GB959984A - Method and apparatus for forming a tobacco rod - Google Patents

Abstract

959,984. Cigarette-making machines. K. KÍRBER. April 6, 1961 [April 6, 1960], No. 12349/61. Heading A2C. A machine for forming a tobacco filler for cigarettes, cigars and smoking tobacco packs includes a testing device which automatically operates a fine (filler-trimming) control, and outside predetermined limits, a coarse (filler-feed) control. In a cigarette making machine, Fig. 1, tobacco is showered on to a belt 2 and delivered to a suction groove 7 of a feed wheel 6. The tobacco stream is trimmed by a trimming device 10 and the excess tobacco delivered to a spiked groove 9 from which it is later picked off by a beater wheel 46 and returned at point 45 to the belt 2. The trimmed tobacco stream is withdrawn from the suction groove 7 by a scraper 11 and delivered, aided by a steel belt 16, to cigarette paper 13 and fed into a rod forming mechanism. The amount of tobacco in the formed rod is tested by a radiation measuring testing device 19 upstream of the machine cut-off 18. The result shown by the testing device 19, is converted by a control unit 20 into a control signal which is transmitted along a line 21 to an actuator motor 23. A driving shaft 24 (Fig. 3) from the actuator motor 23 drives through a slipping clutch 25 a member 26 carrying a regulator shaft 27 which shaft is rotatable in fixed bearings 28 and 29. The driven member 26 embodies a pin 35 (Fig. 2) which co-operates with a stop 36. A rod 42 which is operated against spring pressure by the cam 30 through a roller 41, controls through an adjustable spindle 43 the trimming device 10. When the rotation of the shaft 27 exceeds a predetermined value due to an excess feed of for example 10%, a press switch 33 is operated by a cam disc 31 and through a control line 37 operates a regulator appliance 39, which appliance varies a continuously variable drive 40 of the distributor such that the tobacco feed is reduced by 10%. Should the feed be too small; a press switch 34, operated by a cam disc 32, operates the regulator appliance 39 through a control line 38 in the opposite sense. The stop 36 may be replaced by machine cut-outs (Fig. 4 not shown). In an alternative embodiment the testing device 19 is placed at 44.,