end to the other. That is, the far end, FIGURE 3, of the shield, corner 9B, is near one side of the belt while the near end, corner 9C, is near belt 2.
  • a guide 8 At the side of the belt nearer the winnower' is a guide 8 so as to form with the shield 9 a passage for the tobacco falling towards the belt 2.
  • the space is filled by a roller 8A, the roller being rotated so that tobacco or dust deposited thereon is transferred to the passage and thence to the belt.
  • the belt is about 3 or 4" wide whereas the width of the stream formed. on the hopper tape of an ordinary cigarette machine is say ll%" Wide, assuming that a flat stream is being formed.
  • the showered tobacco then forms a wide carpet on the belt.
  • a toothed or pin-roller 10 At the right-handend of FIGURE 1, is a toothed or pin-roller 10 and to the left of this is a picker-roller 11. Tobacco is delivered to the pin roller as described later and pressed into the pin-roller by a smooth roller 10A.
  • the pins 11A of the picker roller 11 are canted backwards as considered in the direction of rotation and this helps the picker roller to pick the tobacco from the pin-roller without appreciable breakage.
  • the peripheral speed of the pin-roller 10 is less than the linear speed of the belt 2 so that a certain amount of packing action occurs during the transfer of tobacco from belt to pin-roller.
  • a concave 12 surrounds the right hand side of the pin-roller and tobacco is picked at the edge 12A of the concave in the usual way.
  • the picked tobacco is thrown down a chute 13 on to a second conveyor 14.
  • This conveyor see FIGURE 3, is narrow so its speed will be proportionately greater than that of the belt 2. Because it is narrow relatively to the belt 2, the chute 13 has converging side walls, see FIGURE 3.
  • the picker roller 11 runs at a high speed and the tobacco is flung down the chute at a very high linear speed.
  • the path of the shreds is at an angle (in the construtcion shown, 64) to the surface of the conveyor 14 and the speed of the shreds should preferably be such that if it is resolved into components parallel to the conveyor and at right angles thereto, the parallel component is substantially equal to the conveyor speed, so that there is no material tendency for the tobacco to slip on the conveyor 14, and particles which rebound will tend to return to the spot first struck. Further, any tendency for piling up in front of upstanding tobacco shreds is materially reduced. In this way transfer to the second conveyor is effected with a minimum of disturbance.
  • means for causing an air current may be provided, said current being directed in the general direction of movement of the thrown tobacco to help to impart the desired speed and direction thereto.
  • the current is caused by small vanes or blades 118, FIGURE 1, on the picker roller which is thus adapted to act as a fan.
  • FIGURE 7 An alternative construction is shown in FIGURE 7 where picking is effected by wide blades 27 which also serve to produce the air current. on a plate and each blade picks tobacco from alternate spaces between the pins of the roller w.
  • the succeeding plate has its blades 28 which are shown in broken lines I staggered with respect to the blades of the plate shown in full lines and picks tobacco from the spaces between the other pins.
  • the rows of the picker pins on roller 11 may be disposed helically, that is the pins form helices winding round and along the roller.
  • this arrangement which is diagrammatically illustrated in FIGURE 8 only one picker pin is in line with the edge 12A of the concave at any moment and it is thought that this will be beneficial as it gives a continuous picking action.
  • the conveyor 14 may slope upwards in the direction of its movement to suit certain kinds of machines, for example, as will be seen in FIGURE 4, the conveyor 14 has to raise the tobacco to a position where it can pass into a smooth passage 15, of the kind described in copending Patent 2,671,452 aforesaid. At the bottom of this passage is a paper web 16 which carries the filler through the rod forming, sealing, and cutting devices of the kind commonly used on continuous rod cigarettemaking machines.
  • the slow conveyor has its delivery end spaced some distance from the pin roller 10, the intervening space being filled by a plate 17 which is made of metal (e.g. steel) and has a smooth top surface. Above this plate and extending towards the upper part of the pin roller in one direction and some distance over the end of the slow conpassage there are three smooth walls and one not quite 1 so smooth, namely, the surface of the conveyor. Beyond the delivery endof the conveyor 2 the whole passage has smooth walls.
  • This structure tends to operate on the moving tobacco in a manner identical with or at least analogous to that described in the above-mentioned patent and the uniformity of the tobacco mass is considerably improved in transit. It is thought that the device actually operates as follows:
  • the exit of the passage is smooth for some distance, the direct force due to friction between the tobacco and the slow conveyor ceases as the tobacco runs on to the smooth plate 17 and this frictional force is only exerted on the tobacco in the entirely smooth part of the passage as an endwise pressure from following tobacco still on the slow conveyor.
  • the upper conveyor 18, which preferably runs very much faster than the conveyor 2 (say two and a half times as fast), does not exert any ma-
  • the blades are formed terial driving force on the tobacco because the conveyor 18 is smooth and at the most there is only a very slight pressure or frictional drive between it and tobacco in the passage but the drive is greatest where the tobacco is sufficiently packed to cause it to rise high in the passage.
  • the device as aforesaid operates in a manner analogous to that of the apparatus described in the aforesaid specification but owing to the horizontal disposition in the present case some increase in endwise force on the moving tobacco seems to occur. At any rate the operation is decidedly beneficial.
  • the width of the passage is on the liberal side, that is, in the example illustrated, the width may be such that there is really room for the tobacco content of four cigarettes to lie side by side across the passage, though in fact the mass of moving tobacco only amounts to the content of three cigarettes side by side. This permits massed tobacco to move laterally under the said elastic pressure.
  • the plate 17 may be about the length of a cigarette.
  • the upper conveyor is carried on rollers 10A and 10B and driven from the latter, the roller 10A also serving to compress tobacco into the pin roller as previously mentioned.
  • the slow conveyor is marked 20 and a presser roller 21 presses the tobacco into a carded or pin roller 22 having a concave shield 23.
  • the picker roller 24 beneath the carded roller picks the tobacco therefrom and carries it around a concave 25 to discharge it on to a belt 26 with a substantial component of movement in the direction of travel of the conveyor 26.
  • a cigarette-making machine of the continuous rod type comprising a fast conveyor to receive tobacco and carry it lengthwise as a stream at high speed of the order of the speed of the cigarette rod in a cigarette-making machine, means to discharge tobacco in the form of a shower having a horizontal cross-section which is elongated in one direction, a slow conveyor arranged to move beneath the shower and transversely of the direction of elongation of the shower, and at a speed not more than one-third the speed of the said fast conveyor, to intercept the showered tobacco, a passage having smooth walls into which the tobacco is carried by the said slow conveyor, said walls comprising two smooth faced side walls and a smooth faced top wall formed by an upper conveyor moving in the same direction as the slow conveyor but at a higher speed and a smooth bottom wall provided in part by the said slow conveyor and in part by a smooth plate which forms a continuation of the bottom wall ofthe passage beyond the delivery end of the slow conveyor, transfer means to transfer tobacco from the outlet of the passage to said fast conveyor, said slow conveyor being substantially wider than the

