WO2006016246A1

WO2006016246A1 - A method and a machine for making filter cigarettes

Info

Publication number: WO2006016246A1
Application number: PCT/IB2005/002308
Authority: WO
Inventors: Salvatore Rizzoli; Fiorenzo Draghetti
Original assignee: G.D S.P.A.
Priority date: 2004-08-09
Filing date: 2005-07-25
Publication date: 2006-02-16
Also published as: JP4585003B2; JP2008508897A; CN1993062A; CN100512692C; ATE423478T1; EP1791446A1; EP1791446B1; DE602005012971D1; ITBO20040521A1

Abstract

Double length cigarette rods (13) are directed at a given pitch (p) into the flutes (12) of an infeed roller (8) at the infeed section (5) of a line (2) set up to manufacture filter cigarettes, and cut transversely to obtain pairs of single cigarette sticks (17) which are then distanced axially one from another to allow the insertion of a double length filter plug (21), creating an assembly (24) of three axially aligned elements, stick, filter and stick, that will be joined together permanently by a tipping paper (4). The assemblies (24) are taken up in succession by alternating first and second flutes (28, 29) on a final roller (25) of the infeed section (5) and, as the roller (25) rotates, ordered into closely spaced pairs by moving each of the second flutes (29) nearer to a relative adjacent first flute (28); the distance separating successive pairs of assemblies (24) is thus rendered substantially equal to the width of one tipping paper (4), so that a paper (4) can be attached to one f the two assemblies (24) before both are released selectively to two branches (26, 27) of a rolling section (6) arranged in parallel one with another.

Description

A method and a machine for making filter cigarettes

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method and a machine for making filter cigarettes .

Background Art

The prior art embraces a method of manufacturing cigarettes with filter tips, whereby the outfeed stage of a cigarette maker is linked to the infeed stage of a filter tip attachment machine in such a way that the production line of the latter machine can be fed with a succession of "double" cigarette rods, that is, rods of which the length measures twice the length of a single cigarette stick that will be joined ultimately to a relative filter plug with a tipping paper and emerge as a conventional filter cigarette.

Internally of the filter tip attachment machine, along an infeed section of the production line, the double length cigarette rods are cut transversely in half to form successive pairs of single sticks which are then distanced axially and separated one from another by interposing a double length filter plug, so that each double length cigarette rod will form the basis of an assembly comprising two single cigarette sticks and a double length filter.

Each assembly is fashioned into a double length cigarette by wrapping a tipping paper around the double filter plug and around a part of the single cigarette stick on either side, as the assembly is caused to advance along an intermediate rolling section of the production line.

The tipping papers are fed to the intermediate rolling section in such a way that each one will enter into contact with a relative assembly by way of a leading longitudinal edge and thus project initially to the rear of the assembly; accordingly, each assembly must be separated from the assembly next in succession by a distance equal at least to the width of the tipping paper.

The step of wrapping each tipping paper around the relative double filter plug is brought about generally by causing the assemblies to roll against a relative rolling surface, whereupon the double cigarettes thus fashioned are advanced toward an outfeed section of the production line where each double cigarette is cut in half to give two single filter cigarettes, placed end to end, of which one will then be flipped in such a way as to obtain a single succession of cigarettes all with the filter tip oriented in the same direction.

Of all the steps mentioned thus far, the rolling step is particularly critical. More exactly, if the speed of the rolling action is allowed to increase beyond a given limit, tobacco may be dislodged from the free ends of the single cigarette sticks, or the cigarette paper may tear, or both.

Since the angular velocity of the single sticks during the rolling step will be directly dependent on the linear velocity at which they are advanced along the rolling surface, certain solutions can be adopted in order to reduce the speed at which the sticks are fed onto the surface, and therefore the speed at which the selfsame sticks are caused to rotate in the course of the rolling step.

