Patent ID: 7793664

Claim:
An apparatus for detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes from a conveyed sequence of cigarettes, each cigarette having a generally cylindrical shape extending between opposite longitudinal ends, each longitudinal end having a cigarette end surface of a first diameter, said apparatus located in a production/packaging installation for cigarettes that includes an ejector which segregates faulty cigarettes from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes, said apparatus comprising: a radio-frequency generator; a sensor having a sensor end face and operatively connected to said radio-frequency generator so that a radio-frequency electromagnetic field having a second diameter is present adjacent said sensor end face, said second diameter being approximately same as said first diameter; an evaluation circuit connected to detect and evaluate changes in said radio-frequency electromagnetic field; said sensor end surface positioned so that the longitudinal end of each cigarette being evaluated passes through said radio-frequency electromagnetic field with the end surface generally parallel with the sensor end face and in a direction generally parallel with said sensor end face, said evaluation circuit detecting changes in said radio-frequency electromagnetic field corresponding to a faulty cigarette and providing a signal to the ejector to segregate the faulty cigarette from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes.