Patent GB-487808-A (GB)
Title: Improved machine for making cigar bunches
IPC: A24C1/02
Filed: 1936-11-24
Abstract: 487,808. Cigar - making machines. INTERNATIONAL CIGAR MACHINERY CO. Nov. 24, 1936, No. 13888/37. Convention date, Feb. 18, 1936. Divided out of 487,773. [Class 130] A cigar-bunch-making machine is of the kind in which bunchlength sections of tobacco severed in succession from a stream T of filler tobacco are lowered tc the level of a compressing chamber 50, 51 open only at its ends, the tobacco sections being compressed within the chamber by a yieldable reciprocating plunger 57 adapted to compress the forward end of the tobacco mass into a bunch charge measuring and separating device 56. The bottom wall 50 of the compressing chamber is extended beyond the open receiving end and the severed sections of tobacco are lowered by a movable platform 21, the forward end of which comes to rest on the extended part of the wall 50, a pusher 47 being provided for advancing a tobacco section into the compressing chamber while the compressing plunger 57 remains in its withdrawn position. As shown, the filler tobacco T is fed by a crossfeed mechanism comprising belts 170, 175 into a chamber formed by stationary side walls 20 and the platform 21, which is mounted on an arm 22 pivoted on a shaft 23. A length of tobacco on the platform 21 is severed by a cutter 33 having a corrugated edge and carried by a slide 41 reciprocated on a bracket 28 by a cam 46 and lever 43. The tobacco is held against the platform by a clamping arm or arms 34 pivoted on the shaft 23, and actuated by a cam 30 and lever 26. The platform and the arms 34 are moved downwards about the shaft 23, to bring the platform into engagement with the wall 50 of the compressing chamber, by means of a cam 39 and levers 35, 37. The compressing chamber comprises a lower fixed plate 50, an upper plate 51 yieldingly mounted, and side plates 50a. The cut tobacco length T<1> is pushed into the compressing chamber by the pusher 47, which is pivoted at 48 to an arm 49 on a shaft 145 carrying a lever 52 actuated by the cam 46. The members 21, 34, 47 then return to the dotted-line positions and the tobacco length is compressed in the chamber 50, 51 and the measuring chamber 56 by the plunger 57, which is yieldingly supported in a block 58 sliding on a guide bar 59 and reciprocated by a lever 61 and cam 64. The charge in the chamber 56 is cut off by a knife 72 and delivered to a bunch rolling mechanism as described in Specification 487,773. In order to maintain in the compressing chamber a quantity of tobacco not exceeding that required for two bunch charges, an arm 146 on the shaft 145 is connected by a rod 147 to a lever 148 pivoted at 149. When the quantity of tobacco in the compressing chamber permits the pusher 47 to advance to a position 47<11>, the lever 148 is moved to a position in which it engages a pawl 151 on the backward stroke of the pawl, and moves the pawl into driving engagement with a ratchet wheel 161 ; the cross-feed belts 170, 175 are then driven from the shaft 157 through sprocket gearing 159, 166 on the forward stroke of the pawl, and the pawl is disengaged on its return stroke by a pin 176 on the sprocket wheel 160.