Patent GB-416128-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of cigarettes
IPC: A24C5/47
Filed: 1933-04-21
Abstract: 416,128. Cigarette-making machines. WIX, A., 338, Goswell Road, and EDWARDS, W. F. M., 1, Kempsford Gardens, Earl's Court, both in London. April 21, 1933, No. 11754. [Class 130.] In a machine for the insertion of filter tips or mouthpieces into ready-made cigarettes, which are brought step by step, by an intermittently rotating carrier, into alignment with a succession of devices by which tobacco is extracted from the end of each cigarette and a filter tip or mouthpiece is inserted, the carrier is a disc, annulus or like circular or ringlike member having a series of symmetrically disposed chambers in which the cigarettes are received and held with their mouthpiece ends exposed at the circumferential periphery of the carrier for operation thereon by devices arranged around the carrier. As shown, the carrier 1 is mounted on a vertical shaft 3 and has a flange 1<a> with radial slots in which are fitted tubular members 1<h> open at the periphery of the flange 1<a> and partly closed at their inner ends by a ring 1<c>. Slots 1<d> in the members 1<h> allow the cigarettes to be engaged by gripper bars 2, each adjustably connected to an arm 2<a> on a vertical rod 2<b> actuated by a cam 2d oscillated about the axis of the shaft 3, so that the gripper bars prevent outward movement of the cigarettes by centrifugal force. The intermittent rotation of the carrier is effected by a peripheral cam 5<a> on a cylindrical member 5 on a driven shaft 5b, the cam engaging rollers 8<a> on vertical bolts 8<b> in a member 8 on the shaft 3. The carrier is positioned during its periods of rest by the engagement of bores 8<c> in the periphery of the member 8 by the tapered end of a rod 9 carried bv a member 9<f> actuated by a cam 9<d>. A similarly actuated rod may co-operate with radial bores in the periphery of the flange 1<a> of the carrier. Transfer mechanism for the cigarettes and for the filter tips may be driven from the shaft 3 through spiral gears 3<a>, 3b. The cigarettes are fed from a hopper 11, Fig. 2, to grooves in a transfer drum 12 intermittently rotated about a horizontal axis parallel to the radius of the carrier at the cigarette-feed position. When in alignment with a member 1<h> in the carrier, each cigarette is ejected axially into the member 1<h> by a plunger 13 on a sliding rod 13<a> actuated by a cam 13d through a lever 13<f> and link 13<g>, the ejecting stroke being effected by a spring 13<a> tensioned by the cam. In the next position of the carrier, tobacco is extracted from the mouthpiece end of the cigarette by a gripping unit, Figs. 3 and 4. This comprises a cylindrical member 14<a> reciprocated by a cam 15 acting through a lever 14<h>, a link 14<l> and a bar 14<g>. A pair of gripping fingers 14d are carried by a lever 14<c> pivoted in the member 14<a>, and a second pair of fingers 14<f> are fixed to the face of the member 14<c>. The fingers 14d are held apart from the fingers 14<f> by a cam 16 until both pairs of fingers have been inserted in the end of the cigarette, when the cam 16 allows the fingers 14d to be pressed towards the fingers 14<f> by a spring 14<j>. The tobacco withdrawn is stripped from the fingers by a blade 17 on an arm 17<a> actuated from a cam 16b on the spindle of the cam 16. At the next three positions of the carrier, facing-cutter units 19, 20, 20<a> are arranged. Each comprises a rotary cutter 20<d>, Fig. 9, or 19<b>, Fig. 10, on a spindle 19<d> slidingly keyed in a tubular shaft 19<e> carrying a driven gear 19<f>. The rear end of the spindle 19<d> is fitted to a tubular casing 19<i> having a depending arm 19<j>, to which a reciprocating motion is imparted from a cam 22 on a vertical spindle or sleeve 22<a> through slidable rods 22<c>, 22e and an arm 22<g> on a bolt 21 engaging the arm 19<j>. To enable the cutter to be removed without disturbing the operation of the machine as a whole, a knurled nut 21<a> locking the arm 19<j> to the bolt 21 can be slacked and the casing 19<i> can then be turned and withdrawn with the spindle 19<d> and the cutter. The cutter may also be retained in its outer inoperative position by a spring pin 23, engaging behind a collar 22<i> on the rod 22<c>, and operated by means of a knurled head having a projecting pin co-operating with a cam face. Dust and loose fragments formed by the cutters are carried away from a chamber 28 by suction pipes. A pasting device 29 may be arranged at the next position, for applying a spot of adhesive to the wall of the mouthpiece prior to the insertion of a filter tip. The filter tips are supplied from a forming mechanism 32 to bores in an intermittently rotated drum 30, from which they are ejected into the prepared ends of the cigarettes by a plunger 33 connected to a slide 33<a> reciprocated by a cam 33<c> acting through a lever 33b. The completed cigarettes are discharged on a conveyer belt 36 by a blade 34 passing through slots in the ring 1<c> and carried by a depending arm 34<a> on a sliding rod 34b, which is reciprocated by a cam 35 acting through a lever 34<g>, a link 34<f>, and an arm 34<e> on the rod 34b.