Device For Filling A Cigarette Tube
A device for automatically filling cigarette tubes meters out a dose of loose tobacco, feeds the dose to a press unit that presses the dose into a roll of tobacco corresponding in size to the size of a pre-manufactured paper cigarette tube. The roll is automatically injected into a paper tube. The various assemblies and units are mounted on a support structure and enclosed in a housing, so the device is safe to operate.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of the manufacture of cigarettes. More particularly, the invention relates to filling a thin paper tube with tobacco.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Many cigarette smokers like to make their own cigarettes, to reduce the cost of smoking or to make a cigarette with a particular blend of tobaccos. Frequently, a device for filling a pre-formed paper tube is used. One such cigarette filling device is once called the SUPERMATIC 2. Tobacco is stuffed into an open chamber on the device and, using a hand crank, the device compresses the tobacco into a cylindrical form and injects the compressed tobacco into a cigarette tube that is affixed to a nozzle on the side of the device. Understandably, the production of filled cigarettes is a slow process and requires a significant amount of effort on the part of the person using the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,913,022 B2 discloses another device for filling a cigarette tube. This device may be manually, semi-automatically, or automatically operated. A metering unit moves a proper amount of tobacco into a compression chamber.
What is needed, therefore, is a device that automatically and quickly produces filled cigarette. What is further needed is such a device that is safe and reliable to use.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a device for producing cigarettes by injecting a compressed, pre-formed portion of tobacco into a pre-manufactured cigarette tube. The cigarette-filling machine is an automated device that has a hopper filled with loose tobacco and another hopper filled with empty paper cigarette tubes. The device feeds a dose of tobacco to a pressing unit, which presses the dose into a tube-shaped charge of tobacco, and then automatically injects the charge of tobacco into a paper cigarette tube. The appropriate loading and unloading stations are provided, so that the user, after filling the feed systems for the tobacco and cigarette tubes, only has to unload the filled cigarettes.
The present invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
The present invention will now be described more fully in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which the preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention should not, however, be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, they are provided so that this disclosure will be complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
FIGS. 3.1-3.6 illustrate further details of the tobacco press 2. The tobacco press 2 receives a dose of tobacco from the feeder 1 and forms it into a tobacco roll or charge having dimensions that substantially correspond to the dimensions of a paper cigarette tube. A movable clamp 16 and a fixed or resistance clamp 17 are assembled within a steel body 15 of the tobacco press 2. These clamps 16, 17 slide on guides 18 and 19, respectively, that are provided on the steel body 15. The guides 18, 19 are constructed of a bronze alloy, which provides a considerable slide during displacement. A through-bore 3 extends across the width of the steel body 15.
FIGS. 4.1-4.2 illustrate details of the movable clamp 16 and FIGS. 5.1-5.2 details of the fixed clamp 17. The movable clamp 16 includes a clamping plate 20 and a replaceable plate liner 21 that is removably fastened to the plate 20. The fixed clamp 17 includes a resistance plate 22 and a replaceable plate liner 23 that is removably affixed to the plate 22. A resistance plate limiter 24 and a safety spring 25 are provided at the end the clamp 17. The spring 25 is secured to a block 17.1 by means of a nut 26. An upper plate 28 is immovably affixed to the upper surface of the steel body 15. A compression chamber or window 4 of a suitable size for receiving a charge of tobacco is provided in the upper plate 28. The replaceable plate liners 21 and 23 and the upper plate 28 are made of stainless steel, hardened and ground. The inner end faces 21A and 23A of the respective liners 21 and 23 are formed as a semi-circular cutout with sharp edges. The radius of the cutouts matches the radius of the internal radius of a cigarette tube.
FIGS. 6.1-6.3 illustrate a tobacco loading trolley 30 which pushes the tobacco roll into a mouthpiece 72, shown in
FIGS. 7.1-7.2 illustrate a paper-tube feeder assembly 140 feeds commercially available cigarette paper tubes a paper tube loading unit 150. The paper-tube feeder 140 has a paper tube conveyor 33, a paper tube dispenser 34, a paper-tube dispenser bracket 35, a paper tube feed channel 36, an optical sensor 37, a cigarette discharge channel 38, a slider unit 39, a slider drive unit 40, which, in this embodiment includes a solenoid 40 and a spring 41. The dispenser 34 is constructed in the form of a cube, the dimensions being matched to the dimensions of a box that contains the paper-tubes. The dispenser 34 is enclosed in a cover D1, which can be opened as needed, and is mounted on the housing 42 of the paper tube conveyor 33. The paper tube conveyor 33 transports the paper tubes from the dispenser 34 to a loading mouthpiece described below.
The structure that forms the support frame 90 of the cigarette-tube filling device 100 is constructed of welded profiles and steel plates. The various assemblies of the cigarette-tube filling device 100 are mounted on the support frame 90. The support frame 90 with all the units of the cigarette-tube filling device 100 is placed in a housing (not shown). Any suitable material for the housing may be used, such as, for example, a compact powder-coated steel housing. The housing includes a display, a window for loading the paper tubes and a hopper for receiving the filled cigarettes. Service doors are located at the back side of the housing. The housing and various elements of the housing are not shown, as these elements are well known and are not a part of the inventive subject matter.
