US3545172A

US3545172A - Cigarette packeting machine

Info

Publication number: US3545172A
Application number: US679425A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ragnar Osterdahl
Original assignee: Arenco AB
Current assignee: Arenco AB
Priority date: 1966-11-11
Filing date: 1967-10-31
Publication date: 1970-12-08
Anticipated expiration: 1987-12-08
Also published as: GB1203259A; FR1550379A; DE1980633U; ES346998A1; CH470998A; AT273816B; BR6794519D0; DE1561962A1; NL6715262A

Description

Dec. 8, 1970 OSTERDAHL 3,545,172

CIGARETTE PACKETING MACHINE Filed Oct. 31, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet l Flg 1 1970 R. OSTERDAHL CIGARETTE PACKETING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet! Filed Oct. 31, 1967 United States Patent 3,545,172 CIGARETTE PACKETING MACHINE Ragnar lsterdahl, Stockholm, Sweden, assignor to Arenco Aktiebolag, Stockholm-Vallingby, Sweden Filed Oct. 31, 1967, Ser. No. 679,425 Claims priority, application Sweden, Nov. 11, 1966, 15,504/ 66 Int. Cl. B65]: 5/02, 19/24 US. Cl. 53-192 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cigarette packeting machine comprising a first endless conveying means provided with cigarette portion holders, a second endless conveying means provided with container forming mandrels, means for forming container on said mandrels and a third endless conveying means provided with means for receiving filled containers, said conveying means being driven continuously and having a common conveying path in which said cigarette portion holders, said mandrels and said container receiving means travel positioned in register with each other and in cooperation with rams adapted to push cigarette portions from said holders through said mandrels and, together with said containers, into said container receiving means.

The present invention is concerned with a cigarette packeting machine including means for dispensing cigarette portions from a cigarette store to a number of cigarette portion holders moving in a closed path; a second closed path lying adjacent said first path and provided with container forming mandrels and means for forming containers, open at one end, on the mandrels and a third path situated adjacent said second path.

A machine of this kind is described in detail in the Swedish patent specification 75,309. The machine presents an indexing wheel provided with container forming mandrels and folding arrangements. A portion of cigarettes is partially moved by means of a ram in a transfer station from a second indexing wheel, engaging said first wheel and having cigarette portion holders, into a container forming mandrel having a completed container located thereon, the said ram then being withdrawn to be reengaged with the cigarette portion during subsequent advances of the wheel presenting container forming mandrels and in a last station force out the cigarette portion together with the container onto a discharge path provided with folding means for closing the container. An apparatus of this type is capable of producing approximately 150 cigarette packages per minute. The capacity of the apparatus is limited due to the intermittent operation thereof and the accompanying difliculties of feeding the cigarette portions into the holders and into the container forming mandrels during the intervals between the various indexing movements.

The object of the present invention is to provide a cigarette packaging machine having a substantially increased capacity. This object is realized according to the invention in that the cigarette portion holders are attached on a continuously driven conveyor which extends parallel with a portion of the path of the container forming mandrels, which path is also continuously driven, and connected mechanically with said path so that a filled cigarette portion holder and a container forming mandrel supporting a finished container are in register with one another during the passage of the common path portion, along which a cam curve attached in the frame extends and is arranged to move the ram belonging to the mandrel through the cigarette portion holder and the container forming mandrel for discharging the cigarette package onto the said path provided with receiving means.

The essential characteristic of the present invention is that the cigarette portion holders have been arranged on a continuously operated conveyor. By using such conveyor a portion of the path common to the cigarette portion holders and the container forming mandrels and of such length can be obtained that the acceleration forces on the reciprocating rams is held within permitted limits, even at very high speeds of the two paths. If, as is the case in the above described known machine, the container forming mandrels are arranged on a drum it may be necessary at high rotary speeds of the drum to increase its diameter, which from the point of view of space can be difiicult in certain instances. Thus, also the container forming mandrels may alternatively be disposed on a short, endless conveyor.

