JP2002253192A - Method and apparatus for forming tobacco continuous material for producing rodlike article in tobacco processing industry - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method and an apparatus for forming a continuous body for producing a rodlike article in a tobacco processing industry. SOLUTION: Short tobacco 78 is separated from longer tobacco fibers and then united with the longer tobacco fibers so that the short tobacco 78 is nonuniformly distributed in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco continuous body 110 in a region of a continuous body-forming zone. Thereby, the tobacco continuous body 110 is formed. The apparatus is composed so that second feed conveyors 70, 76 and 82 are equipped with a uniting device 82 and the short tobacco 78 is nonuniformly distributed in the longitudinal direction of the continuous body 110 thus formed in the region of the continuous body-forming zone of a continuous body conveyor 4 with the uniting device 82 and united with the longer tobacco fibers.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of forming a tobacco continuum for manufacturing rod-like articles in the tobacco processing industry.

Further, the present invention provides a separation device for separating short tobacco from longer tobacco fibers, a first feed conveyor for transferring longer tobacco fibers to a continuous conveyor, and a method for transferring short tobacco to a continuous conveyor. An apparatus for forming a tobacco continuum for producing rod-shaped articles in the tobacco processing industry, comprising a second feeding conveyor for feeding.

[0003]

2. Description of the Prior Art Bar-shaped articles in the tobacco processing industry, such as cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars, are produced by a so-called continuum former in the known art. In such a continuous body forming machine, the tobacco continuous body is sprinkled like a shower below the suction continuous body conveyor, trimmed, and subsequently cut into individual articles.

[0004] Tobacco used to form tobacco continuum is roughly divided into short tobacco and other tobacco fibers, such as medium length tobacco fibers and long tobacco fibers. Short tobacco occurs during all processing steps in making such articles. Special attention must be paid to this short cigarette when making the article. In particular, longer tobacco fibers play a major role in the structural stability of the article, while shorter tobaccos play a small role in the stability of this structure. Therefore, short tobacco must be distributed as evenly as possible and embedded in the article. For this purpose, various proposals have been made for known techniques described in publications.

That is, for example, German Patent No. 12
No. 41,744 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,138,163), a cigarette making machine which separates short tobacco and medium length tobacco fibers from long tobacco fibers and leaf bones by vibrating sieve. It is known to fractionate tobacco in The long tobacco fibers and the long leaf bone pieces are sprinkled on a layer of sieved short tobacco and medium length tobacco fibers. In this way, a layer having all the fiber components is formed, including the original-including the long lobes. Short tobacco, medium length tobacco fibers and long tobacco fibers are sucked by inhalation to form a continuous tobacco continuum, where the relatively heavy leaf bone fragments fall off the air stream. Thus, a uniform distribution of the short tobacco in the thus formed tobacco continuum is achieved.

[0006] German Patent Publication No. 34 38
From No. 125 it is known to use a vibratory conveyor with two floors, one above the other, for separating tobacco, wherein the upper floor is of medium length It has openings for the passage of tobacco fibers and short tobacco as well as longitudinally oriented grooves into which long lobes are collected. Subsequently, the long tobacco fibers are withdrawn from the upper floor to form a tobacco continuum and are integrated with the medium length and short tobacco fibers coming from the lower floor. The leaf remains in the groove and is discharged. Again, the short tobacco is then evenly distributed within the tobacco continuum.

[0007] Finally, German Patent Publication No. 15
From 32 231, collect short tobaccos in containers,
It is known to detect the quantity in this container and to dispense short tobacco depending on this quantity and supply it to the suction continuum conveyor. After the removal of the excess amount of tobacco from the tobacco continuum thus formed, again the short tobacco is actually distributed evenly in the article to be formed.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus of the above-mentioned type, in which the structural stability of the formed article is improved compared to the prior art. is there.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to provide a method according to the invention in which the following method steps are carried out: short tobacco is separated from longer tobacco fibers and this short tobacco is treated in the region of the continuum forming zone. The problem is solved by comprising a method step of forming into a tobacco continuum with shorter tobacco in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco continuum integrated with longer tobacco fibers so as to be unevenly distributed.

