Patent GB-833998-A (GB)
Title: Method of and apparatus for making cigarettes
IPC: A24C5/47
Filed: 1956-04-16
Abstract: 833,998. Mouthpiece cigarette manufacture. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. April 16, 1956 [May 18, 1955], No. 11471/56. Class 130. [Also in Group XXX] A cigarette and abutting mouthpiece are carried by a drum in a nest of three rollers, the innermost of which is positively rotated faster than the drum before, during and after application of a uniting band radially on to the cigarette and mouthpiece. As shown, cigarettes F, Fig. 5, delivered axially from a cigarettemaking machine (not shown) to a stationary suction table 82 drawing off tobacco particles, are spaced apart by a roller 49, braked by rubber rollers 80 and supplied in pairs by crankoperated pushers 81 to roller flutes of a rotary drum 72 where oppositely rotating rubber rollers 86 space them apart sufficiently to receive between them double-length mouthpieces 41 to which they are abutted by stationary cams 97 to form assemblies, each of which is wrapped in an adhesive uniting band and subdivided into two mouthpiece cigarettes. Mouthpiece supply and subdivision.-Sextuple-length mouthpieces 11, Fig. 1, of wrapped filter plug material 194, Fig. 13, with or without spaces 200, are supplied from a vibratory hopper 10 via an oscillatory gate 14 to a reservoir 22 feeding a fluted cutter drum 26. The hopper 10 has a floor 12 mounted by a spring 20 and carrying a roller 16 vibrated by a hexagonal roller unitary with a refuser roller 28 for the drum 26. Knives 34, 36 coact with grooves in the drum 26 to subdivide the mouthpieces 11 into three, spring fingers 33, 33a, Fig. 2, pressing the mouthpieces against adjustable stops 31, 35 during subdivision. The double-length mouthpieces 41 so formed are transferred by scrapers 44 to differentially driven drums 38, 40, 42, each of which delivers in turn to a successive flute of a drum 56 on which the mouthpieces 41 are centralized by stationary cams 68 before delivery to the drum 72. Uniting-band application.-Each flute of the drum 72, Fig. 1, comprises a nest of three rollers 76 supporting one cigarette-mouthpiece assembly and carrying it past a member 85 which acts both to strip mouthpieces 41 from the drum 56 and to seat each assembly firmly in its roller nest before it passes a gate 90 which on the passage of an overfull nest pivots to close a cigarette-making machine stop switch 94. An extension 74 of the inner roller of each nest then engages a belt 128, Figs. 1 and 6, to set each assembly into rotation as it approaches a station D where one cam 97 ends in a spring finger, and where uniting bands T are applied from a rotary drum 108 mounted on an arm 109 pivotable as at 120 under the control of adjusting and locking means 111, 115 to allow setting of the drum 108 relative to the assemblies. Rubber side rings 181 on the drum 108 contact the assemblies to assist their rotation. Bridge plates 140, two of which end in fingers 78, stripping the bands T from the drum 108, retain the rotating wrapped assemblies on the drum 72 as they pass a heated adhesive-setting rotary drum 138 whose mounting is adjustable about a pivot 139 by a control wedge 260. The assemblies then drop into a fluted drum 144 where a stationary guide 148, Fig. 12, causes each assembly to abut against a stationary guide 149 during severance by a knife 150, a roller 152 effecting separation of the resulting mouthpiece cigarettes for transfer to side-byside catcher belts 154. A cleaning finger 91 and brush 89 attached to the pushers 81 successively pass along each emptied roller nest of the drum 72. Uniting-band supply.-Cork tip material TM is fed from a reel 96, Fig. 1, by rollers 102, 103 and passes over a gluing roller 104 to a suction drum 108 having a peripheral speed greater than the feed speed of the material TM so that on severance therefrom of a uniting band by a rotary knife 120 the band is carried round by the drum and spaced from the leading end of the material TM. Clockwise pivoting of a lever 116, on machine stoppage or assembly feed interruption, depresses the spring-loaded mounting arm 107 of the roller 103 to release the material TM and brings a lever portion 117 under the material to raise it from the gluing roller 104 and press it against a stop 119 to prevent material feed by the drum 108. Suction to hold the material TM to the drum 108 is supplied from a stationary inner drum chamber by central holes 122, Fig. 7, which are blocked by a chamber wall projection 126 as they pass the knife 120 so that the severed bands are held only by sets of side holes 124. Delivering mouthpiece cigarettes similarly orientated.-A turntable (Fig. 19, not shown), which may be horizontal or inclined, may be interposed in the path of those of the severed mouthpiece cigarettes acted on by the roller 152, to turn them end for end before depositing them on one side of a catcher band which receives on its other side the rest of the severed mouthpiece cigarettes. Shaping mouthpieces.-One or more rollers 164, Fig. 18, with coacting adjustable concaves 172 may be used between the hopper 10 and reservoir 22 to roll the sextuple-length mouthpieces to a desired diameter. The rollers 164 may rotate, or oscillate with an overall rotary movement. Modified mouthpiece hopper feed.-In Fig. 21, the sextuple-length mouthpieces pass to the cutter drum 246 via a shoot 242 fed by oppositely rotating out-of-step fluted rollers 236, 238, the forward edge of the drum flutes having chamfers 248.