Abstract: A method of detecting adhesive material applied to a blank from which to form a container for tobacco articles, wherein the adhesive material forms at least one continuous mass of adhesive material on one face of the blank; the method providing for reproducing an image of at least one part of the face including a first portion corresponding to the face portion covered by the mass, and a second portion corresponding to the face portion free of the mass; electronically defining an application region in the image; and emitting a cover signal depending on the portion of the application region occupied by the first image portion.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method and machine for banding groups of bank notes in which a web is projected towards a banding station by a pair of motor-driven rollers, until the end of the web reaches a gripper unit which is mobile, driven by a support and drive device, which draws the web along a closed path defined by a plurality of guide pins until it reaches a final position which coincides with the starting position; upon completion of the feed stage the guide pins move to a position in which they are no longer in contact with the web, which is recovered by the rollers so that the web forms a loop around the group; a cutting device and a sealing device complete the banding stage by cutting and securing a band around the group.

Abstract: Banknotes emerging from a currency processing machine with a plurality of formation channels advance in succession along respective ducts of which the runouts are equipped with respective rollers positioned to pick up the notes, transfer them to each channel and stack them on a first shelf. An occluding mechanism operating at the inlet of each channel causes groups of the notes to accumulate on the corresponding first shelf, each of which is picked up by a first gripper and transported toward a first strapping/banding station where a gripping mechanism takes up a continuous strip of banding material by the leading end and passes it around each successive group; the strip is cut into discrete lengths by a tool designed also to seal the leading end to the trailing end of the cut length, banding the group to fashion a bundle which is then transferred to a second shelf and carried by this same shelf toward the outlet of the channel.

Abstract: The external integrity of cigarettes is verified by a method that involves directing single cigarettes, carried on a conveyor, along a route of which one section affords a monitoring path equipped with a line scan camera; the advancing cigarette can be made selectively to rotate about its longitudinal axis while the camera, a solid state type using CCD arrays, makes a succession of scans on respective closely ordered parallel lines, which are pulsed at a programmed frequency and synchronously with the movement of the cigarette in such a way that each successive scan line will fall on one and the same generator of the cylindrical surface. Repeated scanning of the same limited surface area eliminates quality control errors attributable to the presence of particulates in the space between the cigarettes and the camera.

Abstract: Paper sheets are oriented singly or in bundles using a device applicable to a machine by which the sheets, typically banknotes or previously assembled bundles of banknotes, are ordered into stacks. The machine comprises a series of stacking stations, supplied with the single or bundled banknotes by way of corresponding feed ducts, each equipped with a relative orienting device which in turn comprises receiving and accumulating mechanisms by which the sheets emerging from the duct are gathered into an ordered stack, and orienting elements, interposable between the duct and the receiving and accumulating mechanisms, by which the sheets are taken up and rotated through a predetermined angle.

Abstract: Banknotes directed along the formation channels of a machine for making up bundles are caused to accumulate into an ordered stack at the outlet of each channel. The machine utilizes a bundling unit equipped with a sliding carriage and a first gripper, of which the operation is piloted by sensors associated with each outlet and governed by a monitoring and control unit in such a way that the gripper will address the single outlet each time a stack is formed, then pick up the stack and pass it to a second gripper forming part of a translate and tilt unit; this same unit proceeds first to offer the stack of banknotes to a binder, by which two wrapping bands are applied to the two ends to complete the bundle, and thereafter to tilt the bundle into the path of a push rod which directs it toward a packaging and/or storage station.

Abstract: A method of checking cigarettes, whereby cigarettes are fed in steps along a gravity channel in the outlet of a hopper, and are successively arrested substantially at a checking station where a checking device determines the density of the open ends of the cigarettes and emits at least one control signal indicating the density; and the control signal is optimized by determining the position of the cigarette in the checking station with respect to the checking device.

Abstract: A method of measuring the intensity of radiation transmitted through a body of given shape and material, the method including the steps of directing an incident beam of electromagnetic radiation crosswise onto the body to obtain an output beam coaxial with the incident beam; and measuring the energy of the output beam by correcting the energy transmitted by each of the rays of at least one of the two beams as a function of the length (d) of an optical path through the body and aligned with the ray.

Abstract: A method of detecting and rejecting poorly filled cigarettes, whereby cigarettes, arranged along a gravity channel forming part of an outlet of a feedbox, are fed successively past a detecting device facing one end of the cigarettes; the detecting device, as the cigarettes file past, emits a continuous signal having a succession of minimum values indicating the passage past the detecting device of a succession of gaps, and a succession of maximum values indicating the passage past the detecting device of respective cigarettes; and a receiving central control unit emits a reject signal on receiving a maximum value below a given threshold value.