[0010] Furthermore, the above object is achieved in an apparatus according to the present invention, wherein the second supply conveyor comprises an integrated device,
With this integration device, in the region of the continuum forming zone of the continuum conveyor, the short tobacco is unevenly distributed in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco continuum thus formed and integrated with the longer tobacco fiber. It is solved by being constituted as follows. Non-uniform in the sense of the present invention is the absence of the same amount of short tobacco as a whole in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco continuum.

[0011] The present invention relates to significant requirements which differ with respect to the structural stability along the longitudinal axis of the article to be produced, and therefore along the longitudinal axis of the tobacco continuum which is sparsely distributed on this article. Put an end to the perception that imposition is imposed. To account for this recognition, a non-uniform distribution meeting the requirements of the short tobacco along the longitudinal axis of the tobacco continuum will prevail over a uniform distribution within the tobacco continuum.

In a preferred embodiment of the process according to the invention, the short tobacco is metered before its integration with other tobacco fibers. In this way, a non-uniform distribution of short tobacco within a tobacco continuum is particularly simple to achieve.

The device according to the invention comprises, for this purpose, a drum carrying a suction trough for containing and dispensing short tobacco.

In another embodiment of the invention, the short tobacco is loaded into portions of a tobacco continuum sprinkled in a shower, but these portions are coated with the tobacco continuum. It is located between two sections for singulating the tobacco continuum into single articles. In this way, the short cigarette-made article, which will fall off during its further processing, is prevented from reaching the end region. The present invention addresses this phenomenon by reducing the length of the article from which the suction trough is made and at a distance from one another around the drum, and separating the drum-coated tobacco continuum into individual articles. This is avoided by being configured to be driven in synchronization with a cutting device for making the cutting.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment according to the invention, the short tobacco reaches the center of the tobacco continuum and is structurally supported by long tobacco fibers in the circumferential direction of the finished article there. The short tobacco is buried in the tobacco continuum. When this embodiment is combined with the above-described embodiment according to the present invention, structural support in the surroundings for short tobacco is achieved by long tobacco fibers supporting short tobacco in the finished smoking article.
Short tobacco shedding is avoided.

The device according to the invention comprises for this purpose such an arrangement of the drum with respect to the suction continuum conveyor. With this arrangement, the short tobacco metering body, the suction of troughs in the suction trough, to the continuum conveyor, in the region of the tobacco continuum, which is later partly shower-shaped, forming the central axis of the article. The supply controlled by the interruption is guaranteed.

In a further refinement of the method according to the invention and of the device according to the invention, the separating device is provided with a vibrating sieve, whereby the short tobacco is stored in a storage container for its collection. Separated within. In this case, the storage container is provided with a filling level monitoring mechanism to check the filling level of the storage container. The filling level monitoring mechanism works with a dosing device, which gives short tobacco to the vibrating conveyor depending on the filling level in the storage container. The drum picks up a short cigarette from this vibrating conveyor,
The short tobacco is fed into the tobacco continuum forming zone of the continuum conveyor in synchronism with the transport speed of the continuum conveyor. In this case, the excess tobacco is removed from the drum by a trimmer according to a predetermined metering value and returned to the vibrating conveyor.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

[0019]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a fleece distributor 1 for feeding tobacco to a schematic illustrated suction continuum conveyor 4 of a cigarette making machine--the remainder of which is not shown. It is shown in the figure.

The tobacco is provided in the sluice 6. From this sluice, the tobacco reaches the pre-distributor 8. A pivotable flap 17 is controlled by a photocell (not shown) provided in the pre-distributor 8 via a drive mechanism 21, thereby controlling a supplementary feed from the tobacco sluice. See US Pat. No. 4,373,538 of the applicant for further details.) In the pre-distributor 8, the tobacco is transferred by carding rollers 10 along a cover plate 12 into a main storage container 14. An excess amount of tobacco also reaches the main storage container 14 via the vibrating conveyor 16. At the end of the suction continuum conveyor 4, this excess amount of tobacco is indicated by the arrow 18 shown in FIG.
From the tobacco continuum with a trimmer 19 according to