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US705252A 1957-01-04 1957-12-26 Machines for manipulating cut tobacco Expired - Lifetime US3028866A (en)

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GB436/57A GB829319A (en) 1957-01-04 1957-01-04 Improvements in or relating to machines for manipulating cut tobacco

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FR (1) FR1197736A (fr)
GB (1) GB829319A (fr)

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* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB2087213B (en) * 1980-09-24 1984-12-12 Molins Ltd Cigarette making machine

Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US355590A (en) * 1887-01-04 Tobacco-scrap breaker
GB324930A (en) * 1928-11-05 1930-02-03 William Frederick Grupe Improvements in or relating to tobacco-feeding machines
GB456865A (en) * 1935-02-09 1936-11-17 Muller J C & Co Continuous-rod cigarette-making machine
GB501518A (en) * 1937-07-30 1939-02-28 George Dearsley Improvements in and relating to tobacco-feeding mechanism for cigarette-making machines
US2149925A (en) * 1934-07-20 1939-03-07 Molins Machine Co Ltd Method of and apparatus for feeding tobacco to cigarette-making or tobacco-packaging machines
GB519470A (en) * 1938-10-17 1940-03-26 Desmond Walter Molins Improvements in or relating to methods and apparatus for forming continuous tobacco rods
US2340914A (en) * 1941-06-06 1944-02-08 American Mach & Foundry Detector for vibratory column cigarette feeds
US2671452A (en) * 1948-04-22 1954-03-09 Molins Machine Co Ltd Apparatus for making continuous fillers on cigarette making machines of the continuous rod type
FR1146708A (fr) * 1955-01-28 1957-11-14 Molins Machine Co Ltd Perfectionnements aux machines à manipuler le tabac haché
US2830693A (en) * 1955-05-31 1958-04-15 Koerber & Co Kg Device for automatically feeding and distributing cut tobacco

Patent Citations (11)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US355590A (en) * 1887-01-04 Tobacco-scrap breaker
GB324930A (en) * 1928-11-05 1930-02-03 William Frederick Grupe Improvements in or relating to tobacco-feeding machines
US2149925A (en) * 1934-07-20 1939-03-07 Molins Machine Co Ltd Method of and apparatus for feeding tobacco to cigarette-making or tobacco-packaging machines
GB456865A (en) * 1935-02-09 1936-11-17 Muller J C & Co Continuous-rod cigarette-making machine
GB501518A (en) * 1937-07-30 1939-02-28 George Dearsley Improvements in and relating to tobacco-feeding mechanism for cigarette-making machines
GB519470A (en) * 1938-10-17 1940-03-26 Desmond Walter Molins Improvements in or relating to methods and apparatus for forming continuous tobacco rods
US2340914A (en) * 1941-06-06 1944-02-08 American Mach & Foundry Detector for vibratory column cigarette feeds
US2671452A (en) * 1948-04-22 1954-03-09 Molins Machine Co Ltd Apparatus for making continuous fillers on cigarette making machines of the continuous rod type
FR1146708A (fr) * 1955-01-28 1957-11-14 Molins Machine Co Ltd Perfectionnements aux machines à manipuler le tabac haché
US2833290A (en) * 1955-01-28 1958-05-06 Molins Machine Co Ltd Machines for manipulating cut tobacco
US2830693A (en) * 1955-05-31 1958-04-15 Koerber & Co Kg Device for automatically feeding and distributing cut tobacco

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GB829319A (en) 1960-03-02
FR1197736A (fr) 1959-12-02

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