Patent GB-395029-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in manufacturing and packing cigarettes
IPC: A24C5/35
Filed: 1932-01-13
Abstract: 395,029. Manufacturing and packing cigarettes. MOLINS, D. W., Longwood, Hurst Road, Bexley, Kent. Jan. 13, 1932, No. 995. [Class 130.] In a combined cigarette making and packing machine in which a succession of cigarettes are conveyed automatically from a cigarettemaking unit to a packing unit, means is provided to balance the supply of cigarettes and the requirements of the packing unit to meet either variations in, or a cessation of, the cigarettes supplied. In one form, Figs. 1 and 2, a reserve of cigarettes is maintained between the cigarette-making unit and the packing unit. Cigarettes 8 from a continuousrod machine are delivered by deflectors 9 to a belt 10, which conveys them into a hopper 11 above the bed 13 of the packing unit. The hopper 11 has vertical vanes 18, forming slots down which the cigarettes fall, and contains a reserve of cigarettes to compensate for variations in the supply. The cigarettes are pushed from the bed 13, by conveyer pieces 15 attached to a moving chain, upon a partly folded slide 19 on an intermittently operated chain conveyer 20 on the packing machine 21. The slides 19 are fed to the pockets 20a of the conveyer by mechanism 22. Folders 23 fold over the end folds of the loaded slides, which are thrust by a cross conveyer 26 into a shell 25 from a magazine 24, and the finished packet is then ejected. In a modification, the belt 10 discharges the cigarettes into a small hopper, at the bottom of which is a fluted drum delivering the cigarettes on to a pair of delivery chains, stops being arranged to enable two batches of adjacent cigarettes to be formed. The cigarettes are delivered laterally from the chains, by pusher pieces on chain conveyers, or by plunger devices, into alternate pockets of the packing-machine conveyer. In another form, the hopper delivers through a curved passage provided with a fluted controlling wheel. In a further form, Fig. 8, the failure of the supply of cigarettes stops the packing unit automatically during the time that the supply is interrupted. Three rows of cigarettes are brought from the cigarette-making machine on to a wide belt 36a and pass on to a feeder belt 37 between lateral guides, further guides being arranged just above the ends of the cigarettes. Inclined plates, 44, 45, 46 and lateral and top guides guide the cigarettes to the bed 53 of the packing machine, where the three layers of cigarettes are separated by plates 54, 55. The bed 53 and plates 54, 55 are slotted to allow the passage of a slotted conveyer piece, which collects the three superposed layers of cigarettes and carries them to the wrapping and packing mechanism. Brushes 61 actuated from cams 68 rest on the cigarettes on the plates 44, 45, 46, and prevent them from moving over the path of the conveyer piece, during the period when the latter is moving forwards. Guides 69 prevent cigarettes that have left the plates 44, 45, 46 from bunching, and are pivoted to swing out of the way of the conveyer piece. In order to stop the packing machine when the supply of cigarettes fails, a hinged plate 70 is arranged to separate electric contacts 71, 72. The Provisional Specification states also that means for rejecting defective cigarettes and for drying, cooling, conditioning or other wise dealing with the cigarettes may be interposed between the cigarette making and packing units.