Patent GB-514387-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in mechanism for feeding long filler tobacco for the manufacture of cigar bunches
IPC: A24C1/02
Filed: 1938-05-03
Abstract: 514,387. Cigar-making machines. INTERNATIONAL CIGAR MACHINERY CO. May 3, 1938, No. 13137. Convention date, June 8, 1937. [Class 130] Tobacco feeding mechanism for long filler cigar-making machines comprises automatically operating mechanism arranged to remove tobacco leaves or leaf portions from a supply of long filler tobacco and to deliver them to a feeding means in such a manner as to form thereon a continuous stream or layer of superposed leaves or leaf portions for use in the formation of cigar bunch charges. The tobacco is contained in a hopper 19 having a bottom wall inclined towards an inclined rear wall formed by guide plates 23, Figs. 1 and 4. Feed chains 12 running on sprockets 14, 17 carry pins 13 which travel in the spaces between the plates 23 and impale or engage tobacco leaves. A rotating paddle wheel 21 disengages surplus leaves imperfectly impaled on the pins 13. The guide plates 23 at their upper ends are curved about the sprockets 14 and diverge gradually from the path of the chains 12, so that the leaves are detached from the pins 13 and fall into a chamber formed by the blades 25 of a wheel rotating in a casing 37. The wheel is driven intermittently from the drive shaft 16 of the feed chains through a geneva drive 28, 29, and the leaves are approximately aligned by the paddles 25. The paddles 25 and casing 37 may be replaced by a narrow elongated opening, not wide enough to accommodate the length of a leaf extending transversely of the opening. The leaves fall through a chute 38 into the scale pan 39 of a weighing device, which is pivotally supported at 40 by levers secured to a shaft 42 supported at its ends by rotatable discs 42a. The bottom of the scale pan consists of doors 46a, 46b secured to rock shafts, for the discharge of the tobacco into the feed channel 69 of a cross-feeding mechanism, when a predetermined weight of tobacco has been received. The feed channel is formed by side belts 77 and a botton belt 76 which advances the layer of leaves beneath a corrugated knife 78 reciprocated to cut bunch-length sections from the layer. The bunch lengths are supported during cutting by a pivoted shelf 80, Fig. 3, which moves downwards to allow the severed bunch length to be moved by an oscillating rake 67 on to a main feed belt 82. The tobacco is compacted by the belt 82 and a wheel 83 into a layer C from which bunch charges are severed by a knife 84 for delivery to a rolling apron. The driving pulley of the belt 76 is driven through bevel and sprocket gearing from an intermittently operated driving mechanism similar to that described in Specification 302,611, [Class 130] and similarly controlled in accordance with the movement of the rake 67, the stroke of which varies with the amount of tobacco in the layer C. The scale pan 39 is balanced by a weight 41a, Fig. 3, adjustable on an arm 41b on a shaft 42 provided with a cam 47 having a raised portion 47a which normally supports a roller 48 carried by a rod 49 guided by rollers 50 and connected at its upper end by an adjustable link 52 to a lever 51 pivoted on a shaft 58. A roller 53 on the lever 51 is held by a spring 57 in engagement with a cam 55 having depressions 55a, the cam being loosely mounted on the shaft 16 and driven by chain gearing from a shaft 100. When the roller 53 enters a depression 55a, the spring 57 holds the roller 48 firmly in engagement with the raised portion 47a of the cam 47. When, on the other hand, the roller'53 engages the circumference of the cam 55, the scale pan is free to move downwards on receiving sufficient tobacco to overbalance the weight 41a. In each rotation of the cam 55, a deep notch 54 comes beneath the roller 53 and allows the spring 57 to effect a substantial downward movement of the rod 49 if the raised portion 47a has been moved from beneath the roller 48 by tilting of the scale pan. The pressure of the roller 48 then turns the cam 47 to effect further downward movement of the scale pan, so that the doors 46a, 46b of the scale pan are opened by the engagement of pins on arms 43 on rock shafts (not shown) with notches in a fixed plate 70. The leaves are thus discharged into the feed channel 69 of a cross-feeding mechanism comprising a bottom belt 76 and side belts 77, the latter being closer together at the delivery end to effect lateral compacting of the tobacco. A cover for the channel 69 is formed by hinged gates 68a, 68b adapted to be raised and lowered by links 71 connected to levers 72 on shafts provided with pinions engaged by a rack 73 operated by a lever 75 in timed relation to the operation of the cam 55. The shaft 16 is driven from a ratchet wheel 62 through a clutch similar to that described in Specification 426,528, the ratchet wheel being actuated by a pawl 63 pivoted on a shaft 58 and having a projection 63a normally engaged by a lever 60 pivoted at 61. An adjustable screw 59 carried by the lever 60 is engaged by an arm 51a on the lever 51, so that when the lever 51 moves downwards to depress the scale pan the pawl 63 is released, allowing a spring 63b to bring the pawl into engagement with the ratchet wheel. Prongs on the ratchet wheel then hold back the jamming rollers of the clutch and interrupt the drive of the shaft 16, until again put in operation under control of the quantity of tobacco in the layer C. For this purpose an arm 67a on the rake 67 has a pin 66 engaging a slot in a link 64 connected to the pawl 63 and adapted to disengage the pawl when the rake 67 completes its full forward stroke, which indicates that more tobacco is required in the layer C. Specification 478,573 also is referred to.