Patent ID: 7874295

Claim:
A shredded tobacco material feeder of a cigarette manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a feeding path for feeding shredded tobacco material toward a tobacco band of the cigarette manufacturing apparatus; separation means for dividing the shredded tobacco material into normal particles having desired particle sizes and separation material having larger particle sizes than the normal particles in a feeding process of the shredded tobacco material; and a collecting path for receiving the separation material from said separation means, and transferring the separation material toward a central dust collector, wherein said separation means includes: a sieve conveyor for receiving and transferring the separation material, said sieve conveyor dividing the separation material into large particles having large particle sizes and medium particles having smaller particle sizes than the large particles in a transfer process of the separation material, and returning the large particles to said collecting path; a returning path for receiving the medium particles from the sieve conveyer, and returning the medium particles to said feeding path; and a separator interposed in said returning path, said separator dividing the medium particles into returnable components corresponding to the normal particles and collected components other than the returnable components, and discharging the collected components into said collecting path.