Patent ID: 6578583
Filing Date: 2003-06-17
Classification: A24C,G01N,Y10S

Abstract:
An apparatus for making and inspecting multi-component cigarettes, each cigarette including two or more different components arranged relative to one another, comprising:a device for advancing a web in a first direction; a device for positioning at least two different components of a cigarette relative to one another on the web as the web advances in the first direction; a garniture device for wrapping the web around the at least two different components of a cigarette by moving opposite edges of the web transversely to the first direction such that, at a closure point in the garniture device, the opposite edges overlap each other; an imaging device disposed upstream of the closure point for generating an image of the at least two different components of a cigarette; and a processing device connected to the imaging device for comparing the generated image with a reference standard and determining if the generated image deviates from the reference standard.