Abstract: The straight of undulate cutting edges of elongated knives on the rotary knife holder in a tobacco shredding machine are ground by a driven grinding wheel, whose axis makes a small acute angle with the axis of the holder, while the grinding wheel is rocked back and forth about an axis which is parallel to the axis of the grinding wheel and is located in a second plane parallel to a first plane which is tangential to the cylindrical path of the cutting edges. If the axial length of the grinding wheel is less than the length of the cutting edges, the grinding wheel is advanced stepwise in the axial direction of the holder.

Abstract: A cigarette maker wherein batches consisting of a first type of tobacco particles are deposited at intervals at one side of a suction belt conveyor and the gaps between successive batches are filled with tobacco particles of a second type to form a composite stream which is thereupon homogenized in regions where the batches abut the accumulations of particles of the second type to thus avoid the presence of cavities in the rod-like filler into which the stream is converted preparatory to draping of the filler into a web of cigarette paper. The homogenizing operation can involve mere shifting of particles of the second type toward the belt conveyor or a trimming of the stream with attendant formation of protuberances in the regions of abutment of batches against the accumulations of particles of the second type. The protuberances are eliminated during draping so that the density of the corresponding portions of the filler is increased.

Abstract: Apparatus for introducing discrete seeds or clusters of two or more seeds into each of an array of seed carrying devices at a seed inserting station has a rotary drum-shaped conveyor whose shell has rows of axially parallel suction ports. Such rows form several groups each containing ports of a particular size. The rows travel past a magazine which contains a supply of seeds and from which selected rows draw seeds which remain in the respective suction ports during transport to the inserting station. To this end, the selected rows are connected to a suction generating device by way of channels which are provided in the shell. The component which determines whether a single group or two or more groups of rows are to be connected with the suction generating device is a ring-shaped selector which is rotatable with reference to the shell and has two or more sets of openings which can be moved into or out of alignment with the channels in the shell.

Abstract: The distributor of a cigarette rod making machine delivers particles of tobacco into a stream building zone wherein the particles are accumulated into a continuous stream. The surplus of tobacco is removed by an adjustable trimming device and the removed surplus is transported back to the distributor for reuse. The quantity of removed surplus is measured by a weighing device whose transducer transmits signals which are compared with signals denoting the position of the trimming device, and the resulting signals are used to adjust the rate of delivery of tobacco particles to the stream building zone. The weighing device has a frame which carries two pulleys for an endless belt. The frame can pivot about the axis of one of the pulleys or it can be tiltably mounted on a fulcrum between the two pulleys.

Abstract: Apparatus for forming a composite filler which is to be draped into a web of cigarette paper has a rotary wheel-shaped conveyor with a series of pockets which are provided in its peripheral surface and are connected to a suction generating device which draws into the pockets shreds of tobacco or other smokable fibrous material issuing from the outlet of a pneumatic conduit which receives metered quantities of fibrous material from a belt conveyor. The inclination of the stream issuing from the outlet with reference to the peripheral surface of the rotary conveyor is such that fibrous material which advances from the outlet toward and into successive pockets has a component of movement in the direction of rotation of the rotary conveyor, i.e., the particles of fibrous material do not travel radially of the rotary conveyor.

Abstract: A composite tobacco stream which contains different types of tobacco is formed by converting fibrous material of a first type into a first succession of discrete batches and by converting fibrous material of a second type into a second succession of discrete batches. The two types of batches are thereupon shuffled in such a way that the resulting stream contains alternating batches consisting of first and second fibrous materials. The stream is equalized, draped into a web of cigarette paper and subdivided into cigarettes of unit length or multiple unit length. The shuffling step can be carried out on a rotating wheel-shaped conveyor or on a foraminous belt conveyor.

Abstract: Tobacco shreds are drawn from a magazine by a pneumatic conveyor pipe which delivers the shreds into the lower chamber of an air separator whose upper chamber is separated from the lower chamber by an air-permeable partition and is connected with the inlet of a suction generating device serving to draw an air stream through the pneumatic conveyor pipe. The velocity of the air stream in the pipe is maintained at a constant value by a flow restrictor which is installed in the inlet of the suction generating device and is adjustable by hand or by a servomotor receiving signals from a device which ascertains the velocity of air in the pipe by comparing the velocity of air in the second chamber with the velocity of air in the inlet of the suction generating device. The air separator has an outlet for periodical admission of batches of tobacco shreds from the first chamber into a duct which delivers the shreds into the distributor of a cigarette rod making machine.