No restriction of the capacity of the machine owing to diificulties of feeding the cigarette portion holders arise in the apparatus according to the invention. Due to the fact that the cigarette portion holders are arranged on a conveyor a number of separate reciprocatingly movable arrangements for simultaneously discharging the cigarette portions to individual cigarette portion holders can, without difiiculty, be arranged in the direction of movement of the cigarette portion holders.

The invention will be more closely described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings which show an embodiment of a machine according to the invention, wherein FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic end view of the machine and FIG. 2 is a section along the line II-II in FIG. 1.

The shown machine has a machine frame 1 in which chain wheels 3, 4, 5, 6 of an endless chain conveyor 2 are mounted. The conveyor 2 is driven by the chain wheel 6 which is securely attached to a drum 7 rotatably mounted on a shaft 8 attached to the frame. The drum 7 is driven by a drive shaft 9 provided with a pinion 10 engaging with a spur gear 11 mounted on the drum 7. The conveyor 2 has two chains 12, 13 'between which transversely open cigarette portion holders 14 are mounted. The holders 14 are of a known type, and are provided on the bottom surface thereof with a lever 15 by means of which the sides and top portion of the holders 14 can be displaced outwards, against the action of spring means (not shown).

Cigarette portions, composed of twenty cigarettes 16, are introduced into the holders 14 by means of two identical feeding arrangements 17, 18 each of which feed said portions to the holders 14 at the same time. Each feeding arrangement is of a known type and presents channels located between pivotally mounted plates 19; in which channels seven stacks of cigarettes are discharged from a storage means (not shown) to pockets 20 in front of fingers on an ejecting ram 21. The ram 21 and the pockets 20 are arranged on a plate 22 which is pivotally mounted on a shaft 23 on a slide 24 slidably mounted in the frame by means of a ball bearing 25. The slide 24 is driven by means of a reciprocating arm 26 synchronized with the drive of the chain conveyor 2. The ram 21 is movable transversely of the slide 24 by means of an arm 27 actuated synchronously with the arm 26.

When the pockets 20 are filled with three rows of cigarettes, the lower ends of the tWo outer plates 19 are urged inwardly somewhat by means of devices (not shown) so that the lower cigarettes in the passages are clamped, whereafter the pockets 20 are lowered somewhat by means of a roller 28, actuated by a cam 29. The slide 24 is then displaced in the direction of movement of the holders 14, simultaneously as twenty cigarettes (one cigarette in the centre row being retained in the pocket in a known manner by means of a shoulder not shown) are pushed by the fingers of the ram 21 into a holder 14 situated opposite the pockets, the said holder being held in an extended state by means of an association lever 15, which is actuated by a stationary curve 30. The ram 21 is then withdrawn and the slide 24 returns to the original starting position in preparation for feeding a subsequent holder, omitting that holder immediately following the holder just filled and which has already been filled by the feeding arrangement 18 arranged at previous station in the conveying path. The cigarettes are then compacted in the holders 14 and convayed to the drum 7. The drum 7 is provided with container forming mandrels 31 mounted circumferentially thereon and having the same pitch as the holders 14. The drum 7 and the chain conveyor 2 are so synchronized that a holder 14 and a mandrel 31 in the position marked A are adjusted in register with one another and retain this mutual position until reaching the position marked B. When a mandrel 31 arrives at position A it has been provided in a manner known per se with a container 32 formed of a first paper web 33 for an inner wrapper, which is wrapped on the mandrel 31 by means of a winding arrangement 34 and stationary and co-rotating folding means 35 and a glueing arrangement 36, and a second paper web 37 for an outer wrapper or pouch which by means of a further winding arrangement 38 and stationary and co-rotating folding means 39 and a glueing means is wrapped on the inner wrapper. The working method for a suitable type of arrangements for forming a container is described in detail in the Swedish patent specification 75,309.-

