Abstract: A device for the production of at least two adjacent perforation rows in cigarettes and/or filter-lining paper or filter-wrapping paper comprises a pulsed laser light source with mirrors as well as an optical element which serves for both beam splitting and focusing of the produced partial beams. This optical element with two foci is preferably ground out of a collecting-lens blank or is formed from two parts of a collecting lens, which are combined to form the optical element. In one embodiment this optical element consists of the two equal havles of a collecting lens cut perpendicularly to the center plane thereof, which halves were displaced relative to each other and then combined again. As an alternative thereto, a central area of the output collecting lens running in the direction of the center plane can be cut out and the remaining peripheral portions can be combined, by means of which an optical element with two foci also results.

Abstract: An apparatus for the continuous determination of two physical properties of the constituents of a smokable article from the mechanical properties of a rod of tobacco or filter fibres during the production of said rod employs a format finger for compacting the rod of tobacco or filter fibres to a predetermined diameter; the format finger made from hard metal comprises at a first point, at which the diameter of the rod corresponds substantially to the diameter of the finished rod, at least one opening for subjecting the rod to a gas stream; the one or each opening is connected via a critically traversed nozzle in a supply conduit to a gas source; a measuring-value transducer determines the pressure drop of the gas stream with constant volume occurring at the rod and thus the draw resistance.

Abstract: An apparatus for the continuous measurement of the draw resistance of a cigarette, comprising transducer which detects the pressure drop of a gas stream with constant volume, said gas stream being introduced at a format finger of a rod-producing machine into a rod of tobacco fibres. The measured value depending on the flow resistance of said rod is continuously determined and correlates very well with the usual static measurement of the draw resistance of cigarettes, i.e. of the tobacco rod of a cigarette, so that this continous draw resistance measurement during the cigarette production replaces not only the conventional random check but can also be used for controlling the production operation.

Abstract: A sealing arrangement for the temporary attachment of a testing air line to the end of a cigarette has an essentially hollow cylindrical sealing body with flanges projecting radially to the inside and outside of the sealing end. The other end of the sealing body is held firmly. The outside edge of the outwardly projecting flange of the sealing body is inserted into a coaxial annular groove of the bore of a supporting body movable axially toward the held end to elastically deform the sealing body, permitting insertion or removal of the cigarette. In its undeformed state the sealing body seals against the cigarette end.