Abstract: A stemmery discard of tobacco and soil particles is fed to an air/centrifugal separator in which a fraction of smaller tobacco particles is recovered with a low amount of soil. The residue from that separator is fed to a screen separator in which a fraction of larger tobacco particles is recovered with a low amount of soil. A residue from the rotary screen separator is fed to a gravity separator which recovers as much tobacco as possible without exceeding a preselected amount of soil. The screen separator may comprise a first separator screen to separate out a fraction of larger tobacco particles, and a second screen to separate out a fraction of smaller tobacco particles from the particles falling through the first screen; the particles retained by the second screen would be sent to the gravity separator, and the separated-out smaller particles would be discarded.

Abstract: A trash removal system for separating trash and loose tobacco shreds from cigarettes that are rejected in cigarette manufacturing and packaging operations. A mixture comprising cigarettes, cigarette wrapper, trash and loose tobacco is metered onto a vibrating trash removal conveyor comprising a plurality of vertical plates arranged in a sinusoidally varying pattern.