From the main storage container 14, the tobacco is moved upwards according to arrow 24 by a steep conveyor 22 having a banding member 20 shown schematically in dashed lines.
2 is supplied to the second turning roller 26. This main storage container 14
The filling level within is responded by photocells 15a and 15b. The upper photocell 15a controls the tobacco supply from the pre-distributor 8 (see US Pat. No. 4,373,538 of the applicant for details). The dispenser 1 and all cigarette making machines are shut down when the tobacco storage volume in the main storage container 14 drops below the level below this photovoltaic cell 15b by the lower photocell 15b. Deflection roller 2
After the belt 20 of the steep conveyor 22 is turned by 6, the tobacco falls on a vibrating screen 27 which acts as a separating device. The vibrating sieve 27 is a short cigarette 78 (FIG. 3)
) Is separated from the longer tobacco fiber. This short cigarette 78 falls through the vibrating screen 27 into the storage container 29. The storage container 29 is similarly provided with two photovoltaic cells 31 for detecting the upper limit value and the lower limit value of the filling level of the short cigarette 78 therein.

The longer tobacco fibers which do not fall through the vibrating sieve 27 into the pre-storage container 29 are
Due to the vibratory movement of 7, it passes by the magnet 28 and into the dam chute 32 to separate the metal.

These longer tobacco fibers are removed from this damming chute 32 by metering and individualizing rollers 34. The dispensing and individualizing roller 34 forms an individualizing device together with the ejection roller 40 which rotates at a relatively high speed. The tobacco shower made of longer tobacco fibers produced by the individualizing device reaches into a funnel-tapered chute 46. At the end of the chute 46, a blowing nozzle 48 blows a sieving air stream transversely to the drop direction of the tobacco, separating lighter tobacco fibers 50 from heavier leaf bones and separating these lighter tobacco fibers. Guide surface 54 for forming fleece 51
In this direction on this guide surface 54.

Some light tobacco fiber 50 descends with the leaf bone. These light tobacco fibers reach the re-sieving chute 60 via the star feeder sluice 56, in which the heavy lobes fall further down and are conveyed by the conveyor 61 while the lighter tobacco fibers 50 are In the chute 58, the air is formed in the air box 62 by the air flow formed by the injection action of the air jets jetted from the nozzles (not shown), and is similarly transported upward in the direction of the guide surface 54. From this guide surface 54, the light tobacco fiber 50 shown in FIG. 3 abuts directly on the suction belt 86 of the suction continuous conveyor 4 from below. The vibrating sieve 27, dam chute 32, individualizing roller 34, punching roller 40, chute 46, blow nozzle 48, chute 58, air box 62 and guide surface 54 are for transferring longer tobacco fibers to the continuous conveyor 4. Of the first supply conveyor.

The short tobacco 78 in the storage container 29 sieved by the vibrating screen 27 is removed from the storage container 29 via the metering device 70 depending on the filling level ascertained by the light barrier 31 and according to the arrow 72. It is supplied (selectively via a slideway, not shown, by a conveyor screw, not shown) to an oscillating conveyor 76, shown in an enlarged manner in FIG. . The short tobacco 78 is sucked from the oscillating conveyor 76 by a drum 82 which carries a trough 80 (see FIG. 2) which serves as an individualizing device according to the invention for its dosing. The drum 82 has a vibrating conveyor 76
Is provided vertically above. The dosing device 70, the runway / conveyor screw, the oscillating conveyor 76 and the drum 82 form a second feed conveyor according to the invention for transferring essentially short tobacco 78 to the suction continuum conveyor 4.

The drum 82 is rotatably supported by a drive shaft 83 in a support portion 84, and is driven by a drive mechanism 85. The intake air (indicated by a general arrow 87) is applied to the drum 82 via a ventilation passage 88. The ventilation passage 88 is provided on a suction trough 80 provided on the peripheral surface of the drum 82.
In addition, the intake air is actuated via a corresponding ventilation channel 92 provided radially in the drum 82. The drum 82 is present vertically in the extension of the guide surface 54 and thus in the tobacco shower 102 shown in dashed lines in FIG. 3 and below the suction continuity conveyor 4.