Abstract: The distributor of a cigarette maker has an upright duct with an inlet at the top and an outlet at the bottom. The inlet receives particles of tobacco from a magazine and the accumulated particles descend in the duct to be removed at the outlet by the carding of a rotary drum-shaped conveyor in a substantially horizontal direction. The front wall of the duct, as considered in the direction of removal of tobacco particles from the duct, and the lower portion of the rear wall of the duct are oscillated, out of phase, by a common drive which moves the front wall and the lower portion of the rear wall horizontally at right angles to the direction of advancement of removed particles and in the general plane of the respective wall. The inner side of the front wall has protuberances which oscillate with reference to stationary protuberances at the inner side of the upper portion of the rear wall to promote the distribution of particles across the duct.

Abstract: The pressure of compressed air in one or more nozzles which convert successive increments of a running tow of filamentary filter material into a rodlike filler in a filter rod making machine is regulated in response to variations in the speed of the filler. This ensures that the resistance which the filter rod sections offer the flow of tobacco smoke does not deviate from an optimum value when the speed of the filler is reduced below the nominal speed. The pressure of air which is admitted to the nozzle or nozzles is regulated by a variable-speed blower which compresses air preparatory to admission into the nozzle or nozzles, or by installing in the conduit or conduits for one or more nozzles a pressure regulating valve which is adjusted by a servomotor in response to signals denoting the speed of the filler.

Abstract: A grinding machine wherein the spindle which supports a grinding wheel during removal of material from a workpiece and/or any one of several carriers for spare or substitute grinding wheels are movable relative to each other to positions in which a grinding wheel can be transferred from a selected carrier directly onto the spindle or vice versa. The carriers are mounted in or on a stationary or mobile magazine and their axes can extend radially of a horizontal axis or radially of a vertical axis. The carriers can form one or more rows or one or more annuli. The magazine can be mounted adjacent to the frame of the grinding machine, on a horizontally reciprocable table which supports a vertically or horizontally movable carriage for the spindle, or at a level above the normal level of the spindle.

Abstract: The wrappers of filter cigarettes are tested during transport in the peripheral flutes of a drum-shaped conveyor through a testing station where at least one end of the wrapper receives air at a previously stabilized pressure. The stabilized pressure is monitored by an electropneumatic transducer which further monitors the pressure differential between the interior and the exterior of the wrapper at the testing station and transmits appropriate signals to a computer which generates test signals by forming a quotient from the signals denoting the pressure differential and the signals denoting the stabilized pressure. The computer can further process and evaluate signals denoting a selected reference pressure as well as the pressure of air which is used to reduce the likelihood of leakage of air from the interior of the wrapper at the testing station.

Abstract: Webs of cigarette paper, filter wrapping paper or metallic or plastic foil in cigarette rod making, filter rod making or cigarette packing machines are spliced to each other by uniting bands which are removed from a strip-shaped flexible carrier and delivered to the splicing station by a pivotable lever, either in response to reciprocation of a carriage by hand or by a motor or in response to automatic actuation of a fluid-operated motor so that its piston rod performs forward and return strokes. Each uniting band is adhesive at both sides and the splicing station is located between the path of movement of the running web and the path of movement of a fresh web which latter is accelerated to the speed of the running web prior to start of the splicing operation.

Abstract: Apparatus for making cartons with arrays of cigarette packs therein has a conveyor which transports the arrays to a transfer station and a feeding unit which delivers successive blanks to the transfer station so that a freshly delivered blank is adjacent to one side of the foremost array on the conveyor. A tubular deforming member is pivotable about a horizontal axis between a first position in which an inlet of its chamber is adjacent to the transfer station so that a plunger can be caused to transfer the foremost array into the deforming member with simultaneous partial draping of the adjacent blank around the transferred array, and a second position in which the inlet is located at a level below an outlet of the deforming member. A pusher is thereupon caused to enter the deforming member by way of the inlet and to move the array and the deformed blank upwardly into a receiving unit with attendant further deformation of the blank.

