Patent GB-411111-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to mechanism for opening or spreading out tobacco leaves
IPC: A24B5/12
Filed: 1932-10-26
Abstract: 411,111. Spreading tobacco leaves. TRIGGS, W. W., 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.-(International Cigar Machinery Co. ; 5520, 2nd Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.) Oct. 26, 1932, No. 29957. [Class 130.] The butt ends of tobacco leaves are held by grippers and carried through a leaf-opening mechanism which opens the leaves from the butt ends towards tip ends, and means are provided for reversing the direction of the opened leaves and forwarding them tip-end foremost to a leaf-stripping machine. The leaves L, Fig. 2, are laid by the operator upon belts 15 on a table 13, their butt ends being placed in pockets formed on an endless chain 23 by projecting inserts 24, and are carried by the belts 15 across the table until they are lifted out of the pockets by a camoperated wedge-shaped block 75 and gripped by a pair of fingers 47 which are then in engagement with stationary cams 78, Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 10, the fingers 47 are corrugated and are attached to levers 88 pivoted on crossbars 90 which are carried by chains 14. The levers 88 are held in tension against stop pins 91 by a compression spring 92, and carry at their outer ends rollers 93 which engage cams 78 and 81 to grip or release a leaf. A finger 76, actuated by a cam, presses the leaf against a roller 102, which guides the leaf into an openei unit 77, and untwists the leaf. The fingers 47 open a pair of vertical rollers 127, Fig. 4, carried on arms 128, each roller being provided with a circumferential recess to receive the stem of the leaf. After the fingers 47 have cleared the rollers 127, springs 129 swing the arms 128 back and press the rollers 127 against the leaf. The opener unit 77 consists of chambers arranged in inclined positions with respect to each other at both sides of the centre of the leaf to form an opening for the entrance of the fingers and the stem. The chambers are connected by pipes 103, 104 to a suction pipe or exhaust fan, to spread the leaves, and each chamber contains a number of pairs of radially corrugated wheels 105 which undulate the leaf and cause it to retain its outspread condition. On emerging from the chambers, which terminate in converging surfaces 132 to prevent the opened leaf from curling up, the leaf is guided between rollers 130 and carried by upwardly-moving endless belts 58, Fig. 9, towards a leaf transfer mechanism formed by a pair of plates 79. The plates 79 rest on ledges 133, and arranged above them are curved angle-pieces 136, the plates 79 and the angle-pieces being operated by a cam. As the leaf advances, the cam moves the plates 79 and the angle-pieces 136 into the positions 79<1>, 136<1>, so that the leaf, which then is hanging from the fingers 47<1> in the position L<1>, is raked by the angle-pieces 136<1> into the opening between the plates 79. Another cam then causes a roller 80 to press the leaf against a downwardly-moving conveyer belt 65, and at the same time the rollers 93 on the fingers 47 are engaged by cams 81 which open the fingers and leave the leaf free on the belt 65. The opened leaf on the belt 65 is carried between a belt 71 and the adjacent part of the belts 58, and by belts 71, 161 into a stripping-machine. While travelling between the belts 71, 161, the leaf is subjected to a second opening and spreading operation as it passes through a suction spreader 164, which is connected by pipes 165 with the suction pipes 103, 104. Specifications 380,496 and 380,823 are referred to.