In order to control the suction trough 80,
Drum 82 further includes a control slit 98 which is stationary. This control slit acts on the ventilation channel 92 and thus on the suction trough 80 in such a way that the intake air acts only in the region of the control slit 89. In the control flange of the drum 82, in addition to the control slit 89, an exhaust hole 120 is provided.
Is also provided. This exhaust hole 120 is used for a short cigarette 7.
8 is required to be removed from the trough 82 of the drum 82 by the suction continuum conveyor 4. For this purpose,
This exhaust hole 120 is present in the rotational direction behind the end 100 of the control slit 89 at a position where the suction trough 80 is very close to the suction belt 86 while the trough 82 is rotating. I have.

The function of the suction drum 82 will now be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The suction drum 82 includes the vibration conveyor 7.
6 in accordance with arrow 94 in a direction opposite to the transport direction indicated by arrow 96. Accordingly, the short tobacco 78 that reaches the vibrating conveyor 76 is sucked by the suction trough 80 in a direction opposite to the transport direction 86. As viewed in the rotational direction 94, the suction drum 82
At the suction trough 80 by the control slit 98
Activate the suction action. The short tobacco 78 received from the suction trough 80 is held by the suction drum only in the region of the control slit 98. The suction drum 82 is guided by a shaving body 106 for removing the short tobacco 78 protruding from the peripheral surface of the suction drum 82. The short tobacco 78 thus metered into the volume of the suction trough 80 then reaches further below the suction belt 86 of the suction continuum conveyor 4 in the direction of rotation 94 of the suction drum 82 in the form of a tobacco shower 102.
Therefore, the end 1 of the control slit 98 is viewed in the rotation direction 94.
At the position of the exhaust hole 120 at the rear of 00, since there is no intake at that time, and the exhaust of the suction trough 82 by the exhaust hole 120 is given to the tobacco shower 102 below the suction belt 86 of the suction continuous conveyor 4. .

A suitable dosing of the short tobacco 78 in the tobacco continuum 110 formed by the suction continuum conveyor 4 in the manner described above is performed as follows.

The peripheral speed of the suction drum 82 matches the speed of the suction belt 86 of the continuum conveyor 4, so that the relative speed between the longer tobacco fiber and the shorter tobacco 78 on the suction drum 82 at the suction belt 86. Does not occur.

The suction troughs 80 are shorter than the article to be manufactured and are provided on the peripheral surface of the suction drum 82 at intervals from each other. In addition, the suction drum 82 may be used to separate the coated tobacco continuum into articles (not shown here, for example, US Pat. No. 5,055).
(Described in U.S. Pat. No. 0,471), whereby the short tobacco 78 is placed in the longitudinally-spaced cut piece of the cut article and thus in the head area of the article. The articles are loaded at intervals.

The dashed line 114 in FIG. 2 shows such a metered and loaded short tobacco 78 with a spacing and a constant longitudinal extension.

In addition, the suction drum 82 is spaced from the suction belt 86 so that the finished (ie, fully showered and trimmed) tobacco continuum 110 is centered. 10
Within 8 there is a short tobacco 78 meter 114. That is, the short tobacco 78 is surrounded by longer tobacco fibers.

FIG. 2 further shows a step of loading the head reinforcing portion 112 into the tobacco continuum 110 by the trimmer 19. This head reinforcement 112 is exactly between the metering bodies 114 due to synchronization.

[0036]

With the method and the device according to the invention, the loading of short tobacco into a tobacco continuum is very easy to achieve, and the structural stability of the formed articles is improved compared to the known art. Can be reached.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a free sbet dispenser of a cigarette maker incorporating a device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of a position portion of the distributor illustrated in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a portion A shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 free svet dispenser 4 suction continuum conveyor 6 sluis 7 flap 8 dispenser 10 rake-out roller 12 cover plate 14 main storage container 17 flap 15a, 15b photovoltaic cell 18, 24, 72, 96 arrow 20 band member 21 drive mechanism 22 Steep conveyor 26 Deflection roller 27 Vibrating sieve 29 Pre-storage container 32 Damming chute 34 Individualizing roller 40 Beating roller 48 Blowing nozzle 50 Tobacco fiber 54 Guide surface 61 Conveyor 62 Air box 70 Distributing device 76 Vibrating conveyor 78 Short tobacco Reference Signs List 80 suction trough 82 suction drum 83 drive shaft 84 support 85 drive mechanism 88 ventilation passage 86 suction belt 92 suction passage 94 rotation direction 98 control slit 100 end of control slit 102 tobacco shower 10 tobacco rods 120 vents