Abstract: The distributor of a cigarette maker has an upwardly travelling conveyor which transports particles of tobacco past a rotating paddle wheel serving to remove the surplus of particles and to return the removed surplus into the magazine of the distributor. The paddle wheel is connected with a tachometer generator or is designed to actuate a switch in response to a reduction of its rotational speed and/or in response to deflection by one or more foreign objects in the mass of tobacco particles on the conveyor. The signal which is generated by the tachometer generator or in response to actuation of the switch entails a stoppage of the motor for the conveyor and/or of the motor for the paddle wheel.

Abstract: The duct which delivers tobacco shreds to the underside of the lower reach of an air-permeable belt conveyor contains a guide with a concave surface which tapers gradually toward the underside of the lower reach, as considered in the direction of advancement of the lower reach. A nozzle discharges a current of compressed air against the concave surface so that the current flows along the concave surface toward the underside of the lower reach in the aforementioned direction and entrains the particles which tend to impinge upon the concave surface so that the current and the particles therein form a fluidized bed which is delivered to the underside of and is attracted to the lower reach because the upper side of the lower reach is adjacent to a suction chamber.

Abstract: A tobacco trimming apparatus has a conveyor which transports a stream of tobacco shreds in such a way that the surplus extends downwardly beyond the undersides of two flat disc-shaped members whose marginal portions pinch the moving stream in the region between the main portion and the surplus. Such surplus is removed by short teeth which are machined into the slightly conical peripheral surface of a disc rotating in a plane that makes an angle of 45 degrees with the direction of movement of the stream. The teeth alternate with notches which are machined in part into the peripheral surface and in part into a slightly conical front surface of the disc which latter faces the surplus. The front surface of the disc deflects the surplus into the notches so that the surplus is shifted into the path of the cutting edges on the oncoming teeth and is separated from the remainder of the tobacco stream.

Abstract: Apparatus for perforating the wrappers of filter cigarettes or a continuous web of wrapping material for filter cigarettes has a continuous-wave laser and one or more rotary disc-shaped shutters extending across the path of propagation of the laser beam toward the wrappers or web of wrapping material. The dimensions of perforations in the wrappers or web of wrapping material can be regulated by changing the position of the shutter or shutters relative to the laser beam and/or relative to each other.

Abstract: Apparatus for removing and advancing the leader of a cigarette paper web which forms a roll and whose leader adheres to the adjacent convolution has tongs one jaw of which is formed with a scraping edge movable against the periphery of the roll while the roll is rotated in a direction to pay out the web whereby the leader strikes against the edge and is separated from the adjacent convolution. The impact of the leader against the scraping edge releases a catch which normally holds the spring-biased other jaw of the tongs against movement toward engagement with the one jaw whereby the two jaws clamp the leader preparatory to transport directly to a splicing mechanism wherein the leader is attached to the trailing end of the preceding web or to a conveyor which transports the leader to the splicing mechanism.

Abstract: Apparatus for optically scanning a moving cigarette rod for the presence of defects in its external surface has two annularly arranged groups of diodes which emit green light in the wavelength range of between 0.49 and 0.58.mu. and direct such light from the opposite sides of a plane that is normal to the moving rod so that the incident light is reflected by successive annular portions of the external surface of the rod into the aforementioned plane. The reflected light is focused by systems of lenses upon discrete photosensitive transducers through discrete slit diaphragms on the transducers themselves or on a thin metallic ring which is adjustably mounted on the support for the diodes and the systems of lenses.

Abstract: Apparatus for testing cigarette packs for the presence or absence of several defects including the configuration of the packs, the orientation of their constituents and the quality of bonds between overlapping constituents has an intermittently driven turret with an annulus of receptacles which are supplied with packs by an intermittently driven feeding conveyor. The receptacles have relatively small engaging devices in the form of spring-biased strips, suction cups and/or simple abutments to locate and hold the packs therein in such a way that by far the major part of each pack remains accessible and exposed for testing by a series of photocells which are disposed at several stations adjacent to the path of movement of the receptacles. Tested defective and satisfactory packs are expelled from their receptacles in two separate portions of the path downstream of the testing stations.