GB427896A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

427,896. Cigarette-making machines. WIX, A., 338, Goswell Road, London, and MAY, R. F., 9, Manor Road, Potters Bar, Middlesex. Nov. 2, 1933, No. 30416. [Class 130] In a continuous-rod method for the manufacture of cigarettes containing a filter tip or other insertion, the insertions are first applied and affixed to the continuous paper strip and the continuous tobacco filling fed from the hopper is cut into lengths which are delivered or transferred on to the paper strip between the insertions, the paper strip being then wrapped around the composite filling to produce a rod which is cut into lengths to obtain cigarettes. The insertion may be a tube, filter tip, wad or the like, or may consist of tobacco of different quality or character from that of the main tobacco filling, the tobacco being enclosed in a tube, sleeve, or wrapper ; and the insertion may be located at the mouthpiece end of the cigarette or at an intermediate position in the length of the cigarette. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the tobacco filling 1 from the hopper 2 is carried by an endless belt 3 into a tube 4 and passes between grooved pressure rollers 6 to a cut-off device 5. The severed length of tobacco filling is deposited on the paper strip 7, led over a roller 9, between filter tips or insertions 8 previously applied. Immediately after the cutting operation, a member 11 is actuated to engage above the trailing end of the cut-off length of filling and positively deposits it on the paper strip ; the member 11 then moves in the direction of the paper strip, but initially at a reduced speed, obturating the flow of the tobacco filling, and ensuring the deposition of the leading end of the filling behind the insertion 8, as shown in Fig. 4. The feed mechanism for the tobacco filling may be slowed down or interrupted during the cutting operation, or the mean speed of the tobacco feed may be lower than that of the paper strip. The composite filling produced is wrapped in the paper strip 7 by known means 10. The insertions 8 to be applied to the strip 7 may be fed from a forming unit 16, Fig. 7, into chambers 12<a> in an intermittently rotating drum 12, from which they are ejected by a plunger 13 and pass through a tube 14 into a circumferential groove 15a in a wheel or disc 15. Adhesive from a pasting device 18 is applied by a disc 17 and the insertions are carried into engagement with the strip 7, which is led over a roller 19 into engagement with the periphery of the wheel 15. In a modification, Fig. 6, the continuous tobacco filling 1 is led into chambers formed by longitudinal slots 20b in a drum 20 rotating intermittently between fixed inner and outer members 25, 26, the filling being severed by a cutter adjacent to the end of the drum. On reaching the lowest position, the filling is ejected by a cam-actuated bar 23 on to the paper strip 7 between the insertions 8, the strip being supported by a guide member 21.