Patent GB-190315734-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Automatically Regulated Tobacco Feeding Apparatus for Cigarette Making Machines.
Inventor: SLOAN ROBERT ALEXANDER
Filed: 1903-07-16
Granted: 1904-07-16
Abstract: 15,734. Sloan, R. A., Barnes, J. E. L., and Ogden, P. July 16. Cigarette - making ma - chines and appliances.-The feed-apparatus for cigarettemaking machines is regulated automatically from the machine. The prepared tobacco is dumped on a feed table and passed in bulk into a hopper 1, Figs. 2 and 4, the floor of which consists of a series of conical peg drums 5 arranged in a circle round a central frame 6 and mounted on spindles supported in brackets 8 fixed to a frame 7 secured to the casing. Two opposite drums are fixed to cranked spindles 14, 14<1>, Fig. 5, and the remainder are fixed to sleeves 11 on spindles 10. The drums are rotated uniformly in the same direction by a revolving toothed ring 15 supported by ball bearings on a bracket 9 and engaging bevel-wheels 12 fixed to the spindles 14, 14<1> and sleeves 11. Motion is imparted to the ring 15 from the spindle 14, which is driven by worm-gearing from the shaft 18. By the rotation of the drums, the pegs of which are raked forward in the direction of motion and alternate with the pegs on adjacent drums, the bottom layer of tobacco is carried down, and a doffing-cylinder 23 below each drum strips the tobacco from the drums, so that it falls into a funnel 30 having a long narrow rectangular mouth, which delivers the tobacco directly. on to the travelling tape of the machine ready for consolidation and enclosure in the paper wrapper. The doffing-cylinders are mounted on fixed eccentric spindles 28, and one of them is driven by a band 36 and pulleys 35, 37 and carries a bevelwheel driving a toothed ring 31 mounted on ball bearings and engaging bevel-wheels on the other cylinders. Combs 26, mounted on the spindles 28 opposite two diametrically-opposite rows of perforations in the cylinders, are advanced, by the eccentricity of the spindles, through the perforations when passing the drum, and are withdrawn as they pass to their opposite position, thus disengaging the tobacco stripped from the drum. To prevent the tobacco from remaining stationary on the frame 6, the surface of which is spherical, a pair of frames 38, provided with pins 41 projecting through perforations in two semicircular curved plates 42 capable of sliding on the frame and held down by springs 44, are forked to embrace a pin 40 and are mounted on the cranked ends of the spindles 14, 14<1>, which project the pins through the plates and then move the plates apart, and afterwards withdraw the pins flush with the plates and move the plates together. The lowest layer of tobacco on the frame 6 is thus continually moved to the drums 5. This result may also be effected by mounting a slowly revolving coarsethreaded cone on the top of the frame, or a cylindrical wall may extend from the frame up to the top of the hopper. The regulation is effected by suspending the hopper and connected parts from knife edges 47 on a counterbalanced lever 48 which is supported on knife edges 49 and carries a steelyard 52. A weight 53 is gradually moved along the steelyard 52 as the tobacco is delivered from the funnel 30 by a slider 58 traversed along the sheath 56 of its actuating-screw 55, which is carried by the framework and driven through change gearing 70 and chain gearing 68 from a shaft 67 driven from one of the spindles of the cigarette-making machine. A cone on the shaft 67 drives a cone on a shaft 101 driving, through universal joints, the shaft 18 actuating the drums 5. The change gearing 70 is arranged to give the required weight of cigarette, or this gear may be constant and the weight 53 varied, and the supply from the funnel 30 is regulated to suit this by mounting the strap fork 104 for the strap 98 on a screw 95, which is controlled by the position of the lever 48. If the feed from the funnel is greater than that required, the hopper rises, and a block 83 carried by a spring 84 from the lever 48, which block remains in inoperative position so long as the feed is correct and the hopper in poise, is moved between the lever of two plungers 79 reciprocated by a cam 74 on the feed screw 55 and the lower of two plungers 81, which carry pawls engaging a ratchet-wheel on the screw 95. The movement of the plunger 79 is thus communicated to the plunger 81, and the belt 98 is moved to reduce the speed of the shaft 101 and consequently of the drums 5. If the feed is insufficient, the hopper descends and the block 83 is carried between the upper plungers 79, 81 so that the screw 95 is rotated in the opposite direction. When the ordinary disintegrating- apparatus mechanism of hand - feed cigarette machines is retained, the funnel 30 delivers on to the travelling feed-apron and the mouth is made wider. In a modification, an electric relay may be used, the end of the lever 48, when raised or lowered, closing circuits, which act to vary the speed as required. In another arrangement, the hopper mechanism may be driven by an electromotor and the movement of the controlling- ratchet is arranged to operate a rotary rheostat in the motor circuit and thus regulate the speed.