Patent ID: 7833146

Claim:
An apparatus for providing rods for use in the manufacture of smoking articles, each rod having objects individually spaced at predetermined intervals along the length thereof, the apparatus comprising: a rotatable member including a pan having a plurality of holes formed in the pan at predetermined intervals around the periphery of the pan, a skirt depending from the perimeter of the pan defining a plurality of slots in the skirt, a plurality of stem lifters each comprising a hollow tube, a cam block and a cam follower coupled to the cam block, the hollow tube being slidingly received within each hole of the plurality of holes of the pan, the cam block being coupled at a predetermined position on the tube and being slidingly received within the slot; and a cam drum in a position fixed relative the rotatable member, the cam drum having a side wall received within and adjacent to the skirt of the rotatable member, the side wall having a cam channel defined therein circumscribing a continuous undulating path around the perimeter of the cam drum; wherein the cam follower of each stem lifter is received within the cam channel; whereupon during rotation of the rotatable member; the cam follower moves along the path described by the cam channel whereby the stem lifters rise and fall at a rotational position defined by the cam channel.