One such solution disclosed in US Patent 5,715,838 consists in advancing the sticks along the infeed section of the production line by means of rollers designed to retain the selfsame sticks in flutes that are set close together, and more precisely, spaced apart around the periphery of the relative rollers at a pitch typically half the width of a tipping paper used to join the double cigarettes; another envisages embodying the rolling section as disclosed in US Patent 4,745,932, that is to say split into two parallel branches positioned one above the other, onto which the stick-and-filter assemblies emerging from the infeed section of the production line are directed in alternating sequence.

In this way, the assemblies advancing along each rolling branch will be spaced apart at a distance twice the length of the pitch at which the selfsame assemblies are directed along the infeed section, and the tipping papers can therefore be attached without difficulty.

The solution disclosed in US 5,715,838 betrays certain drawbacks, and chiefly the fact that with tipping papers cut from two continuous strips of material, one of these has necessarily to pass from the relative feed device across the production line to reach one of the two rolling sections.

This drawback is addressed and overcome adopting the solution of European Patent EP 1 108 369, owned by the present applicant, to which reference can be made for a full description.

The solution in question is one whereby double length cigarette rods taken up onto a roller of the infeed section are ordered into successive pairs, with the two rods side by side and closely spaced.

The pitch at which the pairs of cigarette rods are caused to advance, that is to say the distance that separates each pair of flutes accommodating two relative double length rods from the next pair of flutes in sequence, is substantially equal to the width of one tipping paper.

Maintaining this particular arrangement with the double length rods advancing in pairs, throughout their passage on the rollers of the infeed section, the rod of each pair located forwardmost along the direction of rotation of the rollers can receive a relative tipping paper at a given point before its transfer to the respective branch of the rolling section, and more exactly at the roller from which the two rolling branches depart. The rearwardmost rod of each pair is furnished in turn with a tipping paper during its passage along the relative rolling branch.

Thus, where tipping papers are cut from two webs of continuous strip material, it becomes possible to avoid a situation in which one of the strips has to pass from the relative feed device across the production line, as envisaged in US 5,715,838.

Nonetheless, the solution disclosed in the above noted EP 1 108 369 also presents certain drawbacks.

Firstly, the double length rods are ordered into successive pairs on the aforementioned roller of the infeed section, each two rods side by side and closely spaced, by means of a transfer unit linking the cigarette maker and the filter tip attachment machine, which is composed of two mutually parallel lines and therefore complicated and costly.

Secondly, the operation by which filter plugs are fed to and assembled with the double length rods of each pair is difficult to accomplish. Consequently, to ensure the filter plugs are inserted correctly into flutes lying all but in contact one with the next, two distinct filter feed lines are needed.

Clearly, this requirement is also a contributory factor in driving up production costs.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and a machine for making filter cigarettes from which the aforementioned drawbacks are absent . Disclosure of the Invention

The stated object is duly realized in a method of which the essential features are recited in claim 1 appended, and in a machine of which the features are recited in claim 6. The invention will now be described in detail, by^¬ way of example, with the aid of the accompanying drawings, in which:

-figure 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the machine according to the present invention, viewed schematically in a side elevation and with parts omitted for clarity; -figure 2 shows an enlarged detail of figure 1.

With reference to figure 1 of the accompanying drawings, 1 denotes a machine for making filter cigarettes, in its entirety.

The machine 1 comprises a production line 2 for the manufacture of filter-tipped cigarettes, which in turn comprises a train of rollers rotatable about respective mutually parallel axes extending normal to the viewing plane of figure 1, and two identical devices 3 located on the same side of the production line 2, denoted 3a and 3b respectively, by which tipping papers 4 are fed to the rollers.

The production line 2 is made up of an infeed section 5, a rolling section 6, and an outfeed section 7.

The infeed section 5 comprises a first infeed roller 8 connected in conventional manner by way of transfer means, shown schematically as a block 9, to the garniture section 10 of a cigarette maker, shown in phantom lines as a block 11, from which two continuous cigarette rods emerge.