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Wolfgang Schütiniger, Germany, Guest Hacht, Grihunhofer Straße, 23 B F-term (reference) 4B044 CB16X CB17Y CL02 CL08 CM02

Claims (17)

[Claims] 01. A method of forming a tobacco continuum for manufacturing rod-like articles in the tobacco processing industry, comprising:
Separating the short tobacco (78) from the longer tobacco fibers; and separating the short tobacco (78) in the region of the continuum forming zone in the longitudinal direction of the tobacco continuum (110). A method comprising the steps of forming a tobacco continuum (110) integrated with longer tobacco fibers such that the tobacco (78) is unevenly distributed. 02. The method according to claim 1, wherein the short tobacco (78) is metered before being integrated with the shorter tobacco fiber. 03. A tobacco continuum which is present between two cut pieces for coating a short tobacco (78) with a tobacco continuum (110) and then individualizing the tobacco continuum (110) into articles. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the part (110) is loaded. 04. The short tobacco (78) is placed such that the short tobacco is in the center of the tobacco continuum (110).
4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method is embedded in a tobacco continuum. 05. The method according to claim 1, wherein the short tobacco (78) is separated from the longer tobacco fibers by sieving under the application of vibration. 06. The method according to claim 1, wherein the short tobacco is collected before dispensing. 07. The method according to claim 6, wherein the short tobacco (78) is metered and supplied to the metering substance depending on the amount of short tobacco (78) collected. 08. The method according to claim 2, wherein an increasing excess of the proportion is removed from the meter before the predetermined quantity of short tobacco is integrated with the longer tobacco fiber. The method according to any one of the preceding claims. 09. Separation device (27) for separating short tobacco (78) from longer tobacco fiber, first feed conveyor (27) for transferring longer tobacco fiber to continuous conveyor (4). , 32,34,40,46,4
8, 58, 62, 54), a second feed conveyor (70, 76, 82) for feeding short tobacco (78) to the continuous conveyor (4). In an apparatus for forming a tobacco continuum (110) from different lengths of tobacco fiber for producing rod-shaped articles, a second feed conveyor (70, 76,
82) comprises an integrating device (82) by means of which a short tobacco (78) is formed in the region of the continuum forming zone of the continuum conveyor (4). The apparatus characterized in that it is configured to be unevenly distributed in the longitudinal direction of the body (110) and integrated with longer tobacco fibers. 10. The integrated device (82) comprises a short cigarette (7).
Device according to claim 9, characterized in that it comprises a drum (82) carrying a suction trough (80) for dispensing 8). 11. A drum (8) in which the suction trough (80) is shorter than the article to be manufactured and is spaced from one another.
The drum (82) is configured to be driven by a cutting device for distributing the coated tobacco continuum (110) into articles. The device of claim 10, wherein 12. A drum (82) comprising a short cigarette (7).
Device according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the dosing of (8) is provided in the center of the finished tobacco continuum (110). 13. The device according to claim 9, wherein the separating device comprises a vibrating sieve (76). 14. A storage container (29) for collecting short cigarettes (78) separated by a separating device (27) is provided. An apparatus according to claim 1. 15. The device according to claim 14, wherein the storage container (29) is provided with a filling level monitor (31). 16. A second supply conveyor (70, 76, 8).
2) receiving the short cigarette (78) from the separating device (27) and providing the integrating device (82) with the integrating device (82) so that the short cigarette (78) can be sucked from the vibrating conveyor (76). 16. Apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 15, characterized in that it comprises a vibrating conveyor (76) provided. 17. A second supply conveyor (70, 76, 8).
2) comprises a dosing device (70), by means of which a short tobacco (78) is withdrawn from the storage container (29) and metered and fed to the integrating device (82). 17. The device according to claim 14, wherein
The apparatus according to any one of the above.