Abstract: A machine for wrapping and grouping products of parallelepedic and/or flat shapes is described, in which the individual products are wrapped by a first wheel and conveyed to a second wheel designed to form, in an alternate manner, two types of groups, in the first of which the products are positioned together in a flat manner and in the second of which the products are positioned together in an arrangement which intersects a plane which is perpendicular to the longitudinal dimension of the products themselves. The products are conveyed from the wrapping wheel to the wheel for forming the groups by means of a conveyor head having sections, whose position may be varied in order to enable the removal of the products from different positions of the wrapping wheel and consequently to enable the production of groups of the first or the second type.

Abstract: Cigarette manufacturing method and machine with short tobacco distribution control, whereby the long and short tobacco in a mass of shredded tobacco is separated and fed along different routes to a belt supplying a continuous cigarette rod manufacturing unit; the short tobacco being fed through two containers arranged in line and communicating with each other through an adjustable-section opening, the first of the containers being a storage tank and the second a tank having an essentially constant tobacco level and from which the short tobacco flows out in proportion to the speed of the belt.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a device for infeeding cigarettes to the wrapping line of a packer, provided with: a hopper, the lower part of which contains the cigarettes in the form of stacks that are movable in steps along corresponding channels outgoing from the hopper; a sensor for checking, in succession, the cigarettes in the channels with each step forward of the stacks; and at least one cigarette expelling device, interlocked to the sensor, placed along the channels downstream of the sensor, in the direction in which the stacks move forward. Provision is also made for a device with which to engage and restrain the faulty cigarettes, able to brake the cigarettes during expulsion and to complete the extraction thereof from the hopper.

Abstract: Continuous-rod cigarette manufacturing machine on which provision is made for a first conveyor belt for forming and transferring a continuous stream of tobacco particles, and on which provision is made, along the said first belt, for a shaving device for reducing the stream into sections of different thicknesses alternating at regular intervals. At a so-called loading point, the stream of tobacco is dropped off the first belt onto a strip of cigarette paper on a second, air-permeable conveyor belt for forming a continuous cigarette rod from which a rotary cutter, timed to the shaving device, cuts off single cigarettes. At the said loading point, provision is made for a fixed pressing element, for guiding the stream of tobacco and compacting it on the paper strip, and air-powered means for counteracting the braking and displacing effect exerted by the pressing element on the different-thickness sections of the tobacco stream.

Abstract: Piercing device for piercing holes in cigarettes or similar smoking commodities, in which a laser beam emitted by a continuous laser source is "pulsated" by a mobile reflecting element, assembled in rotary manner round a fixed axis, and a fixed reflecting element optically connected to the said mobile reflecting element and provided with a faceted reflecting body in the shape of an irregular pyramid designed to define, for each "pulse", a focus on the surface of the said cigarette being pierced, and endowed, in relation to the latter and throughout the length of the pulse, with relatively zero speed.

Abstract: The machine for wrapping and grouping products of parallelepiped and/or flat shape is of the type in which the individual products are conveyed by a wrapping wheel and wrapped in accordance with the so-called "pointed end" wrapping manner.From said wheel the products pass to a conveying and overturning apparatus to be inverted before reaching a wheel for the formation and transfer of groups constituted by products disposed side-by-side edgewise with their contacting edges in a plane normal to the longitudinal dimension of said groups.This overturning enables the groups to be introduced into the cells of a wrapping wheel with their pointed ends facing the bottom of said cells.

Abstract: Method and machine for manufacturing two continuous streams of cigarettes. A continuous strip of paper is cut longitudinally into two strips which are fed through a tobacco loading station and along respective guides for forming respective continuous wrapped cigarette rods. The rods are fed to a crosswise cutting device by means of respective conveyor belts, the drive rollers of which are driven by a single motor through a differential assembly controlled by detecting devices designed to control, directly or indirectly, the tension on the strips and to keep them at the same tension.

