Abstract: A method of optimizing the standard weight deviation of cigarettes on a machine having at least two manufacturing lines for producing continuous cigarette rods in which mean values and standard deviations are determined periodically relative to test measurements involving weighing a given number of cigarettes produced on a first line and an equal number of cigarettes produced on the second line with the standard deviations being compared to identify the test measurement having the highest standard deviation so that shavers on each line can be contolled such that the mean weight values of the two test measurements equal a given value selected as a function of the test measurement having the highest standard deviation.

Abstract: In a method for controlling at least two physical properties, decisive for the quality of the finished smokable article, of a material rod of filter or tobacco material for the manufacture of smokable articles, in particular in filter or cigarette manufacture, the actual values of said properties are detected, the respective differences between the actual and desired values are determined and from the differences determined control signals are obtained for actuating elements influencing the mass of the material making up the rod; to facilitate the generation of the desired values, the control is performed during start-up or when specific events occur by means of only a single primary product parameter.

Abstract: In a method and an apparatus for controlling the physical properties of a rod of smokable material the actual values of at least two physical properties, in particular resistance to draw and hardness or deformation of the tobacco rod or of the smokable article, are detected; the differences between said actual values and predetermined desired values are determined and control signals derived therefrom; said control signals are compared with each other and the particular instantaneously largest control signal is supplied to a single actuator, that is an ecreteur or a hopper. An auto-selector circuit with maximum selection is used to compare the control signals.

Abstract: A content tobacco amount controlling device for use with a cigarette making machine of the type including a cigarette conveyor, a tobacco trimming device, and a tobacco wrapping device. The controlling device includes first and second radio ray density detecting devices, and a first integrator connected to the second radio ray density detecting device for integrating an electric signal from the second radio ray density detecting device. An adding device is connected to the first integrator, and a second integrator is connected to the adding device for integrating an output of the adding device. The trimming device is operated in response to an output of the second integrator to control the amount of content tobacco after trimming.

Abstract: For monitoring the end dropout of cigarettes in the course of the cigarette production beneath a point at which the cigarettes rotate about their longitudinal axis a mass transducer for the dropping tobacco particles is disposed; an evaluating device determines from the mass of the tobacco particles on the one hand and the number of cigarettes passing through on the other the average end dropout. The mass transducer includes a vertically movably resiliently mounted pushrod which is held in its desired position by an electromagnetic return system. The magnitude of the current supplied to an electromagnetic return system represents a measure of the mass of the collected tobacco particles.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for inspecting cigarette paper of eventual cigarette bar unit, which permit further improvement of the precision of inspection, is provided. According to the method and the apparatus, the mean, variance and standard deviation are obtained statistically through a detected pressure signal, then transformation of their normal distribution into a standard normal distribution of N(0,1) where the mean with respect to the probability density function .PHI.(t) is 0 and variance with respect to thereto is 1, is obtained. And the estimation of population standard deviation with setting of a significance level is done with the value of t with respect to the probability determined solely by determining the probability in the normal distribution, thereby effecting a decision as to whether the inspected product is non-defective or defective.

Abstract: The pneumatic conveyor pipe which connects an article discharging station with an article receiving station in a production line for rod-shaped smokers' products passes through the sealed housing of an article influencing unit which contains friction wheels driven at a peripheral speed which ensures acceleration or deceleration of successive axially moving articles to a selected speed. The thus influenced articles are thereupon accelerated by compressed air so that they are separated from each other by gaps of preselected minimum width to allow for unobstructed changes in the direction of movement of articles which arrive at the receiving station.

Abstract: Cigarette manufacturing machine on which a continuous strip of paper is fed, through a tobacco loading station and along a guide for forming a continuous rod, to a crosswise cutting device by a conveyor belt driven by a drive roller driven, together with the cutting device, by a motor via a differential assembly controlled by a detector which measures the travelling speed of the cigarettes.