Abstract: A method of controlling the endfill of elongated tobacco articles, whereby at least one collimated beam of electromagnetic radiation is directed on to a series of photosensors aligned in a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of an article, and is partially intercepted by one end of the article; the signal emitted by each photosensor struck by the nonintercepted portion of the beam is rejected by means of a threshold measurement; and the signal emitted by each photosensor struck by the portion of the beam intercepted by and penetrating the article is compared with a range of limit values characteristic of the endfill.

Abstract: In a machine equipped with a plurality of stacking stations for the assembly of single banknotes or bundles of banknotes into ordered stacks, notes checked and passed as good by an upline station are accumulated on a companion element associated with each station and capable of movement between a first receiving position, at which the banknotes or bundles are assembled into a stack, and a second position at which the stack is released onto a fixed support. The support is slotted in such a way that the companion element can be dropped further and removed sideways without touching either the stack or the support itself, and the movement of the companion element between the receiving and release positions occurs cyclically, describing a looped trajectory.

Abstract: Banknotes emerging from a checking machine are caused to advance singly in succession along an outfeed duct of which the runout connects with a stacking channel; the banknotes come to rest on a companion element operating along the channel and capable of movement between a first receiving position, in which the banknotes are allowed to accumulate until formed into a group of given number that corresponds to one stack, and a second release position within the operating compass of a compactor with hinged arms, of which the function is to compress and hold the stack against the companion element. The compacted stack of banknotes is picked up finally by a gripper and transferred from the companion element to a bundling machine, which binds it with a wrapping band.

Abstract: A wrapping method and machine for producing wrappings for products, whereby a sheet of wrapping material is folded about a respective product so that at least a first and a second portion of the sheet of wrapping material are superimposed one on top of the other, with the first portion outside the second; and the two portions are sealed to each other by compressing the two portions onto each other, and sweeping at least one laser beam along a sealing portion of the first portion.

Abstract: A method of bulk conveying cigarettes, whereby a mass of cigarettes is fed along a path by a reversible conveying line defined by a first and second conveyor for masses of cigarettes; the first conveyor defining a closed-top channel for a stream of cigarettes; the second conveyor being an open-top conveyor, and being operated at a speed at most equal to the speed of the first conveyor when the cigarettes are transferred from the first conveyor to the second conveyor; and the second conveyor being operated at a speed at least equal to the speed of the first conveyor when the cigarettes are transferred from the second conveyor to the first conveyor.

Abstract: A method of optically controlling products consisting, for example, of blanks whereby a succession of blanks fed along a conveyor to a user machine is controlled by an analog sensor for scanning the surface of each blank along a given line, and developing a signal curve as a function of the different graphic characteristics detected along the line; a comparing device compares the signal curve with a reference curve, and emits an error signal in the event the blanks are not the right type and/or are not oriented and/or positioned correctly.

Abstract: Device for transferring reels grouped in stacks from a fixed supporting surface to a magazine for feeding a user machine; the magazine is arranged at a higher level than the fixed supporting surface, and the device is a lifting device provided with a lifting platform movable in a vertical direction between a loading position, which has an adjustable level and is adjacent to the fixed supporting surface, and an unloading position, wherein the platform forms an input portion of the magazine.

Abstract: A pickup system comprising a robot having a gripping member fitted with a camera for acquiring an image of the object to be picked up, which image is supplied to a control section by which it is processed for determining a predetermined point, typically the center, of the object by generating shifted inverted images of the object and intersecting the shifted inverted images and the original image.

Abstract: The filling of a cigarette is controlled by detecting a brightness curve of at least one part of the open end of the cigarette, processing the resulting brightness curve to obtain a contrast index, and comparing the resulting contrast index with an equivalent index of a correctly filled cigarette to obtain a signal indicating acceptance of the cigarette under observation.

Abstract: The filling of a cigarette under observation is controlled by intersecting the open-end surface of the cigarette with at least one coherent light blade emitted by at least one laser source, to form a respective real light trace, and by analyzing any deviation or discontinuity of the real trace in relation to a theoretical, straight, continuous trace formed by joining two end points of the real trace, to obtain a signal indicating acceptance or rejection of the cigarette under observation.

Abstract: A device for supplying webs of wrapping material to a cigarette making machine of the two rod type is constituted by a device for cutting a web of wrapping material into a first and a second web of identical width, and by deviation devices associated with each of the webs for the displacement thereof in a direction crosswise to that in which the webs move forward. Connected to the first and second web are detector devices provided for operating, through circuit elements, a motor for each of the three deviation devices in such a way as to cancel, moment by moment, any possible differences in width between the first web and the second web and any deflection thereof with respect to a given sliding position.