Patent GB-452820-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to cigar making machines
IPC: A24C1/26
Filed: 1935-10-16
Abstract: 452,820. Cigar-making machines. INTERNATIONAL CIGAR MACHINERY CO., 5520, 2nd Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A. Oct. 16, 1935, No. 28578. Convention date, July 24. [Class 130] A cigar-making machine has a device coacting individually with a succession of cigar bunches to detect the pressure of an imperfect bunch or the absence of a bunch, and means for giving an indication or signal, or modifying the normal operation of the machine, when a bunch is imperfect or absent. An intermittently rotating turret 5 carries a series of bunch shaping pockets 5<a>. As each pocket arrives at the top of the turret, a shaped bunch is ejected by a device 55 and taken up at the position B<1> by grippers 6<a> on an oscillating transfer arm 6, which delivers the bunch at B" to a wrapping device 7. The transfer arm is oscillated by means of a pinion 6b actuated by a rack 6<c> reciprocated by a lever 49 actuated by a cam on the shaft 45, from which the turret 5, the wrapping device 7 and the shaft 15 of a wrapper carrier 9 are driven by chain gearing 46... 48. The wrapper W is cut out on a suction cutting bed 8 and carried to the wrapping device 7 by a suction carrier 9 mounted on a hollow jointed arm 14 carried by the shaft 15, which is supported by a hollow column 16. The column 16 and the cutting bed 8 are connected to a suction chamber 10 under the control of slide valves 11, 12 connected by links 38, 39 to a lever 35 actuated by a spring 36 and a cam 54 on the shaft 45. The detecting mechanism comprises fingers 19 pivoted on a shaft 20 and each connected by an adjustable spring 21 to a bar 22. Associated with the fingers 19 are levers 23 pivoted on a shaft 24 and connected by rods 29 to levers 28 having rollers 27 held by springs 25 in engagement with a cam or cams 26 on the shaft 45. Each rod 29 is connected by a rod 40 to a lever 41 carrying an adjustable stop screw 43 limiting the upward movement of a wrapper paster 17 actuated through a lever 50 from a cam on the shaft 45. The detector fingers 19 are normally held in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 4, by the engagement of the levers 23 with the projections on the fingers. When a bunch B is passing above the fingers 19, the levers 28, 23 are momentarily lifted by the cam 26, leaving the fingers under the action of the springs 21. If the bunch B is too soft or a bunch is absent, one or more of the projections on the fingers 19 will be moved out of the path of the levers 23, and the subsequent downward movement of the levers 28 to the position 28<1>, Fig. 1, will move a lever 32 to latch over the rod 34 to the lever 35. The valves 11, 12 will thus be held in the position in which suction is maintained on the cutting bed 8 and cut off from the carrier 9, so that a wrapper is not transferred to the wrapping device 6. The upward movement of the paster 17 is also prevented by a stop screw 43<1>, and the lever 35 and the paster remain inactive until a properly formed bunch engages the detector fingers 19. In order to remove or deliver defective bunches before they reach the wrapping mechanism, a bar 102, Fig. 4, may be attached to a pair of gripper fingers 6<a> of the transfer device, and each finger 19 is provided with an insulated contact 101 ; when a defective bunch allows one or more of the fingers 19 to move upwards, the contacts 101 close a circuit including a solenoid 103 and the secondary winding 112 of a transformer, the primary winding 111 of which is connected to a supply circuit 113. The core 104 of the solenoid is thus raised to a position in which it engages the bar 102 and opens the grippers to discharge the defective bunch into a receptacle 105. Means are described for forming bunches and delivering them to the turret 5, comprising a container for scrap tobacco from which pockets on a chain conveyer remove tobacco and discharge it into a shoot, from which it is expelled by a plunger into the loop of a rolling apron. The resulting bunch rolls down a guide into position above a bunch shaping pocket 5<a>, in which it is inserted by a plunger actuated by a grooved cam on the shaft 63 of the turret.