Abstract: Apparatus which ascertains the resistance of filter rod sections or filter cigarettes to axial flow of a gas through their fillers has a drum-shaped conveyor with a row of flutes at one axial end and a row of expandible and contractable hoses at the other axial end. Each hose registers with a flute and receives an article to be tested from the aligned flute during travel past a station where the hose is connected with a suction generating device and/or the flute is connected with a source of compressed air. The hose is thereupon caused to contract so as to sealingly engage at least the major part of the wrapper of the article therewithin, and the article is tested by conveying a stream of testing fluid through its filler. The hose is thereupon caused or allowed to expand, and the tested article is transferred back into the aligned flute.

Abstract: A web which is converted into wrappers of plain or filter cigarettes, or the wrapper or each cigarette is perforated by needles, teeth, punching tools, sparks or laser beams prior to arrival of corresponding cigarettes at a pneumatic testing station. The testing device at such station transmits signals which denote the permeability of successive wrappers, and the signals are compared with a reference signal denoting the desired permeability of wrappers. If the monitored permeability deviates from the desired permeability, the device which makes holes in the web or in the wrappers is automatically adjusted to change the combined area of holes.

Abstract: The permeability of portions of or entire wrappers of successive filter cigarettes is tested with a gaseous fluid independently of the permeability of perforated portions of wrappers around the filter mouthpieces. Signals denoting the permeability of major portions of or entire wrappers are compared with a reference signal denoting the maximum permissible permeability, and the cigarettes having wrappers of excessive permeability are segregated from satisfactory cigarettes. Signals denoting the permeability of perforated wrapper portions are made visible to attendants or cause the generation or audible signals, for example, to facilitate proper adjustment of perforating instrumentalities if the permeability of perforated wrapper portions is too low.

Abstract: A distributor for use in cigarette makers wherein an upright duct receives loose tobacco shreds and discharges the thus formed tobacco column into a compacting device therebelow. The compacting device has two endless belts whose inner reaches are located opposite each other and engage and compact the descending column of tobacco shreds. The belts receive constant torque from a motor by way of an electric clutch wherein the driving and driven elements are out of contact with each other. The densified column of tobacco shreds is fed into the space between two additional belts which are driven by the prime mover of the cigarette maker through the medium of a variable-speed transmission which is controlled by a density measuring device. The additional belts feed the column into the range of needles on a wheel which feeds tobacco shreds into several discrete pneumatic conveyor pipes or into a single pipe.

Abstract: The wrappers of filter cigarettes wherein wrapper portions surrounding the filter mouthpieces have holes for admission of atmospheric air into the column of tobacco smoke are tested during sidewise movement at the periphery of a rotary drum. A first testing device establishes a first pressure differential between the interior and exterior of successive wrappers, and a second testing device establishes a second pressure differential between the interior and exterior of those wrapper portions which surround tobacco as well as a different third pressure differential between those wrapper portions which surround the filter material. An evaluating circuit has two electropneumatic transducers which furnish first and second signals respectively denoting the pressure differential between the interior and exterior of successive wrappers and the pressure differential between the interior and exterior of successive wrapper portions which surround tobacco.

Abstract: A filter rod making machine wherein the two is withdrawn from a bale by a first pair of driven rolls which form part of a tow stretching device. The rolls are preceded by a braking device having a fixed plate-like guide at one side of the path for the tow and an elastic spring-biased tongue which is located at the opposite side of the path and urges successive increments of the tow against the guide to thereby uniformize or eliminate the crimp of filamentary filter material of the tow. The tongue is pivotable about a fixed axis and can be reciprocated back and forth transversely of the direction of movement of the tow to thereby contribute to loosening of filter material before such material advances beyond the first pair of rolls and is stretched to the elastic limit by a second pair of rolls whose peripheral speed exceeds the peripheral speed of the first pair of rolls.

Abstract: Apparatus for producing a narrow tobacco stream ready for trimming or immediate wrapping into a web of cigarette paper has a distributor from which a wide first belt or a plate transports a thin carpet of tobacco particles to a first transfer station where the carpet is transferred by suction and preferably also by compressed air onto a narrower foraminous second belt forming part of an intermediate conveyor with an independent drive. The second belt is inclined with respect to and narrower than the first belt or plate and accumulates a layer of tobacco particles which are attracted to the second belt by a suction chamber extending from the first transfer station to a second transfer station where the layer is transferred onto a foraminous third belt to form thereon a narrow stream.

