Abstract: A cigarette manufacturing machine of the continuous rod type in which a stream of tobacco particles flows upwardly through a vertical duct and feeds a conveyor system to form a tobacco layer or filler and feed it to a continuous cigarette rod forming apparatus. The conveyor system includes an air-permeable mobile belt which spans the duct outlet and extends to the cigarette rod forming apparatus. During its formation and transfer, the tobacco layer is retained on the belt by suction applied to the belt face opposite the face holding the filler. The suction is divided with first suction apparatus operating on the belt portion disposed over the duct outlet, and with second suction apparatus, independent of the first, operating on the belt portion between the duct edge and the cigarette rod forming apparatus.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an improved machine for wrapping and batching products wherein between a product entry position in a wrapping wheel and a position for the egress and expulsion of the products from the said wrapping wheel, provision is made for a position in which a device for grasping and rotating individual products is placed. This device has jaws for grasping the products and is provided with a two way movement along a sliding axis parallel to the axis of rotation of the wrapping wheel, and with a reciprocating movement around the said axis in time with the aforementioned two way movement, the said jaws being phased to match the opening and closing of the product grasping and transfer grippers with which the wrapping wheel is provided.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an apparatus for directly linking one or more cigarette making machines to one or more cigarette packing machines. A provision is made for one or more variable volume storage units for compensating production imbalances between the machines.The storage units extend along constant curvature paths and support and convey the cigarettes, utilizing continuous belts mounted endlessly around extremity rollers of truncated cone shape.Turnbuckles that exert a radial force with respect to the arc described by each storage unit, restrain and guide the belts.

Abstract: A machine for simultaneously producing two continuous cigarette rods, in which two different units cooperate with each other to form the above two cigarette rods, the first of said units forming two equal strips of paper starting from a single continuous web, and the second of said units forming two substantially uniform and equal fillers of shredded tobacco starting from a single inlet hopper.

Abstract: A strip guiding device particularly suitable for being used with cigarette manufacturing machines for the automatic forward movement of at least a strip along a substantially U-shaped path, the said device comprising a hollow pulley around which a central curved section of the said path extends, at least a chamber disposed along the said path downstream with respect to the said pulley and suction means communicating with the said chamber and with the interior of the said hollow pulley, the walls of this latter which extend along the said path being perforated, and an air-permeable belt conveyor extending at least along the perforated wall of the said chamber.

Abstract: A device for feeding cigarettes in bulk to the inlet hopper of a packaging machine, in which a feed channel for cigarettes is connected to an upper aperture of a compartment, a lower aperture of which is connected to the inlet hopper, and a lateral aperture of which is connected to at least one variable capacity store, said compartment including two channels extending between said upper aperture and said lower aperture, and of which one is a substantially straight vertical fall channel, and the other is a secondary curved channel communicating with said store and enclosing store-capacity control means.

Abstract: Disclosed is an improved apparatus for feeding magazines of cigarettes to a cigarette packaging machine. The improvements reside in controls for synchronizing the delivery of full magazines to the packaging machine and also for monitoring the correct positioning of the magazines.

Abstract: A feed and cutting device for dividing a continuous web into portions is described. The device comprises along a feed plane, guiding device for the web comprising a pair of mutually tangential rollers, apparatus for feeding the web along said plane and a device for cutting the web into portions. The main feature of the device is that at least one of the guide rollers is mounted on a shaft coaxial thereto and rotating with continuous motion, and is connected to the shaft by a self-locking device which prohibits any discordant relative rotation between the roller and the shaft but which allows idle rotation of the roller on the shaft at an angular speed exceeding the angular speed of the shaft, the angular speed of the shaft being close to but less than the angular speed transmitted to the respective roller by the feed device by way of said web.

Abstract: In a cigarette manufacturing machine, the trimmer device for the tobacco filler comprises two cone frustum trimming discs which are tangential to each other at their major base, this latter being provided with a cutting edge, and are mounted on inclined shafts which converge downwards. The cone-frustum surfaces of said discs are provided with equidistant grooves, of which the pitch, measured along the cutting edge, is equal to the length of the cigarettes under production, and their radial dimensions are a function of this length. Structure is provided for setting the position of said discs on their respective shafts according to their diameter, and additional structure is provided for setting the position of the trimmer device relative to the tobacco filler. A rotating brush is also provided cooperating with said discs in the trimming zone, and structure for setting the position of said brush relative to said discs.

Abstract: A device for feeding, adjusting and cutting a continuous web in predetermined zones to obtain portions is described. The device comprises periodically cutting apparatus, apparatus for feeding the web to said cutting apparatus, and a device for detecting at least one reference mark for the zone on the web. The main characteristic of the device is to comprise first device for checking the position of the predetermined cutting zone relative to a cutting apparatus and to quantify any diversity between the two zones, and second apparatus driven by the first device for controlling and correcting any diversity relative to each portion cutting operation, to act on the feed device and/or on the cutting apparatus in order to eliminate any diversity relative to each portion cutting operation.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an improved apparatus for forming and overwrapping the batches of products commonly known in Italy as "sticks".To form batches of products either flat, one on top of the other, or tip to tip along one of their narrower sides, a first intermittently rotating head provided with radial compartments for accommodating the individual products is placed at the side of a second head that rotates intermittently around an axis perpendicular to that of the first rotating head, is coupled to a wrapping mechanism and is provided with radial compartments, each suitable for accommodating one batch of products.The said second rotating head and the wrapping mechanism are supported in such a way that they are able to move in the direction of the first head so that the second rotating head can arrive at two different stations to receive the individual products from the first rotating head. The said two stations, angularly interspaced by 90.degree.

