Patents by Inventor Koichiro Obara

Koichiro Obara has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6119698
    Abstract: A filter attaching device comprises a receiving drum for forming a tip-paper piece, and a rolling plate which cooperates with the peripheral surface of the receiving drum to define a rolling passage. The rolling plate has a pair of receding portions 54 arranged on the left and right sides of the upper surface thereof. Due to the receding portions 54, contact resistance produced between the rolling surface and an intermediate product rolling on in the rolling passage, or more specifically, cigarettes included in the intermediate product is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2000
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco, Inc.
    Inventors: Masaaki Tanigawa, Tatsuya Hasegawa, Koichiro Obara
  • Patent number: 5299679
    Abstract: A plurality of cigarette piling heads are provided on a cigarette piling drum. The same number of cigarettes as the number of cigarettes in a cigarette package are piled on each cigarette piling head. An intermediate drum includes the same number of cigarette holding heads as the number of the cigarette piling heads and is provided at an axial end of the cigarette piling drum. A pushing-out drum has the same number of pushers as the number of the cigarette piling heads and is disposed at the other axial end of the cigarette piling drum. The cigarettes on each cigarette piling head are transferred to the corresponding cigarette holding head. The intermediate drum is disposed adjacent to and at a side of the first drum of a packing apparatus. The cigarette holding heads swing synchronously with packing heads of the intermediate drum. The cigarette piling heads swing synchronously with the cigarette holding heads of the first drum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1992
    Date of Patent: April 5, 1994
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco Inc.
    Inventors: Koichiro Obara, Tadao Etani, Hiromitsu Ohara
  • Patent number: 5282527
    Abstract: An apparatus for arranging, side by side, cigarettes to form three cigarette layers, seven, six and seven cigarettes in the corresponding layers, the total number being twenty cigarettes and piling the cigarette layers on one after another in a staggered way to form a three-layered cigarette package. Twenty cigarette supplying passages are provided so as to communicate with the bottom portion of a hopper. Cigarettes are supplied to the cigarette supplying passages in an aligned state. Cigarettes are taken out one by one from the bottom end of each cigarette supplying passage and supplied to three cigarette arranging drums on which three cigarette layers are formed. The cigarette layers on these cigarette arranging drums are transferred to a cigarette piling drum through transfer drums disposed between the cigarette arranging drums and the cigarette piling drum and piled on each cigarette piling head of the cigarette piling drum to form a three-layered cigarette stack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1992
    Date of Patent: February 1, 1994
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco Inc.
    Inventors: Tadao Etani, Koichiro Obara
  • Patent number: 5244075
    Abstract: A piling machine of a cigarette packaging apparatus comprises a number of transferring drums disposed between the respective aligning drums of the apparatus for aligning a given number of cigarettes in rows and the piling drum for piling rows of cigarettes into layers in an orderly and staggered manner in the cigarette packaging apparatus. The transferring drums are provided with suction nozzles and ejection nozzles so that the system is capable of holding cigarettes coming from the aligning drums to the transferring drums by negative pressure in the suction nozzles and ejecting the cigarettes on any of the transferring drums of the apparatus by applying compressed air through the ejection nozzles whenever one or more than one defective cigarettes are detected in the row of cigarettes on any of the transfer ring drums or when the row of cigarettes on the transferring drum contains an insufficient number of cigarettes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1992
    Date of Patent: September 14, 1993
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco Inc.
    Inventors: Koichiro Obara, Tadao Etani
  • Patent number: 5235993
    Abstract: A variable speed transferring device for a cigarette parallel-arranging device used in a cigarette wrapping apparatus comprises variable speed transferring drums disposed between a plurality of cigarette parallel-arranging drums for holding groups of parallel-arranged cigarettes and a cigarette piling drum. Each variable speed transferring drum is provided on its peripheral surface with holding grooves for holding at least one group of parallel-arranged cigarettes and is rotated by a variable speed driving mechanism at a lower speed when the holding grooves face the variable speed transferring drums and at a higher speed when the holding grooves face the piling drum. Since the peripheral speed of the receiving drums disposed upstream of the variable speed transferring drums is lowered, the shock applied to cigarettes when they are received by the receiving drums from cigarette supplying passageways is reduced and the speed-up of the operation of the variable speed transferring device is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 17, 1993
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco Inc.
    Inventors: Koichiro Obara, Tadao Etani