Patent GB-941832-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of composite cigarettes
Inventor: MOLINS DESMOND WALTER
IPC: A24C5/47
Filed: 1959-04-13
Abstract: 941,832. Cigarette-making machines. MOLINS MACHINE CO. Ltd. April 12, 1960 [April 13, 1959], No. 12432/59. Heading A2C. A continuous rod cigarette making machine for making composite cigarettes comprises, means to form a continuous rod and move it endwise, means to sever the rod into double lengths, deflector means 4 to deflect the double lengths sideways, means 8 to sever the double lengths while they are moving sideways, means 10 to separate the severed parts endwise, means 11 to insert mouthpiece portions between the opposed ends of the separated parts, uniting means 20, 21 to unite the parts with the mouthpiece portions to form assemblages and cutting means 26 to subdivide the assemblages to form individual cigarettes. The cut rod is fed to a suction wheel 3 which has a two start helical groove and rotates above a plate 2 at a peripheral speed a little in excess of the continuous rod so as to separate the double lengths which are thrown into successive flutes 5 in the drum 4. Two guides 6 one each end of the drum. 4 keep the double lengths in the flutes 5. An arcuate guide 7 extends around the lower part of the drum and is suitably slotted to accommodate a rotating disc knife 8 which severs the double lengths in half. Two small rollers 10, oppositely inclined to the axis of the drum, rotate in opposite directions such that their peripheral surfaces urge the severed single lengths apart. A stub inserting wheel 11, projecting through the guide 7, inserts double length stubs, between the separated lengths in the flutes 5: A stripper element (not shown) ensures that the stubs remain in the flutes 5. Two converging guides 12a arranged at opposite ends of the drum tend to move the two single lengths into endwise abutment with the central stub. A rotatable transfer wheel 13, having arms 14 with suction ports 15 communicating with a fixed suction chamber 16 arranged so that suction is applied through ports 15 at the desired time, receives groups of cigarette rod lengths and stubs from the drum. At opposite ends of the wheel 13 and rotatable therewith are mounted. two discs 17 having radial spring fingers 18 which the biased inwardly, and are held outwardly by cam 19 which ends just short of the position where a suction arm 14 first comes into engagement with a cigarette and stub group in a flute 5. At that position, the suction port 15 of that particular arm 14 is not yet in communication with the chamber 16. Thus the cigarette lengths in the flute 5 are free to move endwise under the influence of the spring fingers 18. The arms 14 carry the abutted groups towards a suction drum 20 and a fixed plate 21. The suction drum carries on its surface spaced uniting bands 22 severed by a knife roller 24 from an adhesive-coated web 23. The relative movement between the drum surface and the plate 21 causes the band 22 to become wrapped around and unite the cigarette and stub group. The assemblages thus formed are transferred into flutes of a wheel 25 and severed into individual composite cigarettes by a disc knife 26. An alternative construction is described where double length stubs are fed into the flutes of drum 5, so that one double length moves endwise to the end of its flute while the next double length is brought to rest halfway along the flute the drum 5 being twice as long as before. The apparatus thereafter is similar except that it is dealing with two side by side rows of cigarettes and stubs. A nozzle is arranged to discharge a jet of air lengthwise along the flutes of the wheel 25 thereby forming the staggered assemblages into a single row which can be cut by knife 26. Specification 875,330 is referred to.