Abstract: A variable capacity store or reservoir for rod or for shaped articles, particularly cigarettes, in which a fixed support member (8,18) in the form of a screw (20) of substantially vertical axis supports a movable member (26,27,33) in the form of a nut screw coupled to said fixed member (8,18), said movable member supporting a helical wall (54) arranged to support at least one layer of said bar shaped articles disposed facing and radial to said fixed member (8, 18); reversible drive means (43) being provided for rotating said movable member (26,27,33) with respect to said fixed member (8,18); and a loading-unloading station (61) for said bar shaped articles being disposed in a fixed position relative to said fixed member (8,18).

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a device constituted by a rotatable head provided with radial compartments which hold batches of products and comprising a pusher for inserting the individual products into a compartment, and a device for supplying the individual products to the pusher. A movable wall is provided inside each compartment and this is sustained by a corresponding shaft whose rear extremity terminates in a rack. The racks mesh in succession with the counter-rotating gears of two drive devices movable in synchronization with the said pusher in such a way that the wall of the compartment that is in the product infeed position is intermittently displaced from the front of the said compartment to the back thereof, while the wall of the compartment adjacent to but preceding the previously mentioned compartment is intermittently displaced from the back towards the front thereof.

Abstract: The device is conventionally associated to a cigarette packaging machine and comprises a hopper for successively distributing individual layers of adjacently disposed cigarettes into transferring means which successively transfer each layer into compartments intermittently moved in front of said transferring means. A plurality of layers are superimposed in each compartment to form a bundle to be fed to the wrapping means of the packaging machine. During the transferring, the layers are compelled to pass through a passage delimited by side guiding members and by an upper and a lower light-transparent guiding plate, said passage having a width substantially equal to the width of a layer and a height substantially equal to the diameter of a cigarette. The upper plate has a slot in the direction of the transverse dimension of the passage and this slot is subjected to the light rays generated by a light source transversely disposed relative to said passage and above said slot.

Abstract: In a machine for packaging articles, in particular cigarettes, an apparatus for folding cutout elements to obtain packets of the hinged-lid type, the apparatus comprising a drum adapted to rotate in a stepped manner and having peripheral recesses each adapted to receive a respective article and to displace the same along a plurality of folding stations, at the first of said stations a first folding operation being performed by simultaneously inserting said articles and the respective cutout elements into the respective recesses; at the last of said stations a last folding operation being performed by ejecting said articles and the respective cutout elements through an aperture; and the intermediate stations comprising fixed cam means engaging said cutout elements during movement of said drum, and mobile folding means engaging said cutout elements when the drum is stationary.

Abstract: A dispensing apparatus for machines for packeting cigarettes into hinged-lid rigid type cigarette packets is of the type comprising an intermittently rotating wheel having radially disposed compartments for housing individual cigarette packets. A dispensing channel is associated with the wheel and upper and lower heated plates cooperating with the compartments. A pushing member is provided at the end of the dispensing channel to push, during the normal operation of the apparatus, the individual packets into a first track coplanar to the dispensing channel. A control mechanism, should the wheel accidentally stop, acts on a pair of mechanical systems which cause the spacing apart of the plates from the compartments and further starts a timer.

Abstract: A device for checking the complete sealing of filters to cigarettes by subjecting cigarettes being transported by a rotary transfer drum to an axial air flow to displace acceptable cigarettes. The unacceptable ciagarettes are unable to be displaced and are impinged upon by an outwardly directed air flow to expel these cigarettes from the transfer drum.

Abstract: A device for folding preshaped pieces of cardboard advancing in a stepped manner along a support surface and towards an intermittent machine for packaging cigarettes into hinged lid packets, the device including folding means arranged at a folding position along said support surface to fold a peripheral portion of that of said pieces which is arranged at said folding position about a preshaped folding line parallel with said advancement direction and coinciding with a free lateral edge of a folding bar coplanar with said support surface, said folding means being disposed facing said free edge and being movable to engage said peripheral portion to bend the same underneath said folding bar about said free edge.

Abstract: A labelling device, particularly for applying a label to cigarette packets, and in which a shaft having at one end a label retaining member is mounted in a rotatable and axially slidable manner through a casing, which is supported by a support member so as to be oscillable relative thereto through an angle about an axis at right angles to said shaft; said support member being adjustable in position, and said casing enclosing first transmission means cyclically displacing said shaft axially relative to said casing to bring said label retaining member into a label application position, and second transmission means which are adjustable to a position in which they connect said casing and said shaft to one another so as to transform the oscillations of the casing into rotations of the shaft about its axis and relative to the casing.

Abstract: A feeding and cutting device in which a continuous web of sheet material provided with spaced transverse central slits is step advanced by feeding means along a web path to cutting means comprising a movable blade and a stationary blade arranged on opposite sides of said web path on a fixed cutting plane substantially at right angles to said web path, said feeding means advancing the web so that, at the end of each advancing step, one slit is located a short distance downstream from said cutting plane; reciprocating pushing means being operable, at the end of each advancing step, in a direction towards said stationary blade and parallel to said cutting plane to engage the web downstream from said one slit so as to depress the leading edge thereof; and return feeding means being operable, in a direction opposite to said feeding means and before operation of said movable blade, to displace said web backwards until said depressed leading edge engages a lateral downstream edge of said stationary blade.