The first infeed roller 8 is furnished with a plurality of aspirating flutes 12 spaced apart at a predetermined pitch p corresponding to the distance between the two cigarette rods advancing along the garniture section 10, into which discrete rods 13 double the length of a single cigarette stick are directed by the transfer device 9.

Rotating anticlockwise as viewed in figure 1, the first roller 8 transfers the rods 13 to a second roller 14, rotating tangential to the first roller 8 and furnished likewise with aspirating flutes 15 spaced apart at the same pitch p as the flutes 12 aforementioned, each accommodating one rod 13.

As the second roller 14 rotates clockwise, the rods 13 occupying the flutes 15 are cut in half transversely by a cutter device 16 of conventional embodiment to produce axially aligned pairs of single cigarette sticks 17.

The second roller 14, at a given point downstream of the cutter device 16, rotates tangentially to a third distancing roller 18 of conventional type forming part of the infeed section 5 and furnished with flutes 19 spaced apart at the same pitch p as the flutes mentioned above, each accommodating a pair of axially aligned single cigarette sticks 17.

The distancing roller 18 is equipped with movable mechanisms 20 of conventional embodiment such as will engage the single cigarette sticks 17 of each pair, as the roller 18 rotates, and separate them by a distance marginally greater than the length of a double length filter plug 21. The pairs of cigarette sticks 17 are transferred from the distancing roller 18, as it rotates in the anticlockwise direction, to a fourth roller 23 set in rotation clockwise and furnished with respective flutes 22 spaced part around the periphery at the same pitch p as the flutes mentioned above. Before taking up a pair of cigarette sticks 17 separated axially by the distancing roller 18, each flute 22 of the fourth roller 23 receives a double length filter plug 21 from a conventional feed device 21a at a point upstream of the area where this same roller 23 rotates tangentially to the distancing roller 18.

The two cigarette sticks 17 of each pair combine with a filter plug 21 of double length, interposed between them, to create a respective assembly 24 of three elements 17, 21 and 17 (stick-filter-stick) occupying each flute 22 of the fourth roller 23.

On arrival at a transfer station denoted T, the assemblies 24 pass from the fourth roller 23 to a final roller 25 of the infeed section 5, rotating anticlockwise as seen in figure 1, from which the succession of assemblies 24 will then be directed (as described in due course) onto two branches of the aforementioned rolling section 6, indicated respectively as an upper branch 26 and as a lower branch 27 extending in parallel one with another and converging at the outfeed section 7.

More exactly, and as illustrated in figure 2, the final roller 25 is furnished with a set of fixed first aspirating flutes denoted 28, spaced apart at a pitch 2p twice the length of the pitch p first mentioned, and a set of movable second aspirating flutes denoted 29.

The fixed first flutes 28 are presented by the free ends of respective blocks 30, integral with and projecting substantially in a radial direction from the outer cylindrical surface of the final roller 25, whereas the movable second flutes 29 are presented by the free ends of respective arms 31. The arms 31 in question are mounted to respective shafts 32 ordered around the periphery of the final roller 25 and caused by respective actuator means of conventional embodiment (not illustrated) to alternate between two operating positions, pivoting on respective axes 33 disposed parallel to the axis of rotation A of the roller 25.

The first such operating position is assumed at the aforementioned transfer station T, where each movable second flute 29 occupies an intermediate position between two fixed flutes 28 such that all the flutes 28 and 29 of the roller 25 are spaced apart at the pitch p first mentioned.

The second operating position is assumed during the rotation of the roller 25 about the relative axis A, at a point downstream of the station T. As a result of the aforementioned arms 31 being caused to rotate about the respective axes 33, the second flutes 29 are brought closer to the fixed first flutes 28 immediately upstream, relative to the direction of rotation of the roller 25, so that the distance between each pair of assemblies 24 and the pair of assemblies 24 next in sequence will be substantially equal to the width of a single tipping paper 4.