Abstract: Cigarettes with dense ends are produced by converting a continuous tobacco stream into a rod-like filler wherein spaced-apart portions contain more tobacco than the parts therebetween. The conversion involves removal of surplus tobacco from the stream in two stages during the first of which the stream is equalized to form an equalized stream of constant height and during the second of which the equalized stream is trimmed immediately following mechanical compacting of those portions of the equalized stream which correspond to spaced-apart portions of the filler. The trimming step involves removal of tobacco from non-compacted parts of the equalized stream. The quantity of tobacco in spaced-apart portions of the filler is monitored (either prior or subsequent to conversion of the filler and a web of wrapping material into plain cigarettes), and the equalizing stage of the tobacco removing step is regulated in dependency on the extent of deviation of monitored quantities from a predetermined quantity.

Abstract: A production line consisting of a cigarette making machine, a filter cigarette making machine and a packing machine or of a filter rod making machine and several filter cigarette making machines is controlled by a circuit which regulates the speed of the prime mover for the cigarette making machine or filter rod making machine in such a way that the speed changes gradually and smoothly from zero to a lower speed, from a lower speed to a higher speed, from a higher speed to a lower speed, from a higher speed to zero, or from a lower speed to zero. The changes in speed can be initiated by the operators or in response to signals which are generated by detectors serving to scan the operation of certain parts in one or more machines of the production line. The prime mover consists of a variable-speed motor, a constant-speed motor and a variable-torque clutch, or a constant-speed motor in combination with a variable-speed transmission.

Abstract: A tobacco distributor wherein a toothed drum withdraws a continuous layer of tobacco shreds from a magazine. The teeth impart to the periphery of the drum a saw-tooth profile and their trailing flanks have outwardly and forwardly extending pins. The pins withdraw relatively long shreds and the leading flanks of the teeth withdraw relatively short shreds when the drum is rotated to move successive teeth along an open side of the magazine wherein tamping members push tobacco shreds into the range of teeth and pins. The layer is thereupon converted into a wide carpet, and the carpet is converted into a narrow tobacco stream ready for trimming or immediate draping into cigarette paper.

Abstract: The distributor of a cigarette rod making machine has an upright duct the upper end of which receives particles of tobacco from a magazine and the lower end of which has an outlet of variable cross-sectional area. The outlet is adjacent to the carding of a drum which withdraws from the duct a continuous layer of particles, and such particles travel toward a transversely extending barrier which is reciprocated in parallelism with the axis of the drum. The barrier has a grooved first surface which engages the exposed side of and homogenizes the layer, and a second surface which faces counter to the direction of movement of the drum and intercepts the surplus of particles whereby the intercepted particles pile up in front of the barrier. The pressure of piled-up particles is monitored by a sensor which causes a mechanical adjusting device to change the cross-sectional area of the outlet so that the area decreases when the pressure of piled-up particles increases, and vice versa.

Abstract: Cigarettes with composite fillers wherein the mouthpiece consists of first tobacco shreds having a low nicotine content and the major portion of the filler consists of second shreds having a higher nicotine content are manufactured by showering second shreds onto a narrow band conveyor to form a continuous stream, by depositing batches of first shreds on the band conveyor at regular intervals so that the batches overlie the adjacent portions of the first stream or vice versa, by trimming the thus obtained composite stream so as to remove second shreds in the region of the batches whereby the resulting filler contains batches of first shreds alternating with filler portions consisting of second shreds, wrapping the filler into a web of cigarette paper, and severing the resulting rod across or adjacent to the batches.

Abstract: A packing machine wherein a first feeding unit supplies groups of cigarettes into successive mandrels of a first turret which is driven stepwise and moves successive mandrels into register with first and second supplying devices for tinfoil blanks and paper blanks which are thereupon draped around the mandrels to form open-ended packs. The packs and the groups of cigarettes are transferred simultaneously from successive mandrels into successive pockets of a second turret on which the packs are closed.