Patent GB-477908-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in the manufacture of filter tip and like cigarettes
IPC: A24C5/47
Filed: 1936-07-09
Abstract: 477,908. Cigarette-making machines. EDWARDS, W. F. M. July 9, 1936, No. 19079. [Class 130] A uniting-band is wrapped around an assemblage formed by a length of cigarette rod and a stub by rolling the assemblage between relatively movable members carried by a drum or an equivalent conveyer, and preferably, after the band has been partly lapped around the assemblage. The stub may comprise a filter tip, a spiral wad, or a tube which may be empty or filled or partly filled with filtering material and/or tobacco. Multiple lengths of stub material, enclosed in paper wrappers, are fed from a hopper 3 into grooves 4a in a drum 4 and cut into doublelength portions by successively acting cutters 5, 5a. The double-length stubs are ejected by spring-actuated plungers 7, Fig. 2, controlled by a cam 8, into wider grooves 6a in a disc 6, which moves slower than the drum 4 and has more grooves than the drum 4. The stubs are positioned by a stop 6b and retained in the grooves by guides 11, Fig. 1, until they are transferred by guides 12b into grooves 12a in a disc 12 which delivers them into grooves 2a in a drum 2 so that they lie between pairs of cigarettes fed into the grooves by a double hopper 1. The cigarettes and stubs are brought into contact, just before the drum 2 delivers them to a suction transfer wheel 13, by the engagement of spring fingers 13a with guides 14, one of which is resilient and adjustable to regulate the axial pressure on the assemblage formed by the two cigarettes and the double-length stub. The suction wheel delivers the assemblages on to pasted strips 27 of cork or the like, which are held by suction on a drum 16 and cut into lengths by a rotary cutter 27a. The drum 16 carries pairs of slotted blades 19, 20 which are mounted on slides actuated by cams 21, 22 and when the assemblage is delivered on to the cork the blades 19, 20 move outwardly to lap the cork strip partly around the assemblage. Resilient fingers 24 or blocks on an endless chain 24a position the assemblage while the blade 20 moves outwards, and after the assemblage has been moved clear of the drum 16 by a small projection of the blade 19, the assemblage is rolled between the blades by moving the blade 19 outwards and the blade 20 inwards. During further movement of the drum the assemblage is rolled in the reverse direction by moving the blade 19 inwards and the blade 20 outwards, and then the assemblage is brought into contact with the periphery of the drum 16 and is bisected by a cutter 23, which passes through centrally disposed slots in the blades, while its seam is held against the blade 20. After cutting, the blade 20 is projected and the blade 19 held stationary or withdrawn to eject the products into grooves 25a in a drum 25 in which the products are separated by curved rollers 29 driven in opposite directions before being delivered to a conveyer belt 26. In modified constructions, (1) a fixed spring plate laps the cork strip further arourid the assemblage before it is rotated, (2) the rotation is effected without any translatory movement of the assemblage, (3) the rolling operation is repeated several times during the rotation of the drum, (4) the lengths of pasted cork are applied to the assemblages while they are carried on the wheel 13 and partly wrapped around the assemblages by the outward projection of the blades 19, 20, and (5) the assemblages are carried on an endless-chain structure and the blades reciprocated by ramps or cams.