Patent GB-477924-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to machines for packeting cigarettes or the like
IPC: B65B19/02
Filed: 1936-08-01
Abstract: 477,924. Packeting - machines. HORGAN, G. D., and INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY CO., Ltd. Aug. 1, 1936, No. 21376. [Class 94 (i)] In a packeting-machihe for inserting loaded slides into shells and transferring the completed packets to a stacking device, a single reciprocating slide element is operatively connected to the shell feed, the inserting means and the transfer device. Means are also provided for ejecting faulty packets. Inserting mechanism. An intermittently rotating turret 10, Fig. 1, conveys the slides and charges 11 to the inserting position. An arm 12 is mounted on a bracket 14 on a stationary table 15 within the turret and carries a slide 13 reciprocated between guides by an arm 28 and link 27. A pusher 19 is carried by a rocker shaft 17 in the slide, and is pulled down into the operative position shown by the action of the link 27 on an arm 26. Continued movement of the link causes the pusher to thrust the slide and charge 11 through a mouthpiece of flexible springs 32 into a shell which has been brought into position. The return movement of the pusher 19 is preceded by a turning movement about the shaft 17 which lifts it into a position in which it will not foul the next slide and charge which is arriving in position owing to the movement of the turret. The turning movement of the pusher about the shaft 17 is limited by stops 23 acting on an extension 22. A spring-pressed pad controls the movement, and the effect is to cause lost linear motion while the turning movements take place at each end of a stroke. At the other end of the slide 13 a shell feed device is provided, comprising a pair of downwardly extending cranked fingers 129 grooved at 130 and adapted to engage the upper edge of an erected shell and to feed it on to the mouthpiece 32, a detent 34 being projected upwardly through the bed to support the rear during insertion. The pusher 19 leaves the completed packet on a vertically reciprocating platform 39 which lifts it into a stacker 38 past detents 45 which support the stack above and prevent retrogression. The shells are fed from a stack and opened by mechanism which may be as described in Specification 466,177. Stacking and delivery. An upward extension 46 on the slide 13 carries a transfer finger 47 adapted during each stroke to remove the top packet on to a platform 49, where it is gripped by spring members 82, and from which it is pushed by succeeding packets down a slide 68. A pivoted flap 69 feeds the packets on edge past spring catches 70 in a main stacker 50. In the normal working of the machine, the finger 47 is tripped upwards by a latch 55 acting on the lower part of a two-armed lever on the spindle 51 on which the finger 47 is pivoted for limited oscillating movement. This causes. the finger to ride over the uppermost packet of the stack, which has been moved upwards immediately after the transfer movement. The finger is tripped back to the position shown in Fig. 1 by the action of an adjustable stop 56 on the upper part of the lever 54. Ejecting faulty packets. If the stop 56 is moved out of the path of the lever 54 by detecting means, the finger 47 remains in its raised position, in which it is held by a resiliently mounted frictional block, and the finger moves to the right over the top of the stack and does not transfer a packet on to the table 49. On the return movement, however, the stack having been raised a step, the top packet, which is a faulty one as determined by the detecting means, is removed to the left on to the table 57 by the finger. The detecting means may comprise a drum 58, Figs. 6 and 7, having a number of pins 59 slidably mounted in the periphery, and adapted for movement parallel to the axis of the drum. The pins are provided with flanges 60 at each end adapted to pass through claws 61 on the ends of the claws of solenoids 62. One solenoid is in a circuit for detecting the absence of a foil wrapper and the other for determining if the number of cigarettes in each batch is correct. In the event of an irregularity, the corresponding pin is displaced, and engages a .pawl 63 connected to the link 65 controlling the stop 56, thus causing the faulty packet to be fed to the left instead of to the right. The claws may be omitted and the solenoids then act directly on the pins 59. The pins are formed with spaced grooves 164, Fig. 7, adapted to be engaged by a spring 165, so that they are lightly held in the normal or in either projected position. Fixed ramps return the displaced pins to their normal positions.