Patent ID: 7210486

Claim:
A process for returning a rod machine of the tobacco processing industry to service or for the automatic start-up of a rod machine of the tobacco processing industry, the machine including a rod conveyor arranged to convey at least one rod of smokeable material or of filter material, a feed device for feeding at least one wrapper strip to a feed element, and a garniture, the process comprises: automatically feeding a leading edge of the at least one wrapper strip to the feed element; transferring the at least one rod onto the at least one wrapper strip in a region of the feed device; guiding the at least one rod and the at least one wrapper strip to the garniture; and continuously wrapping the at least one rod with the at least one wrapper strip, wherein a fixing unit retains the leading edge of the at least one wrapper strip in a preset position within the feed device/rod machine, and subsequently releases the leading edge, and wherein the automatic feeding occurs after the subsequent release of the leading edge by the fixing unit.