Abstract: A cutting device having cutting means for cutting a cigarette rod transversely along a cutting plane; a carriage for accompanying the rod through the cutting plane; an operating unit for moving the carriage back and forth in a travelling direction crosswise to the cutting plane; and a control unit, in turn having two proximity sensors, and which determines at least one fault on the operating unit as a function of recording signals emitted by the sensors.

Abstract: A machine for processing cigarettes, a control device, and a diagnostic method applied to such a machine; the machine has a number of housings oriented crosswise to a feed path and each having at least two respective elongated seats; during each operating cycle, each seat picks up a respective cigarette at an input station, releases the cigarette at an output station, and returns to the input station along a return path; a proximity sensor determines the position of the seats, and emits a recording signal which is processed and compared with reference data to determine a possible fault.

Abstract: A cutting device having cutting means for cutting a cigarette rod transversely along a cutting plane; a carriage for accompanying the rod through the cutting plane; an operating unit for moving the carriage back and forth in a travelling direction crosswise to the cutting plane; and a control unit, in turn having two proximity sensors, and which determines at least one fault on the operating unit as a function of recording signals emitted by the sensors.

Abstract: A method of controlling the endfill of elongated tobacco articles, whereby at least one collimated beam of electromagnetic radiation is directed on to a series of photosensors aligned in a direction parallel to a longitudinal axis of an article, and is partially intercepted by one end of the article; the signal emitted by each photosensor struck by the nonintercepted portion of the beam is rejected by means of a threshold measurement; and the signal emitted by each photosensor struck by the portion of the beam intercepted by and penetrating the article is compared with a range of limit values characteristic of the endfill.

Abstract: A cigarette, with a cigarette paper and a filter paper of different colors and separated by a boundary line with a given nominal position, is fed past a pair of optical sensors located on either side of the nominal position of the boundary line. The optical sensors generate a pair of electric signals each related to the color of the respective monitored portion of the cigarette, and which are compared with each other; and, in the event the difference between the signals is below a given threshold value, an error signal is generated for rejecting the cigarette.