Abstract: Method for sampling cigarettes on a filter assembly machine whereby a cigarette is picked out of a respective recess at a first point on a line feeding the cigarettes through the filter assembly machine and, after being fed to at least one checking station, is fed back on to the line at a second point on the same, downstream from the first point. Such feedback is performed when an empty recess, from which another cigarette for inspection has been removed at the first point, passes through the second point.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for forming perforations in bar-shape articles, in which each said article is clamped, during its advancement in a direction transverse its own axis on a conveyor, by a respective actuator device and turned by this about its axis in such a way as to receive, along at least one circumference, a succession of laser pulses each forming a respective perforation.

Abstract: Method for automatically setting and joining reel-fed label strips or similar, whereby a first moving strip is first accelerated in relation to the assimilation speed of a user machine and then stopped, by means of a signal supplied by control means in a position whereby its labels correspond with the labels on a second stationary strip. A cutting unit is then operated for cutting the said two strips simultaneously along a cutting line. Subsequent operation of a joining unit then joins the said two strips along the said cutting line.

Abstract: An axial translation device for partly finished cigarettes disposed alongside one another in such a way as to form two substantially parallel rows, the device being provided with an input conveyor, an output conveyor and a conveyor roller for each said row disposed between the said input conveyor and output conveyor and tangential thereto, the said two conveyor rollers having parallel, but non coincident axes and supporting the partly finished cigarettes of the associated said row in an axially movable manner under the thrust of actuator means.

Abstract: An improved device (1) for forming groups (3) of cigarettes in cigarette packaging machines, in which a group forming wheel (2) comprises, uniformly distributed along its periphery, axial containers (8) each arranged to receive several layers (31, 32, 33) of cigarettes constituting the contents of one packet; said layers (31, 32, 33) being fed in succession into each container (8) during its traversing of a loading station (7), and retention means (34;56) being mobile with said container (8) at least during said traversing, in order to transversely retain the layers (31, 32, 33) in position once inserted, said retention means (34;56) being arranged to oscillate radially relative to the forming wheel (2).

Abstract: A device for applying filters to cigarettes, in which a conveyor roller, provided with a plurality of peripheral axial seats for respective groups constituted by at least one cigarette and a filter tip which are axially aligned, cooperates with a rolling device provided with a support member rotatable about a first axis and rotatably supporting in an eccentric position a support element carrying at least two rolling plates which are selectively mobile from and towards a rolling position in contact with the cigarette and filter groups to retain the cigarette and filter groups against the conveyor roller at a rolling station.

Abstract: A cutting device for continuous rods of cigarette, in which a substantially cylindrical cutting head is rotatably mounted about its axis on a support and is drivingly connected by a central coupling to a drive shaft extending through the support, the cutting head being provided with a flexible cutting blade incrementally removable from a magazine at least in part constituted by a guide for the blade extending through the head in a substantially diametrical direction and around the coupling.

Abstract: A device for sharpening rotating blades, in which a transverse approaching movement of a grindstone-carrying shaft towards an associated rotating blade to be sharpened is controlled, within a predetermined range, by a sensor sensitive to the speed of rotation imparted by friction to the said shaft by the associated blade.

Abstract: A device for feeding labels in a strip to a utilizer machine, the device being modifiable to permit the supply of labels stacked in a magazine; the modifications comprise the elimination of a fixed cutting blade and its replacement by a fixed magazine for the labels and an extractor device for extracting these from the magazine; the extractor device is mounted on a reciprocating slide carrying means for incrementally advancing the said strip.

Abstract: A device for cutting continuous rods of smoking products, in which a rotary cutting head is provided with a radial blade inclined with respect to the axis of rotation of the head, the blade being sharpened, upon each rotation of the head, by a frusto-conical grinding wheel carried eccentrically by a sharpening head rotatable about an axis substantially perpendicular to that of the blade carrier head, the radial position of the grinding wheel on the associated wheel-carrier head being adjustable together with the position of a counter weight, and the grinding wheel being carried into rotation about its axis by means of an air motor.