Abstract: A control system for a cigarette making machine to provide improved cigarette rod weight control by continual adjustment of a servo-positioned ecreteur knife at the tobacco supply vacuum belt of the cigarette maker. The servo is positioned by a dual mode control system wherein one mode is based on long term feedback of cigarette rod density, measured by a .beta. ray gauge and a second mode based on a high speed adaptive feed-forward control based on tobacco density on the supply vacuum belt measured by a pneumatic gauge.

Abstract: Apparatus for controlling the timing of control signals concerning operations on conveyed cigarettes or other articles of the cigarette industry comprising means for generating a first control signal; means for measuring the speed of transport of the cigarettes; processing means arranged to receive a signal representing the measured speed of transport, to receive the first control signal and to generate a second control signal which is transmitted to an operating device after a delay dependent upon the signal representing the measured speed of transport and upon the characteristics and position of the operating device.

Abstract: Plain or filter cigarettes are tested at a first station by two or more testing devices each of which monitors the cigarettes for the presence or absence of a particular defect. The testing devices generate defect signals which are delayed by shift registers so as to ensure that the delayed defect signals are transmitted to a segregating mechanism which removes defective cigarettes from a path that is common to the satisfactory and defective cigarettes and delivers defective cigarettes to selected receptacles which are installed at a second station and each of which gathers only cigarettes exhibiting a particular defect. Actuation of a switch entails the removal of a selected number of samples from the common path for satisfactory and defective cigarettes, and such samples are gathered in an additional receptacle at the second station.

Abstract: Filter cigarettes which are produced in a filter tipping machine are conveyed past several successive testing devices, each of which monitors different characteristics of the cigarettes, thereupon past a cigarette removing device, past a segregating device and on to a conveyor for transport of satisfactory cigarettes to a packing machine or into storage. When any one of the testing devices detects a defective or presumably defective cigarette, it generates a defect signal which is transported to the segregating device for expulsion of the respective cigarette from the path which leads to the conveyor. If the operator wishes, the defective or presumably defective cigarettes which are detected by a selected testing device can be conveyed only to and expelled by the removing device in response to the corresponding defect signals so that the removed cigarettes can be examined for the purpose of ascertaining the quality of testing operation which is carried out by the selected testing device.

Abstract: Discrete uniting bands which are used in a filter tipping machine to connect filter plugs with plain cigarettes consist of foraminous material, and the permeability of such material is varied, when necessary, by changing the quantity of adhesive which is applied to the uniting bands prior to convolution around the respective plain cigarettes and filter plugs. This ensures that each convoluted uniting band admits a preselected quantity of cool atmospheric air into the column of tobacco smoke when the respective filter cigarette is lighted. The paster which applies adhesive to a continuous web which is about to be subdivided into uniting bands is adjusted in response to signals which are generated by a testing device for the wrappers of successive filter cigarettes. If the permeability is too high, the paster is adjusted by reducing or increasing the quantity of adhesive which is applied to successive unit areas or unit lengths of the running web.

Abstract: An apparatus for monitoring the exterior of a cigarette rod which moves lengthwise through an annular housing has a ring-shaped light-conducting prism which is mounted in the housing and is surrounded by an annulus of discrete light sources to direct testing light toward the exterior of a rod which moves therethrough. The prism directs light at an acute angle to the axis of the moving rod, and the light which is reflected by the exterior of the moving rod passes through an annulus of light conducting fibers each of which directs reflected light against a discrete photoelectronic transducer. The transducers form part of a circuit which evaluates the intensity of reflected light to thereby detect defects which cause an intensification or a weakening of reflected light. The prism has a triangular cross sectional outline with an apex of the outline adjacent to the path of the rod and a side which is located opposite the apex and extends at right angles to the direction of incident light.

Abstract: A practice for controlling cigarette rod firmness in a cigarette maker wherein a detected cigarette rod firmness signal is corrected for firmness variations resulting from changes in rod moisture relative to a preselected or target moisture via a suitably processed detected moisture signal and the corrected firmness signal is compared with a preselected or target firmness to derive an error signal for tobacco content control.