Abstract: Apparatus for imparting rotary and sidewise movements to receptacles for cigarettes has a rotary conveyor carrying pairs of levers pivotable about discrete axes which are parallel to and surround the axis of the conveyor. One lever of each pair is pivotable about the respective discrete axis relative to the conveyor under the action of a stationary cam which is tracked by a follower on the lever, and each pair of levers carries two shafts for a receptacle. The shafts are caused to turn the respective receptacles through at least 360.degree.

Abstract: The web of tipping paper which is being advanced in a filter tipping machine from a source to the station where the web is subdivided into uniting bands ready for draping around groups of coaxial plain cigarettes and filter rod sections is provided with projecting portions which are at least partially removed by a rotary grinding tool to provide the web with a pattern of perforations which determine the degree of ventilation of the filter cigarettes. The position of the running web relative to the tool and/or vice versa is adjustable in dependency upon one or more parameters of the finished filter cigarettes to thus vary the permeability of the uniting bands when the one or more monitored parameters of the filter cigarettes depart from the desired values.

Abstract: A continuous filter tow is advanced through a combined wrapping and condensing station by an endless belt, and the thickness of the belt decreases as a result of wear. The resistance which the condensed tow offers to the flow of air is measured by a pneumatic detector at the aforementioned station, and the accuracy of such measurement is affected by decreasing thickness of the belt as a result of increasing rate of escape of testing fluid along the belt. Therefore, the thickness of the belt is monitored and signals which are generated to denote the thickness of the belt are used to correct signals which are generated to denote the resistance to the flow of air. The correction involves modifying the signals denoting the resistance to the flow of air to denote a more pronounced resistance proportionally with decreasing thickness of the belt.

Abstract: The straight of undulate cutting edges of elongated knives on the rotary knife holder in a tobacco shredding machine are ground by a driven grinding wheel, whose axis makes a small acute angle with the axis of the holder, while the grinding wheel is rocked back and forth about an axis which is parallel to the axis of the grinding wheel and is located in a second plane parallel to a first plane which is tangential to the cylindrical path of the cutting edges. If the axial length of the grinding wheel is less than the length of the cutting edges, the grinding wheel is advanced stepwise in the axial direction of the holder.

Abstract: A tobacco shredding machine wherein the cutting edges of orbiting shredding knives are sharpened by the undulate annular surface of a grinding wheel which is reciprocated forwardly and backwards in parallelism with the axis of the holder for the knives and is retracted from the circular path of the cutting edges during each return stroke of its support. The speed of forward movement of the support while the grinding wheel sharpens the cutting edges is such that the support covers during each revolution of the holder a distance which equals or is a whole multiple of the width of an undulation on the grinding surface. The axes of the grinding wheel and of the holder for the knives are located in a common plane.

Abstract: A magazine which contains a supply of parallel filter rod sections has an outlet which discharges a multi-layer stream of sections onto a receiving conveyor which delivers the sections into a gap between two parallel belt conveyors wherein the sections form a single layer and are positively advanced into successive flutes of a rotary drum-shaped withdrawing conveyor. The speed of the receiving conveyor equals or exceeds the speed of the flutes, and the speed of the belt conveyors exceeds the speed of the receiving conveyor. This ensures that the gap invariably contains a layer of parallel sections so that the belt conveyors can admit a section into each oncoming flute of the withdrawing conveyor. The sections which issue from the outlet and are about to enter the gap accumulate in a pileup zone which is disposed above the receiving conveyor and from which the receiving conveyor accepts sections in the absence of adequate delivery via outlet of the magazine.

Abstract: A running tow of spread-out filamentary filter material in a filter rod making machine is sprayed with plasticizer by two ultrasonic atomizing devices which are disposed at the opposite sides of the path of the tow and each of which has a flexural resonator connected to one or more piezoelectric elements which, in turn, are connected to a source of a-c potential in order to expand and contract when the atomizing devices are in use. Each flexural resonator has an atomizing surface which extends transversely of the path for the tow, and the system which supplies plasticizer to such surfaces has pipes discharging plasticizer in the region of some or all oscillation nodes which develop when the atomizing devices are in use.

Abstract: A filter rod making machine discharges several parallel filter rods which move lengthwise and are severed at regular intervals to yield files of axially aligned filter rod sections. Such sections are transported axially to a first transfer station where they enter discrete flutes in the concave upper side of one of several rotary platforms which orbit about the axis of a rotary carrier and are rotated relative to the carrier by crank drives so that the orientation of their flutes remains unchanged. The flutes of a platform which arrives at the first station receive discrete filter rod sections from each of the files so that each platform accumulates a group of parallel sections which are transported to a second station for transfer into successive peripheral flutes of a rotary drum-shaped removing conveyor.

Abstract: Apparatus for simultaneously severing plural parallel filter rods which issue from an extruder and move axially at the same speed has a knife mounted on a holder which is rotatable about an axis extending in parallelism with the axes of the rods. The knife holder moves along a circular path in a plane which is parallel to the axes of the rods. The knife holder and suitable guides for the rods are mounted on cranks whose crankshafts rotate about axes making a right angle to the direction of movement of the rods and causing the knife and the guides to move back and forth in and counter to the direction of axial movement of the rods. The shaft for the knife holder is rotated at twice the speed of the crankshafts and the cutting edge of the knife severs all of the rods in immediate proximity of the guides during each second revolution of the holder.

Abstract: A running tow of spread-out filamentary filter material in a filter rod making machine is sprayed with plasticizer by two ultrasonic atomizing devices which are disposed at the opposite sides of the path of the tow and each of which has a flexural resonator connected to one or more piezoelectric elements which, in turn, are connected to a source of a-c potential in order to expand and contract when the atomizing devices are in use. Each flexural resonator has an atomizing surface which extends transversely of the path for the tow, and the system which supplies plasticizer to such surfaces has pipes discharging plasticizer in the region of some or all oscillation nodes which develop when the atomizing devices are in use.

Abstract: An apparatus which subdivides an adhesive-coated web of paper or imitation cork into a succession of uniting bands which are draped around groups of coaxial cigarettes and filter plugs to form filter cigarettes has two drums rotating in opposite directions about parallel axes. One of the drums is a suction drum and serves to advance the leader of the web toward the nip of the two drums where the leader is severed to yield successive uniting bands. The suction drum has a number of equidistant axially parallel peripheral grooves each disposed in front of a cutting edge. The other drum carries detachable knives with cutting edges extending beyond the periphery of the other drum so that they can penetrate into the oncoming grooves during travel past the nip. The drums are rotated by mating gears and the radius of the cylinder which is formed by the cutting edges of the knives exceeds the radius of the pitch circle of the gear which drives the other drum.

Abstract: A continuous filter rod which can be severed to yield recessed composite filter mouthpieces is obtained by feeding groups of assorted dissimilar coaxial filter plugs onto the adhesive-coated side of a running web of wrapping material and inserting a phantom plug of selected length between each previously transferred group and the next-following group to insure that the width of gaps between neighboring groups matches the length of the phantom plug. The phantom plug is withdrawn as soon as the next-following group adheres to the web, and the web is draped around the resulting filler to form therewith a continuous filter rod wherein groups of dissimilar filter plugs alternate with gaps. When the filter rod is severed centrally across a gap, the adjacent portions of the filter rod constitute two recessed filter mouthpieces. Each gap is flanked by plugs consisting of identical filter material.