Patent ID: 8515570

Claim:
A system for detecting defects in filters for smoking articles, comprising: a conveying device configured to convey discrete filter units along a direction transverse to the length of the filter units, each filter unit having an active charcoal filter portion at each end and being wrapped in an inner paper; a sensing unit positioned adjacent to the conveying device such that the discrete filter units are conveyed by the conveying device past the sensing unit along a direction transverse to the length of the filter units, the sensing unit being configured to detect two active charcoal filter portions and determine when one of the active charcoal filter portions is present and non-defective and the sensing unit is also configured to determine when one of the active charcoal filter portions is absent or defective charcoal filter portion, wherein the sensing unit comprises two sensors that are disposed adjacent to the conveying device, each sensor being positioned to detect the side of each discrete filter unit and spaced such that each sensing unit detects one of the active charcoal filter portions at each end of a filter unit, and each sensor determines a status associated with the active charcoal filter portion; and a controller configured to receive and process the determined status from the sensing unit and to modify operation of the conveying device in the event that the determined status indicate one or both active charcoal filter portions are absent or defective, wherein the determined status is processed using AND logic such that the sensing unit determines both active charcoal filter portions are present and non-defective the controller does not modify operation of the conveying device.