In operation, as the final roller 25 rotates anticlockwise beyond the transfer station T, the movable flutes 29 are caused to pivot clockwise on the respective axes 33, with the result that the assemblies 24 are ordered into successive closely spaced pairs, before passing through a station Tl where the assembly 24 occupying each fixed flute 28 will receive a tipping paper 4 from an aspirating feed roller 34 forming part of the aforementioned feed device 3a.

Also forming part of this same device 3a is a cutter roller 35 operating in conjunction with the feed roller 34 to divide the tipping papers 4 from a continuous strip 36 of material.

When passing through the station denoted Tl, the distance between each fixed flute 28, containing an assembly 24 that will receive a tipping paper 4, and the movable flute 29 next in sequence, is equal to or marginally greater than the width of a single tipping paper 4.

It will be seen that the block 30 of each fixed flute 28 is furnished with an element denoted 37, which serves to provide a rest for the free end of a respective tipping paper 4 when attached to an assembly 24 occupying the first flute 28, and thus prevent the gummed surface of the tipping paper 4 coming into contact with the relative block 30.

Following the pivoting movement of the second flutes 29 about the respective axes 33, moreover, the radial distance of these same flutes 29 from the axis of rotation A of the roller 25 reduces by an amount such as will prevent any contact between the respective assemblies 24 and the roller 34 from which the tipping papers 4 are received.

As the final roller 25 continues to rotate, the assemblies 24 occupying the movable flutes 29 are released at a transfer station denoted T2 to the flutes 38 of an infeed roller 39 forming part of the aforementioned upper rolling branch 26, whilst the assemblies 24 occupying the fixed flutes 28 and furnished already with relative tipping papers 4 will be released at a transfer station denoted T3 to the flutes 40 of an infeed roller 41 forming part of the lower rolling branch 27.

As regards the attachment of tipping papers 4 to the assemblies 24 advanced along the upper rolling branch 26 and occupying the flutes 38 of the infeed roller 39, which will receive the papers 4 from the feed device denoted 3b, this same step is disclosed in European patent EP 1 108 369, to which reference may be made for a full description. Similarly, as regards the assemblies 24 already with tipping papers 4 attached, which are released to the flutes 40 of the infeed roller 41 forming part of the lower rolling branch 27, these too are described further in European patent EP 1 108 369. The assemblies 24 rolled and released by the upper branch 26 and the lower branch 27 converge onto a roller 42 constituting the first roller of the outfeed section 7.

At a given point downstream of the last transfer station T3 mentioned, with the roller 25 continuing to rotate, the arms 31 will pivot anticlockwise in such a manner as to return the second flutes 29 to their initial operating position and thus restore uniform pitch p between the fixed flutes 28 and the movable flutes 29 of the roller 25 as they approach the first transfer station T.

In conclusion, it will be seen that the entire production line 2 of a machine for making filter cigarettes according to the present invention is optimized and simplified compared to those of the prior art mentioned at the outset.

Claims

1) A method of making filter cigarettes comprising the steps of

- feeding double length cigarette rods (13) into respective flutes (12) , spaced apart at a predetermined pitch (p) , presented by an infeed roller (8) making up the infeed section (5) of a filter cigarette production line (2) ; cutting the double length cigarette rods (13) transversely at a point along the infeed section (5) to obtain pairs of single cigarette sticks (17) aligned axially one with another;

- distancing the cigarette sticks (17) of each pair axially one from another along the infeed section (5) ; - placing a double length filter plug (21) between each pair of single sticks (17) so as to form an assembly (24) of three axially aligned elements;

- directing the assemblies (24) at the predetermined pitch (p) into flutes (28, 29) presented by a final roller (25) of the infeed section (5) ;

- attaching a tipping paper (4) to each assembly (24) by means of two feed devices (3a, 3b) positioned both on the same side of the production line (2) ; and,

- joining the double length filter plug (21) to the single cigarette sticks (17) by affixing the relative tipping paper (4) to the assembly (24) along a rolling section (6) of the production line (2) comprising an upper branch (26) and a lower branch (27) departing from the final roller (25) of the infeed section (5) , characterized in that it includes steps implemented during the rotation of the final infeed roller (25) , of which the flutes (28, 29) consist in first flutes (28) and second flutes (29) alternated one with another, whereby the assemblies (24) are ordered in closely spaced pairs so that the distance between one pair of assemblies (24) and the pair of assemblies (24) next in sequence is substantially equal to the width of a single tipping paper (4) , and tipping papers (4) are attached to the assemblies (24) occupying the first flutes (28) .

