Patent GB-449653-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to bunch shaping and transferring mechanism for cigar making machines
IPC: A24C1/20
Filed: 1935-08-17
Abstract: 449,653. Cigar making machines. INTERNATIONAL CIGAR MACHINERY CO., 5520, 2nd Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. Aug. 17, 1935, No. 23178. Convention date, May 16. [Class 130] An endless rotating member, such as a drum 29, carries a series of pockets 23 so that they are uncovered at one part of the drum, as shown at the right of Fig. 2, for receiving cigar bunches placed therein by hand, shaping-covers 31 being afterwards applied radially to the pockets, as at the point 86, and being retained thereon during the remaining part of the drum's rotation by a guide 87, at the end of which the covers are again removed, as shown at the top of Fig. 2. Slots 36 are formed in the ends of the pockets 23 to receive the surplus material at the ends of the bunches, the slot at the head end being closed when the cover 31 is applied, so that the head is completely shaped. Before the covers are applied, the bunches are seated in a trimming position by a reciprocating seating-member 66, after which the projecting ends are trimmed by knives 71, a further reciprocating seating-member 66<a> being then applied so as to compress the bunch in the pocket. The drum 29 is rotated intermittently by a grooved cam 42 engaging rollers 43 on a disc 44 on a shaft 45 geared to the drum at 46, 47. The shaping-covers 31 are simultaneously removed at the top of the drum and applied at the bottom by carriers 77 slotted at 78 to work over a block 79 rotatably mounted on the shaft 50, grooves 77<a> in the ends of the carriers receiving rollers 34 connected to the covers. In the position of the carriers shown in Fig. 2, they are locked by spring detents to cams 60 and 63, which are rotated in the opposite direction to the drum. The carriers are therefore turned through half a revolution in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 2, until they come against a stop 86, thus bringing the cover 31 removed from the top into position to be applied at the bottom. When the carrier comes against the stop 86, the detents become disengaged, allowing the cams 60, 63 to continue rotating so as to move the carrier radially to apply the cover at the bottom, removing the next cover at the top of the drum. The carriers, during their half-rotations, may actuate a pushing-pin so as to tuck in surplus material at the head end of a bunch just prior to the application of the seating-member 66a thereto. On the next movement of the drum 29 after a cover 31 has been removed, the bunch thus freed is ejected by pins 57 moved radially outwards by the cam 60, so as to bring the bunch against toggle links 152, 153, Fig. 4, of the transfer device, and closing the grippers 150, 151. The transfer arm 135 is then swung about its pivot 136 to bring the bunch over the wrapping-mechanism, and during this movement the bunch is turned bodily through 90‹ by means of bevel gearing 146, 147. In a modification, the bunches are ejected from the drum pockets by radially movable base members in the pockets, instead of the pins 57. Also, the knives for trimming the surplus at the ends of the bunches may be carried by the seating-member 66<a>.