Patent GB-871514-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes
IPC: A24C5/32
Filed: 1956-07-16
Abstract: 871,514. Mouthpiece cigarettes. MOLINS, D. W., ROWLANDS, T., and MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. July 16, 1957 [July 16, 1956; Jan. 30, 1957; Feb. 4, 1957], Nos. 21915/56, 3222/57 and 3755/57. Class 130. Axial alignment of at least one mouthpiece portion and cigarette is secured or maintained by their frictional engagement between a conveyer belt 8, Fig. 3, and a table 10 whilst a reciprocatory pusher 17 moves them sideways into a rolling passage formed between a heated guide 31 and a rotary suction drum 26 in which passage they are wrapped in uniting bands B cut by knives 30 from a cork web 28 provided with gum by a roller 29. As shown, groups comprising two cigarettes and an interposed double length mouthpiece portion are united by the bands B and pass to a drum 32 on which they are subdivided by a knife 34 into mouthpiece cigarettes. The groups are formed by interposing mouthpiece portions 14, Fig. 2, in alternate gaps between cigarettes C forwarded from a continuous-rod machine cut-off by a conveyer band 1 moving faster than the rod so as to space the cigarettes, and assisted by endless-spring conveyer bands 2. The portions 14 are fed by pushers 12 of a wheel 11 along a guideway 13. Spaced rotary rubber discs 5 forward the groups over a bridge 3 on to the table 10 and into the range of the belt 8 which is of sponge rubber or pile fabric or is faced with transverse rubber strips and which further forwards the groups until they abut a stop 19 and are acted on by the pusher 17 which is mounted on crank discs 16. A friction wheel (not shown) between the members 3, 10 coacts with the belt 8, the spacing of the lower run of which from the table 10 is maintained by guides positioned above the lower run. The stop 19 is mounted on an extension 18 of the pusher 17 via a bell-crank lever 20, and during the operative part of its movement is controlled by a roller 24 on the lever 20 running over a fixed cam 25, a spring 22 retaining the stop 19 against an abutment 23 on the extension 18 at other times. The discs 5 are part of a member driven at a variable speed, e.g. by the means described in Specification 703,991, so as to cause firm abutment of the group elements by retarding the leading cigarettes and accelerating the trailing cigarettes thereof. The groups may strike the stop 19 before, after or at the same time as they are engaged by the pusher 17. The cam 25 may be so shaped that the stop 19 initially moves operatively with the pusher 17, the stop thereafter, however, being constrained by the cam to move more nearly transversely of the groups than does the pusher and so to reduce or prevent further endwise group movement. The table 10 may be replaced by a conveyer band moving at the same speed as the belt 8, e.g. by extending the band 1 under the bridge 3 and over the friction wheel. The drum 26 may be heated instead of or additionally to the guide 31, especially if a web 28 is used precoated with a thermoplastic adhesive material instead of provided with gum. In Fig. 4 a modified pusher 58 and stop 65 are shown, together with a member 66 which acts with the stop 65 to exert endwise pressure on the cigarette-mouthpiece groups from opposite ends thereof before they enter the rolling passage. One crank disc 78 operates the pusher 58 through a link 77 and is 6 degrees in advance of, and has a greater throw than, the other disc 76 so that the end of the pusher adjacent the advancing groups moves clear of them before the other end does so. Rollers 85, 88 riding on cam edges of the discs 76, 78 actuate the members 65, 66, which move about fixed pivots 84, 81b and 87, via links 83, 81a and directly respectively. The band 1 passes over the table (not shown) to carry the groups, and the belt 8 may be dispensed with. According to the second Provisional Specification, the member 66 may be operated from the stop 65 by linkwork. Specifications 814,383, 871,516, 871,517, 871,518 and 871,519 also are referred to.