Slidably arranged around the outer circumference of the drum 7 are ejecting rams 40, disposed in register with each container forming mandrel 31. Each ram 40 has a rack 41 which engages a gearwheel 42 rotatably mounted on the drum and with which a second, smaller gear wheel 43 is fastened, thesaid gear wheel 43 being in engagement with gears on a rack 44 slidably mounted on the drum 7 and parallel to the ram 40. The rack 44'is provided with a cam ;followerroller 45 which moves in a groove 46 stationarily'arranged in the frame. Gear wheels 42, 43 are so adapted that displacement of the rack 44 causes the ram '40to move through a distance three times that moved by'said rackrThe groove 46 is so designed that the ram 40, during the folding operations, is located with its outer end 58 at thebottorn of associating container forming mandrel 31 to serve as a support at the bottom of the container during the folding operation. Before the sleeve 31 reaches the position A in FIG. 1 the ram 40 is retracted to be projected out against the ends of the cigarettes in associating cigarette holder 14 immediately after passing said point-A, the lever 15 of the holder '14 being actuated simultaneously by a curve (not shown) to reduce'the pressure of the holder 14 on the cigarettes during thesubsequent ejection of the cigaretteby means of the ram 40-into an associating mandrel 31. The cigarettes strike the bottom of the container in the'mandrel 31and upon continued movement of the ram 40 the cigarette portion together with the container is pushed'into a receiving member 47 situated opposite the mandre131; said member 47 being mounted on a continuously driven endless chain conveyor 48. The ram 40 is withdrawn before position B in FIG. 1 is reached. The conveyor 48 is provided with a number of receiving members, positioned with the same pitch as the mandrels 31 and 'moves over

chain wheels

49, 50 and 51. During its movement on the conveyor 48 the package passes a folding station 52 for folding and closing the top flaps of the cigarette package, whereupon the finished package is transferred by a ram (not shown) to a suitable collecting path, for instance the step-wise driven chain conveyor 53.

The longitudinal joints of the Cigarette containers are pressed together by an arm 54 pivotally mounted on the drum 7 at each mandrel 31 and provided with a pressure bar 55 and a cam follower roller 56 which cooperates with a cam curve 57 mounted securely on the shaft 8. When a package containing cigarettes is to be displaced into one of the receiving members 47 the roller 56 is actuated by the cam curve 57 so that the bar 55 is lifted from the packet.

The machine shown in the drawing and described above is capable of deliverying 400 packages per minute without difiiculty.

The invention is not restricted to the shown embodiment but can be varied arbitrarily within the scope of the following claims. The capacity of the machine can be increased still further by modifying the folding arrangements and the driving mechanisms of the rams 40'. As previously mentioned the drum 7 may also be changed for a short, endless conveyor. In this way the capacity of the machine can be increased considerably but at the same time the machine becomes more complicated since accurate guiding of the mandrels 31 is required during the folding operations.

What is claimed is:

1. A cigarette packeting machine comprising a machine frame, at least one cigarettestorage means mounted in said frame, a first endless conveying means, cigarette portion holders mounted on said endless conveying means, means for ejecting cigarette portions from said cigarette store to said cigarette portion holders, a second endless conveying means positioned adjacent to said first conveying means, container forming mandrels mounted on said second conveying .means and adapted to.receive cigarette portions from said holders, means for forming containers, open at one end, on said mandrels, a third endless conveying means positioned adjacent to said second conveying means, means attached to said third conveying means for receiving containers from said mandrels and for closing the ends of said containers, means for continuously driving each of said conveying means, each of said conveying means having a common conveying path in which a portion of each of said conveying means are positioned in parallel with each other and in which common conveying path said cigarette portion holders, said mandrels and said container receiving means travel positioned in register with each other and in cooperation with rams controlled by a cam fixedly mounted in the machine frame, said rams being adapted to push said cigarette portions from said cigarette portion holders through said mandrels into said container receiving means in one working operation.

2. A cigarette packeting machine according to claim 1, wherein said first conveying means and said third conveying means comprise endless chains supporting said cigarette portionholders and said container receiving means, respectively, and said second conveying means comprises a driven, drum supporting said mandrels, and said rams, and chain wheels also supported, by said drum, said chains of said first and said third conveying means being driven by said wheels.

3. A cigarette packeting machine according to claim 2, wherein at least two cigarette portion ejecting means are adapted to simultaneously cooperate with each a cigarette portion holder.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,426,503 2/ 1969 Sherrill 53151X 3,479,787 11/ 1969 Bardenhagen et a1. 53-192X THERON E. CONDON, Primary Examiner R. L. SPRUILL, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 53-236, 252