Abstract: An apparatus for ejecting a row of cigarettes from a cigarette magazine employs an endless conveyor which is actuable by means of a stepping drive. Ejector members fixed to the endless belt are moveable through the magazine case for ejecting the bottommost cigarette row. The endless conveyor employs a belt having a series of troughs which receive the bottommost cigarette row. The ejector members define the trailing boundary of the troughs.

Abstract: The temporary storage of bar-shaped objects such as cigarettes intermediate the manufacturing and packaging apparatus therefor is improved by sensing gaps in the supply within the storage system and engaging the objects upon detection of such a gap to prevent uncontrollable sudden movement thereof.

Abstract: A box with an integral hinged lid is formed from a blank, typically by folding the blank about an open-ended inner wrapper containing the article to be packaged. Prior to opening of the package the lid is joined to the front of the package by integral connecting member which are easily broken. The lid is defined, in part, by lateral tabs of triangular shape and a narrow tab of trapezoidal shape which, during folding of the blank, serve to fold the open end of the inner wrapper.

Abstract: A tear-open strip is severed from a band of material having a width equal to the desired length of the tear-open strip by cooperation between a stationary knife-edge defining member and a pivotal knife-edge defining member. The knife edges form chords of a hyperboloid of revolution and are inclined relative to one another. The pivotal knive-edge defining member is provided with suction ports adjacent to the cutting edge whereby a severed strip may be transported by the knife to an intermittently moving sheet of packaging material to which the strip is subsequently bonded.

Abstract: The presence and/or desired orientation of a sheet of material is sensed by normally passing the sheet under the first of two spaced rollers of identical diameter, the rollers being mounted on a common support for rotation independently of one another. The second roller will rotate only in the absence of or misalignment from under the first roller of the sheet material. Rotation of the second roller is detected and causes generation of a fault warning.

Abstract: Cigarettes are grouped into multi-layer blocks for packaging by the serial delivery of the plural cigarettes comprising the individual layers into cells of a conveying system from a magazine having an outlet for each layer. The magazine outlets are offset in the direction of movement of the cells and in a direction transverse thereto. A stationary retaining member, which extends into the cells through slots provided in the cells, contacts and thus holds the uppermost layer of cigarettes transferred from the magazine into the cells, the retaining member being provided with a step and a tongue-like extension at each magazine outlet downstream of the first outlet, the bottom of the stepped portion of the retaining member and the top of the tongue defining a cigarette layer receiving opening.

Abstract: Stamps, labels and the like are affixed to moving packages, for example cigarette packages, by a process which includes the withdrawal of individual stamps or labels from a magazine, the application of an adhesive to spaced points along laterally separated linear regions thereof and the transfer of the stamps or labels with the adhesive applied thereto to a fork-like mechanism which conveys the stamps or labels into registration with the path of movement of the articles to which they are to be affixed, the articles contacting the side of the stamps or labels having the adhesive thereon and passing between the tines of the fork-like mechanism. Adhesive is applied to the stamps or labels by a roller defined by a plurality of spacially separated discs, some of the discs functioning as vacum-assisted holders for the stamps and the other discs having surface depressions for receiving the adhesive which is subsequently transferred to the stamps or labels.

Abstract: The quality of a product, for example the degree of filling of cigarette papers, is non-destructively tested using reflectivity measurement. Compensation is provided for the effects of stray light in the measuring zone and the signals commensurate with the measurements performed on individual units of the object being tested are compared with the average of signals obtained through measurements performed on a preselected number of units of acceptable quality. The state of operability of the test apparatus may be self-checked during incremental periods between the testing of units.

Abstract: There is disclosed cigarette handling apparatus for transferring cigarettes from a first stream, in which they move at a first speed one after the other in a feed direction parallel to their axes, to a second stream, in which they move at a second speed one after the other in an outflow direction at right angles to their axes. A transfer drum is mounted to be rotatable about an axis parallel to the feed direction and a plurality of cigarette carrier elements are slidably mounted around the drum for reciprocation parallel to this axis. Each carrier element is movable by the drum between a first position for lateral entrainment by suction of a cigarette from the first stream and a second position for delivery of the entrained cigarette to the second stream. A cam is arranged to cause each carrier element to execute a reciprocation in each drum revolution.

Abstract: A tear strip is caused to move synchronously with a moving web of packaging material and the web and strip are brought into contact for subsequent joining to define a packaging material with integral tear strip. Contact between the packaging material and tear strip is effected at the surface of a rotating feed roller and a friction drive is employed to cause a supply reel for the tear strip to rotate synchronously with the feed roller.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding a web of material provided with register marks comprises a rotating delivery device and a sensor which responds to the register marks and provides signals for controlling a feed adjusting device. The sensing point of the sensor is located so as to rotate with the delivery device and be positioned adjacent the web to enable reading of the register marks. The delivery device comprises a pair of rollers of unequal circumference, one of the rollers being driven by a one-way clutch and the other roller being selectively driven by a second clutch which is energized in response to the output of the sensor.

