Abstract: Apparatus for transferring bar shaped articles from one conveyor to another wherein the two conveyors are each provided with equally spaced suction housings for holding the articles with the spacing in one conveyor being different from the other. The apparatus comprises a link-up conveyor which includes a first and a second rotating element that revolve in the same direction at identical angular velocity, around separate parallel axes. To the perimeter of the first rotating element are pivoted equally spaced cranks, each provided with a suction housing for holding and releasing an article. Each crank is connected to the second element by a link which, as the link-up conveyor rotates, causes it to oscillate at such a rate as to match the velocity of the crank suction housing to that of the suction housings of the two conveyors in the positions in which the articles are transferred thereto or therefrom by the link-up conveyor.

Abstract: A cigarette manufacturing machine having at least one manufacturing unit in which shredded tobacco is fed into a chamber laterally bounded by a carding unit and provided with a base wall defined by a substantially horizontal belt which is movable towards said carding unit and terminates substantially at a zone of tangency between two superposed carding rollers; each manufacturing unit having, in common with each other manufacturing unit, controls for operating the relative carding unit.

Abstract: A device for feeding labels in a strip to a utilizer machine, the device being modifiable to permit the supply of labels stacked in a magazine; the modifications comprise the elimination of a fixed cutting blade and its replacement by a fixed magazine for the labels and an extractor device for extracting these from the magazine; the extractor device is mounted on a reciprocating slide carrying means for incrementally advancing the said strip.

Abstract: A turnaround device for rod-like articles, in particular cigarettes, in which a conveyor device is operable to advance the articles in a direction transverse their axes and arranged in two rows; the articles of one row being supported by the conveyor device by means of associated fixed supports which are uniformly spaced, and the articles of the other row being carried by the conveyor device via respective movable supports each of which is given a reciprocating rotary movement around an arc of 180.degree. about an axis disposed transversely both to the associated article and to the direction of advance, and a reciprocating translational movement parallel to the axis of rotation.

Abstract: A device for cutting continuous rods of smoking products, in which a rotary cutting head is provided with a radial blade inclined with respect to the axis of rotation of the head, the blade being sharpened, upon each rotation of the head, by a frusto-conical grinding wheel carried eccentrically by a sharpening head rotatable about an axis substantially perpendicular to that of the blade carrier head, the radial position of the grinding wheel on the associated wheel-carrier head being adjustable together with the position of a counter weight, and the grinding wheel being carried into rotation about its axis by means of an air motor.

Abstract: A continuous twin rod cigarette making machine operable to permit the simultaneous formation of two continuous rods of cigarette starting from two layers of tobacco supported by suction beneath respective suction conveyors located above respective ascending shafts, the flow of tobacco along the ascending shafts being adjusted in dependence on signals emitted by sensors of the density or weight of the layers by adjustment elements including two channels coupled to respective vibrators, the frequency of which is adjustable, and communicating on one side with respective descending shafts extending from a carding unit to the ascending shafts, and on the other with a recycled tobacco particle supply device.

Abstract: A device for breaking at least one continuous rod in a machine for making products for smokers comprises a separating element movable in between a first position of intersection with the path of the rod and a second position external thereto; an operating mechanism includes a helical torsion spring mounted on a shaft integral with the separating element to drive the latter alternately from one position to the other; a restraint member, interlocked to a control device, withholds the separating element against the action of the helical spring and a reloading device reloads the latter each time the separating element has moved from one of the said positions to the other.

Abstract: A web guide device particularly adapted to be mounted on a cigarette-making machine, in which at least one web is automatically advanced along a substantially U-shaped path. The path includes first and second end parts joined by an intermediate curved section; at least the second part, disposed downstream of the said curved section in the direction of advancement of the web extends at least partially along a web transport device for conveying the said web material. A guide element, movable at the same speed and in the same direction as the conveyor device, defines in combination therewith, upstream of the second end part, a passage for the web material.

Abstract: A cigarette-making machine in which tobacco, in part from a carding unit and in part from a plurality of channel elements, is supplied to the upper end of a shaft. The channel elements, to which recycled tobacco can be supplied, are located alongside one another and communicate laterally with the shaft below the shaft top. A vibrator device is associated with each channel element. The frequency of vibration of each vibrator is a function of the level of tobacco within the shaft beneath the tobacco delivery end of each channel element in communication with the shaft.

Abstract: A device for automatically supplying reels to a utilizer machine, in which a support element for a reel is movable between the output of a reel magazine and an unwinding spindle disposed on the utilizer machine and is provided with actuator means which is operable to actuate locking means carried by the unwinding spindle, by contact therewith, to lock each reel in succession thereon.

