Patent GB-190701042-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Leaf Stemming Machines, particularly Designed for use in the Manufacture of Tobacco
Inventor: FAIRWEATHER WALLACE
Filed: 1907-01-15
Granted: 1908-01-15
Abstract: 1042. Fairweather, W., [Landon Wilder Machine Co.]. Jan. 15. Tobacco.-Relates to a machine for stripping the stems from leaves, and is intended for use in conjunction with the booking-machine described in Specification No. 1042A, A.D. 1907. The leaves are impaled one at a time by hand, and as shown in Fig. 27 upon the flanges 41 of grippers 36, Fig. 16, carried by chains 8, Fig. 5, which travel in the direction of the arrow in grooves in an inclined bed, the effective surface of which is plain and smooth. The gripper jaws are normally held open by springs and are closed by adjustable camsurfaces on the sides of the grooves, the jaws gripping the portion of the midrib that is to be removed. The effect of the closing of the jaws is also to sever the stem near the point at which the leaf is impaled, the leaf projecting over the bed on each side of the groove and being gripped thereon by two sets of belts or bands 66, 19. While travelling over the inclined bed, each half of the leaf is brushed by an inclined and rotary brush 73, Fig. 6. Beyond the roller 63, the leaves are relieved from the gripping effect of the bands 66, and are gripped by the bands 61, 19, and travel round the roller 26 and between the bands to the rollers 79, 86, by which they are delivered to the piling or booking mechanism ; the stems are carried by the chain of grippers to the point 44 where the grippers are allowed the open. At the point beneath the roller 29 at which the bands 19 and the grippers separate, the heavy part of the stem is torn out of the leaf in a manner similar to that in which a piece of cloth'is usually torn. To ensure the complete removal of thel stem, each pair of grippers may have associated with it a second pair of subsidiary grippers, which are closed on the stem at the point 46, the leaf being depressed to the proper level so as to be engaged by them by means of spring arms 55, which are intermittently operated by cam-surfaces on a moving chain. When the stem is released from the grippers, it is thrown by a brush 181 into a hopper, the bottom of which is formed by a travelling band, and is conducted to two pairs of rollers 175, 176 between which are a pair of rapidly-rotating brushes 183, which strip the fragments of leaf from the stem and throw them into a shoot, while the cleaned stem is carried beyond the shoot and is collected separately. The stemmed and cleaned leaf is of the form shown in Fig. 28, but if desired a pair of disk-cutters may be provided on the shafts 26, 28 for completely separating the two halves of the leaf. The leaf is delivered from the rollers 79 on to a fly 100 carried by a reciprocating table, which is moved in such a manner that the leaf is properly deposited on to the fly, and at the end of its outward traverse the fly is turned through 180 degrees to deposit the leaf on to the table of a piling or booking apparatus, the axle of the fly being turned during the last portion of its outward movement by means of an eccentric toothed segment 98 and curved rack 99. At the front of the machine is a counting apparatus of ordinary construction, which is operated intermittently by a pin on the roller carried by the shaft 26, one rotation of which corresponds with the passage of a single leaf. A treadle arrangement is also provided whereby should the operator fail to place a leaf on a passing pair of grippers, he may disengage the counting-mechanism, and prevent the passage of the leaf from being counted.