Abstract: Apparatus for packaging cigarettes, the apparatus comprising means for applying a strip of packaging material about a group of the articles to form a tube and folding and gluing the ends of the wrapper to define the package is provided with a plural stage drying apparatus which permits a long glue drying operation without adversely effecting the speed of operation of the packaging apparatus. The drying apparatus includes a pair of adjacent, synchronously rotated, drums which have receiving cells for the packages. The packages are transferred, typically in pairs, into individual cells of a first drum and are subsequently simultaneously transferred from cells in the first drum into cells of the second drum.

Abstract: The packaging of plural articles in a common wrapper is accomplished with the aid of wrapping mandrels into which preformed blocks of the articles are loaded. The wrapping mandrels have movable slides which define the effective length of the mandrels and thus insure that first ends of the articles will lie in the plane of the insertion end of the mandrels, the first ends of the articles thus defining a stable base over which a wrapping may be folded. The slides are reciprocated in the mandrels to eject packages, open at one end, to a device for closing the open end.

Abstract: Articles, for example soft packages, moving on a conveyor belt are diverted into a storage device and subsequently returned therefrom onto the conveyor belt. The storage device comprises a reversible cleated belt which is wound in a spiral on a roller to define closed compartments for the articles.

Abstract: A pattern for a box which may receive a produce such as cigarettes will, when folded, define a box neck inwardly offset relative to the sides of the box, the neck being positioned within a lid when the box is closed. The box neck is formed by a front section, connected to the front wall of the box by an embossed edge, and a pair of oppositely disposed side sections which are partly connected to the side walls of the box adjacent to the front wall, this partial connection being achieved by centrally disposed embossed regions and cuts extending in either direction therefrom. The cuts which extend inwardly from the embossed edge regions terminate at punched-out areas located at either end of the embossed edge between the box neck front section and the box front wall. These punched-out areas have a width which corresponds minimally to the thickness of the material in which the pattern is rendered.

Abstract: A gluing head comprises a valve which intermittently allows the delivery of glue to an ejection port for application to sheet material which moves relative to the head. The head is provided, downstream of the ejection port in the direction of relative motion, with a stepped recess and a low pressure source is coupled to the recess whereby glue threads formed upon the discontinuance of the delivery of glue to the ejection port will be drawn upwardly away from the sheet material.

Abstract: An adhesive discharge device for use with adhesive which sets by the evaporation of a solvent. The device incorporates a valve-controlled discharge nozzle for intermittent discharge of adhesive on a cycle basis. Drying of adhesive around the nozzle opening when the valve is closed and the discharge of adhesive is interrupted is prevented by a movable closure cap containing a solvent vaporizer. The closure cap is movable into a position enclosing and sealing the nozzle opening, and the vaporization of solvent inside the closure cap around the nozzle opening prevents the drying and encrustation of adhesive.

Abstract: Spool changing apparatus for alternately pulling web-shaped packaging material from two supply spools and feeding the material sequentially to a pair of engraving rollers, a pair of conveying rollers, and a cutting device along a conveying track. An auxiliary device is provided to separate the embossing rollers as a new supply of packaging material is fed therethrough. The material is thus initially conveyed without embossing, thereby avoiding coiling of the new length of packaging material at the outlet side of the embossing rollers.

Abstract: An apparatus for conveying articles such as cigarettes transversely to the axis thereof and for temporarily storing the articles between a machine for continuously feeding the articles to the apparatus and a removal device for periodically removing said articles from the apparatus. The apparatus includes a feeder to receive an accumulation of articles coming from the machine, a transfer conveyor to receive articles from the accumulation, a grooved belt to receive articles from the transfer conveyor, a common regulable drive to drive the transfer conveyor and the grooved belt and a gear disposed between the common drive and the grooved belt and operable to have a periodically changing gear ratio to oscillate the transfer conveyor along the grooved belt and to provide the grooved belt with a varying conveying speed. At a given instant the oscillation of the transfer conveyor has a speed equal to any difference between the speed of the grooved belt and the speed of the transfer conveyor.

Abstract: A device for the examination of the degree of filling of cigarette ends is disclosed. The device has a light transmitter, a light emitting surface which radiates light into the cigarette end to be examined, and a light receiving surface which picks up the more of the light radiated in, the worse is the degree of filling. The light emitting surface and the light receiving surface are arranged in one plane at end face of the cigarette in such a manner that both bear directly against the cigarette end face and are separated by a light impervious zone from each other transversely to the axis with respect to the cigarette axis and together lie within the cigarette cross-section.