Abstract: A device for applying filters to cigarettes by means of adhesive connection bands of a type comprising a peripherally grooved conveyor roller which transfers to a position, referred to as rolling position, units comprising two axially aligned cigarettes with the interposition of a filter section. At the rolling position an element, referred to as counter-rolling element, defines in combination with said conveyor roller a passage at which said bands are rolled up about the units. By means of a cutting device cooperating with said conveyor roller, the bands are provided by a paper web fed from a reel.After receiving adhesive on one face by a gluing device and before reaching the conveyor roller, said web skirts the surface of a heated rotating roller which causes the partial evaporation of the solvent in the adhesive.

Abstract: The device for applying cigarette filters by use of glued junction hands is of the conventional type and comprises a rotating main drum for receiving on grooves provided on its cylindrical surface a plurality of units disposed in parallel arrangement with the axis of said drum. Each unit, formed by one cigarette, a filter section and by another cigarette coaxially disposed, is wrapped up by a band of adhesive paper material covering said filter section and about 1/8" of the end sections of the two cigarettes. The rolling operation of the band is carried out within a rolling passage defined at one side by said main drum and at the other side by a web slidingly guided along a curved surface concentric with the main drum.The improvements according to the invention provide means for retaining said web adhering to said guide and sliding surface, said means being of magnetic or suction type.

Abstract: A method for simultaneously producing two continuous cigarette rods is described.The main feature of this method is to comprise two simultaneous successions of stages, the first for forming two equal strips of paper starting from a single continuous web, and the second for forming two substantially uniform and equal fillers of shredded tobacco starting from a single inlet hopper.

Abstract: A method and device for replacing a first, empty reel of strip material with a second, new reel in which the strips of the two reels are positioned over one another and partly cut thereby forming on them coincident lines of perforations or weakening, the strip from the empty reel then being broken along the associated partly cut line and the remaining part of the strip from the empty reel being connected to the other strip, the part of which disposed downstream from the associated line of cut then being cut off after the said connection between the strips.

Abstract: A device for simultaneously cutting two continuous rods of cigarette produced by a cigarette-making machine and disposed alongside one another on the same horizontal plane, the device being provided with a cantilever mounted cutting head facing the rods and upstream of the rod cut-off position, and provided with a rotary drum supporting at least one radial blade the position of which is adjustable with respect to the drum about a diametral axis thereof; the drum being mounted on a slide to oscillate about an axis which is perpendicular to the plane of the rods, intersects this at a point intermediate the rods and coincides, for a given position of the drum, with the adjustment axis of the blade, and the drum being connected by means of constant velocity joint to a drive shaft extending through the said slide.

Abstract: Conveyor system particularly suitable for the bulk transfer of cigarettes from one or more manufacturing machines to one or more packaging machines, and comprising at least one device for controlling the quantity of cigarettes at a determined position.The control device comprises a plurality of photoemitter elements disposed at different levels relative to the controlled position, which direct their rays through the controlled position to corresponding photosensitive elements. An electrical circuit controls drive means for the conveyor system by means of a voltage which in terms of absolute value and sign is a function of the number of photosensitive elements illuminated by the corresponding photoemitter elements.

Abstract: The apparatus comprises a continuous path, divided into a first rising section and a second substantially horizontal section, having a conveyor extending there along and carrying one or more pushers adapted to withdraw individually folded and flattened cartons from a container magazine provided and arranged at the top of the rising section. At the junction location between the two sections, movable supports are provided which receive, when at a first position arranged in continuation of the rising section, individually folded and flattened cartons and transfers the latter, when arranged at a second position in which said supports are arranged parallel to the conveying along the substantially horizontal section, again on the conveyor without said cartons being left by the one or more pushers. This assures a correct arrangement of said cartons on said conveyor downstream of the junction location.

Abstract: Deviator device for a web, particularly a paper web, in which a deviator drum, disposed between an inlet guide surface and an outlet guide surface for the web, is variously inclined by rotation about an axis tangential both to the inlet surface and to the drum, in order to move the web transversely to the inlet surface through a required distance which can be varied at will within a required range.

Abstract: A conveyor system for bar-shaped articles, particularly cigarettes, in which said articles are conveyed in bulk from a channel disposed at a lower level to a channel disposed at an upper level by way of a channel comprising a first substantially U-shaped portion with its concavity facing upwards, and a second ascending portion, and in which an outer wall of said first portion and a wall of said second portion are defined by a single conveyor belt, while an inner wall of said first portion is defined by a rotatable drum.

Abstract: A device that can be mounted on an infeed hopper of a cigarette packeting machine, for checking the soundness of the cigarettes in a pile movable along each of the exit channels of the hopper. The device comprises sensor means for checking at least two successive cigarettes per movement cycle of the pile, and at least one ejector device for individual cigarettes, this being placed downstream with respect to the sensor means, in the movement direction of the pile, and controlled by the sensor means.