Patent GB-752472-A (GB)
Title: Improved machine for the application of igniter discs to cigarettes
IPC: A24D1/08
Filed: 1954-03-04
Abstract: 752,472. Cigarette-making machines. S.A.F.F.A. SOC. ANON. FABRICHE FIAMMIFERI ED AFFINI. March .4. 1954 [March 7, 1953], No. 6314/54. Class 130. [Also in Group XXX] Cigarettes loaded from a hopper 2, Fig. 3, into elements 5 of an endless conveyer under the action of a device 4 are supplied with adhesive on one end by a unit or units 7, 8 and then have applied thereto igniting tips in the form of discs inflammable when rubbed on a suitably prepared surface and cut out from strip by a stamp 9, the elements 5 being at this time forwarded by a device 133 independently of the normal conveyer drive and later passing to a device 13 delivering the tipped cigarettes to an off-loading conveyer 157. Withdrawal of a bottom 15 from a supply container I allows untreated cigarettes to fall past bars 19, Fig. 7, of a reciprocating distributor grid 20 into slots 17 where successive bottom layers in turn are pushed by reciprocatory plungers of the device 4 into successive rows of holes 25, Fig. 9, in conveyer elements 5 having ends 41 sliding in guides forming the conveyer track. Resilient elements 38 inset into the elements 5 have spring tongues projecting through the walls of the holes 25 towards the rear thereof to retain the cigarettes frictionally. The elements 5 are given a forward motion between operative strokes of the plungers by intermittently driven pairs of gears, as 43, at four corners of a rectangle delimiting the endless conveyer track. The cigarettes project from the rear face of each element 5 and, after a reciprocatory presser bar 6 has aligned their ends, are forwarded uniformly, by a continuouslydriven gear pair 44 past units 7, 8, each of which comprises a group of four rollers 82 each apply. ing adhesive from a bath 81 tiltable by a screw to adjust the distance of a scraper edge 83 from the roller surface and control the rate of adhesive supply. A gear pair 45 having re-instated intermittent motion, the elements 5 pass to a stamp 9 where a row of hollow punches 124, Fig. 16, cut discs from strips of inflammable material passed through slots 131 in a stationary die 130 and deposit the discs on the cigarette ends. During this procedure, to ensure ac - curate positioning of each element 5, the drive thereof is temporarily taken over by reciprocating drag rods 133 having pawl ends engaging the element ends 41. The strips are fed from four parallel guides 10 by a reciprocating bar 100, Fig. 13, to which the strips are clamped during its forward stroke by fingers 96, e.g. two per strip, pivoted to a mounting 99 on the bar 100 and actuated by a cam 112 and spring 102. The discs are pressed on to the cigarette ends by a reciprocating bar 12 having four rows of spring-loaded plungers and the adhesive dries whilst the elements 5 complete their journey around the rectangular conveyer track and arrive at a position where plungers of the device 13 eject the treated cigarettes a row at a time on to the off-loading conveyer 157. The drive of various operative elements of the machine is effected from a single source by conventional gear and cam mechanisms which are described in detail.