Patent ID: 7276120

Claim:
An apparatus for applying a fluid additive material to a continuous advancing strip of a paper web for manufacture of smokable rods usable in a cigarette making machine, comprising: a rotatable housing having (a) an outer surface, (b) an inner region having (i) a reservoir for the additive material and (ii) an inner face having gear teeth, and (c) at least one passageway for passage of the additive material from the inner region to the outer surface; a rotatable inner gear (a) having a plurality of gear teeth, a portion of which extend essentially across a width of the rotatable housing inner region and a portion of which extend across less than the width of the inner region, and a trough region between at least one pair of adjacent gear teeth that extends essentially across the width of the inner region and (b) being positioned within the rotatable housing such that the gear teeth of the rotatable housing are in a cooperating arrangement with the gear teeth of the inner gear; and a means for driving rotation of the rotatable inner gear in the same direction together with the rotatable housing, the inner gear undergoing rotation such that (a) the additive material within the reservoir is transferred to each trough region and (b) cooperation of the gear teeth of the rotatable inner gear and the gear teeth of the rotatable housing causes additive material within the trough region to be forced through the at least one passageway onto the paper web.