Patent GB-404711-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in filter tips for cigarettes and in the manufacture of such tips
IPC: A24D3/02
Filed: 1932-07-22
Abstract: 404,711. Cigarettes ; cigarette-making machines. WIX, A., 338, Goswell Road, London, and MAY, R. F., 9, Manor Road, Potters Bar, Middlesex. July 22, 1932, No. 20734. [Class 130.] A filter tip for cigarettes comprises a length of strip material folded upon itself in S-formation as in Fig. 8, and consolidated to a circular cross-section. The strip may consist of a single layer of material, such as felt, or of a number of layers of material, such as crepe paper, with or without intervening layers of filtering or absorbent material. In a machine for making the tips, the strip 1 of material is fed between guides to forming-members 2, 3 by a reciprocating lever 4, which has a serrated face 4a to engage with the strip, and which is pivoted on a carriage 5. Adjustable stops 5c, 5b are provided on the carriage to determine the extent of engagement of the face 4b with the strip and the length of material fed at each stroke by the carriage 5, which is moved forwards by a bell-crank lever 7 in contact with a cam 8 on a shaft 25, and rearwards by a spring 8a. During the feeding movement, a guillotine knife 9 is raised, and the forming-members 2, 3 are opened so that the material may rest on a ledge 10a provided on an adjustable stop. Before the carriage 5 moves backwards, a presser member 15, which slides in a member 12 carrying the knife, engages the strip and prevents it from moving backwards, and supports the strip behind the knife. The knife is reciprocated on the member 12 by an extension 12a which is maintained in contact with a cam 14 on the shaft 25 by a spring 14a, and adjustable stops are provided to limit the relative movement between the knife 9 and the presser member 15. The knife co-operates with an adjustable blade 9a and cuts the strip, producing a bevelled edge, when the blades 2c, 3c of the forming-members engage the strip. The forming-members 2, 3 are pivoted on spindles 2a, 3a and are connected together by links 2b, 3b and 17, the last-mentioned being adjustable, and the members 2, 3 are opened and closed by an arm 18 which is maintained in contact with a cam 19 on the shaft 25 by a spring 19a. Channels 2d, 3d in the members, preferably formed by a series of transverselyarranged rollers, fold over the outer parts of the severed strip. The filter tip is ejected from the forming-members 2, 3, before they are opened, by a plunger 20 having slots 20a to accommodate the blades 2c, 3c, and is forced into a flared receiving-tube in which it is consolidated into a circular cross-section before being discharged into a reciprocatable spoon for insertion into the cigarette paper tube or mouthpiece. The shaft 25 is interconnected with the paper-tube forming and/or filter-tip inserting mechanism. One of the forming-members 2 may be fixed, and the forming and feeding members may be of increased width to accommodate a larger width of strip than is necessary for a single filter tip, the ejection of the folded material being effected in a corresponding number of stages, at each of which a cutting- device severs a length from the folded core. In a modified construction in which the tips are formed from a rod-like filling, a composite strip is fed from a supply spool between upper and lower guides which position the middle portion of the strip while the marginal portions are turned over by forming blades or rollers to provide a filling of S-shape in cross-section, which is consolidated to a circular cross-section by feeding it through a tube having a flared inlet or an assembly of forming discs or rollers, the cylindrical filling being cut off into lengths and inserted into the cigarette paper tubes or mouthpieces.