Patent GB-649467-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to collecting mechanism for cigarettes and other rod-shaped articles
IPC: A24C5/354
Filed: 1948-07-27
Abstract: 649,467. Endless-track conveyers. MOLINS, D. W., RUAU, F. F., NICHOLS, S. A., JACKSON, N. W., WILLIAMS, H., and MOLINS MACHINE CO., Ltd. July 27, 1948, Nos. 20035 and 26892. [Class 104 (ii)] A collecting and conveying mechanism adapted to be associated with a cigarettemaking machine to receive cigarettes issuing therefrom comprises a pair of parallel tracks each defined by two L-sectioned members 25, 26 along which carriages 36 containing collecting trays are propelled in opposite directions by an endless chain conveyer 1 provided with abutments 39 which engage releasable inverted cup-shaped members 38 on the undersides of the carriages, a switching device being provided at each end of the tracks for switching the carriages from one track to the other by a reversing movement, so that the leading end of a carriage on one run becomes the trailing end on the other run. The carriages are halted temporarily by disengaging them from the chain drive at a part of the track below the discharge point of the cigarette-making machine, and at this position two carriages are arranged to be disposed endto-end with the gap between them closed by a flat surface on a member pivoted on the front end of the rear carriage, whereby cigarettes are prevented from falling between the ends of the carriages. Sprocket wheels 2, 3, Fig. 1, on vertical shafts are provided at each end of the track to guide the chain 1, and the shaft of the sprocket 3 is driven by a coaxial ratchet wheel 10, Fig. 3, and double pawl 11 at the end of a rocking-arm linked to a one end of a longitudinally reciprocating horizontal rod 16. The other end of rod 16 is pivoted to a link 17 carrying a roller 18 which is held in engagement with a cam 19 on a continuously rotating shaft 21. Each carriage 36 has eight small cylindrical studs or feet 37 with convex bases on which the carriage rides on the tracks, and an inverted cup-shaped member 38 is mounted on the end of a lever 44 pivoted centrally on the underside of the carriage. A spring 46 urges the lever 44 downwardly so that the member 38 can be put into and held in engagement with the upper end of one of a series of upstanding pegs 39 secured at intervals along the endless chain 1. The pegs are extended downwardly to provide rounded feet 51 which bear on a guide rail and support the weight of the chain. The outer rails 25, Fig. 2, of the tracks are of greater length than the inner rails 26, and join on to platforms 30, 31 which are in the same plane and have vertical outside edges 32, 33 forming continuations of the vertical limbs of the rails 25. The switching members 34, 35 each consist of a metal plate fixed to its respective platform 31 or 32 and formed with a recess in one edge to receive and engage the forward offside stud or foot 37 of an advancing carriage whereby the continuing feed of the carriage causes it to slew round on to the other track for movement in the opposite direction. When about one-third of the length of a carriage has passed the filling position a cam 47, Fig. 1, at the side of the track trips the lever 44 to disengage the inverted cup 38 from the driving peg 39 whereupon the carriage is halted during further filling, until the following carriage comes into contact with it and pushes it forward until itself halted by the cam 47. Fig. 1 shows two carriages passing from left to right below a feeding device 41 of the form described in Specification 549,877. Twin levers 52 pivoted at 53 at the leading edge of each carriage are provided at their lower ends with rollers 55 which, over a certain distance of travel engage within cam tracks 54 at the side of the apparatus, so that the upper ends of the levers bridge the gaps between the ends of the trays. In the event of a cessation in the flow of cigarettes to the collecting trays the ratchet drive of the conveyer chain 1 is tripped by means actuated by a link rod 60 which is connected to a rod 59 coupled to a two-armed lever 58 controlled by a pivoted feeler 57. The conveyer driving mechanism may incorporate the variable speed gear described in Specification 549,878, [Group XXIV]. Specifications 637,850 and 643,956, [Group XVII], also are referred to in the Provisional Specification.