2) A method as in claim 1, wherein the step whereby assemblies (24) are ordered into a closely spaced pair is effected by moving a second flute (29) nearer to an adjacent first flute (28) .

3) A method as in claim 2, wherein the step whereby assemblies (24) are ordered into a closely spaced pair includes a subsidiary step of reducing the distance of the second flute (29) from the axis of rotation (A) of the final roller (25) of the infeed portion (5) .

4) A method as in claims 2 and 3, wherein the step of moving the second flute (29) nearer to the first flute (28) and the subsidiary step of reducing the distance of the second flute (29) from the axis of rotation (A) of the final roller (25) are effected by causing the second flutes (29) to pivot about respective axes (33) disposed parallel to the axis of rotation (A) of the final roller (25) .

5) A method as in preceding claims, comprising steps in which the assemblies (24) occupying the first flutes (28) are directed onto the lower rolling branch (27) of the rolling section (6) and the assemblies (24) occupying the second flutes (29) are directed onto the upper rolling branch (26) .

6) A machine for making filter cigarettes, comprising an infeed section (5) and a rolling section (6) , of which the infeed section (5) incorporates a first infeed roller (8) linked to the outfeed stage of a cigarette maker (1) , furnished peripherally with a plurality of flutes

(12) serving to accommodate respective double length cigarette rods

(13) , a second roller

(14) affording respective flutes

(15) and equipped with respective cutter means

(16) , by which the double length rods (13) are taken up from the first roller (8) and divided transversely to obtain pairs of axially aligned single cigarette sticks (17) , each pair of sticks (17) occupying a respective flute (15) of the selfsame roller (14) , a third distancing roller (18) by which the single cigarette sticks (17) of each pair are separated one from the other, a fourth roller (23) affording respective flutes (22) , each serving to accommodate a pair of cigarette sticks (17) received from the third distancing roller (18) and a double length filter plug (21) received from a relative feed device (21a) , creating an assembly (24) of three axially aligned and symmetrically arrayed elements, stick-filter- stick, and a final roller (25) by which the assemblies (24) are transferred from the fourth roller (23) of the infeed section (5) to an upper branch (26) and a lower branch (27) of the rolling section (6) , also two feed devices (3a, 3b) by which a tipping paper (4) is attached to each assembly (24), characterized in that the final roller (25) comprises sets of first and second flutes (28, 29) alternated one with another, of which each second flute (29) is capable of movement in relation to a respective adjacent first flute (28) between one operating position in which the assemblies (24) are taken up from the fourth roller (23) at the predetermined pitch (p) , and another operating position in which the assemblies (24) are ordered into closely spaced pairs, side by side, in such a manner that the distance between each pair of assemblies (24) and the pair of assemblies (24) next in sequence is substantially equal to the width of one tipping paper (4) . 7) A machine as in claim 6, wherein the first flutes (28) are associated rigidly with the final roller (25) and the second flutes (29) are pivotable on axes (33) disposed parallel to the axis of rotation (A) of the selfsame final roller (25) .

8) A machine as in claim 7, wherein each first flute (28) comprises an element (37) on which to rest a free end of a respective tipping paper (4) attached to an assembly (24) occupying the first flute (28) .

9) A machine as in claim 8, wherein each assembly (24) occupying a first flute (28) and furnished with a relative tipping paper (4) is released to an infeed roller (41) of the lower rolling branch (27) , and each assembly (24) occupying a second flute (29) is released to an infeed roller (39) of the upper rolling branch (26) .