Patent GB-776777-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to mouthpiece cigarettes and to their manufacture
Inventor: MOLINS DESMOND WALTER
IPC: A24C5/47
Filed: 1953-02-05
Abstract: 776,777. Cigarettes and cigarette-making machinery. MOLINS MACHINE CO., Ltd. Jan. 28, 1954 [Feb. 5, 1953; March 10, 1953], Nos. 3280/53 and 6595/53. Class 130. A method of forming hollow mouthpieces on cigarettes comprises bringing a portion of mouthpiece material previously provided with adhesive into engagement with a cigarette so that a substantial part of the portion extends beyond one cigarette end, and, gripping the portion and cigarette between a pair of opposed surfaces which move relatively to one another in a direction transverse to the cigarette length so as to roll the cigarette on the portion to wrap it about the cigarette as a tube extending beyond the cigarette end. A conveying drum 7, Fig. 1, has peripheral parts 8 communicating with stationary chambers 9, 10 connected to a source of vacuum by pipes 11, 12 so sized that a higher vacuum exists in the chamber 10 than in the chamber 9. Consequently, the leading end of a web 1 of mouthpiece material fed forward at a less speed than that of the drum periphery slips easily thereon whilst portions cut from the leading end by knives 17 are carried forward by the periphery and spaced apart thereon. The knives 17 are spring-mounted on a rotary carrier 13 mounted on a fixed arm 15, and co-act with hardened drum inserts 19 and a wiper brush or pad 20. The mouthpiece material is paper or cardboard coated with adhesive rendered effective by heating and is fed from a reel (not shown) by rollers 2, 3 and through guides 5, 6. Cigarettes C, consisting of lengths of cigarette rod enclosing tobacco only or tobacco and a stub such as a filter plug, are fed by a fluted drum 22 and co-acting rotary and fixed guides 23, 24 from a hopper 21 and are deposited with the aid of pusher fingers 28a in front of the leading edges of successive mouthpiece portions M on the drum periphery. The fingers 28a are three in number and are mounted on a member 30 so pivoted to an oscillatory link 32 and a crank 34 that the fingers force the cigarettes between a spring guide 25 and the end 27 of a member 26 having a rubber or other friction surface 26a which causes the cigarettes to roll on the drum periphery and be wrapped in the portions M, the relative lateral position of each cigarette and portion being such that they overlap but that a substantial part of the latter projects beyond the former to give a hollow mouthpiece. The portions M may be of such dimensions that they wrap around the cigarettes once, twice or thrice. To render the adhesive effective, an electrically heated ring 35 is yieldingly urged against the drum 7 by being mounted on brackets 36 pivoted at 37 and loaded by a spring acting between them and the arm 15. The cigarettes C are delivered from the member 26 as to a tray or endless conveyer. In a modification in which pairs of axially aligned cigarettes C are fed to the drum 7, one of each pair on either side of a portion M so sized that after wrapping each pair can be separated into two mouthpiece cigarettes, a fixed shoot 44, Fig. 4, and co-acting oscillating arm or arms 46 deliver the wrapped assemblies into flutes of a rotary drum 41 for separation by a knife 43. In both cases, instead of cigarettes C, separate hoppers may deliver a plain cigarette and a stub in abutting relation to be joined by mouthpiece portions M wrapped thrice therearound. The mouthpiece material may be naturally moisture-resistant, or treated, as by coating or impregnation, to render it so. The adhesive may also be moisture-resistant. According to the first Provisional Specification, cigarettes may be received on the fluted drum from a cigarette-making machine catcher band and where axially aligned cigarettes are simultaneously wrapped, either individual mouthpiece portions or a single mouthpiece portion subdivided before wraping may be used also, the cigarettes may contact the mouthpiece portions on the suction drum before they leave the flutes of the preceding drum. Specification 709,197 is referred to.