Operation:
The tobacco feeder 1 is mounted on the tobacco press 2, so that the outlet of the tobacco feeder 1 is positioned above the compression chamber 4 of the upper plate 28. Switching on the main power source 91 starts the feeder stepper motor 8, which causes the rotor 6 with its conical spines 6 to rotate. The spines 6 collect and pass a charge of tobacco suitable to fill a cigarette tube down through feeder outlet to the compression chamber 4. The cam 12 in the tobacco press 2 raises and lowers the arm assembly 9, which in turn pushes the tobacco charge into the compression chamber 4. After filling the appropriate amount of tobacco, the arm assembly 9 continues to compress the tobacco until a signal from the sensor 33 switches off the motor 8, which interrupts the feed of tobacco into the chamber 4. When all the filling tobacco has been used, the clamping assembly 9 is lowered. Meanwhile, the sensor 33 signals the rotor to start rotating again, to feed another charge of tobacco.
When the clamping assembly 9 is pulled away from the compression chamber 4, the movable clamp 16 moves toward the resistance clamp 17 to press the tobacco charge into a suitable shape for insertion into a cigarette paper-tube. During this pressing operation, the sharp edges 21A, 23A of the respective liners 21 and 23, the clamps 16 and 17, and the upper plate 28 cut any excess of tobacco in the compression chamber 4, to obtain a charge with the appropriate amount of tobacco for a cigarette. The tobacco compressed between the clamps 16 and 17 by the front radial cutouts 21A, 23A is now shaped as a roll that has a diameter and length that corresponds to the internal diameter and length of the paper cigarette tube.
A paper-tube is placed at the mouthpiece 72 and the formed tobacco roll is injected into the paper-tube by the loading rod 31, which operates in a back-and-forth reciprocating motion. The rod 31 pushes through the bore 3 in the main body 15 of the press 2 and pushes the compressed tobacco roll through the mouthpiece 72 into the paper-tube. In the process of being filled, the paper-tube slides down the mouthpiece 72. When the paper-tube is completely filled with tobacco, it is moved through the block bore 82 and placed on the loading trolley 130.
The paper tubes are placed in the paper-tube dispenser 140. The size of the dispenser 34 depends on the size of the box for the paper tubes. To fill the dispenser 34, it is removed from the assembly 140, an open box of empty paper tubes is placed upside down in the dispenser 34. This arrangement allows the paper tubes to be easily moved though the open lid. The dispenser 34 with the empty paper tubes is placed on the paper tube dispensing unit 140 by using side leads provided on the paper-tube dispenser. Paper tubes are taken up by paper tube conveyor 45, one by one. Setting the belt 45 in motion causes the paper tubes, which are stacked above the belt 45, to drop down into spaces between the teeth, one tube in each space. The belt 45 moves the paper tubes to a feed channel 36. The empty paper-tubes move through the feed channel 36 to a slider unit 39, are separated from another, and are passed down, one by one, from both sides by the discharge channel 38 to the block 47. From here the empty paper-tube is passed down by two terminal rods 61A, 61B of the paper-tube tamper unit 160 and placed on the mouthpiece tube 72 of the indirect tobacco loading trolley 170.
Referring now to
A set of sensors signals any detected malfunctions.
It is understood that the embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the present invention. Variations in the construction of the cigarette-tube filling device may be contemplated by one skilled in the art without limiting the intended scope of the invention herein disclosed and as defined by the following claims.
Claims
1. A cigarette-tube filling device for manufacturing cigarettes by pressing a charge of tobacco into a tobacco roll and inserted the roll into a preformed cigarette paper tube, the cigarette-tube filling device comprising:
- a support structure; and
- tobacco processing units that include:
- a tobacco feeder that includes a tobacco hopper and a rotatable rotor with conical spines mounted in a lower portion of the tobacco hopper;
- a tobacco press that includes a compression chamber provided in a steel body and a clamping assembly mounted on the steel body, and wherein the tobacco feeder is mounted above the tobacco press so as to feed a dose of tobacco into compression chamber of the tobacco press;
- a tobacco injector that injects the tobacco roll into an empty cigarette paper tube;
- a paper tube dispenser; and
- a cigarette unloading trolley;
- wherein all tobacco processing units are mounted on the support structure.
2. The device of claim 1, wherein the compression chamber is a four-walled window that receives the dose of tobacco from the tobacco feeder, one wall being non-parallel to an opposite wall, wherein the lower edges of the compression chamber walls are sharp, so as to cut tobacco.
3. The device of claim 2, wherein the steel body has a through-bore corresponding in diameter to the inner diameter of a cigarette tube and wherein the clamping assembly presses the dose of tobacco into a roll.
4. The device of claim 3, wherein the clamping assembly includes two clamping plates, each having a clamping surface that is curved with an upper edge that is constructed to cut excess tobacco from the tobacco roll.
5. The device of claim 3, wherein the tobacco injector presses the tobacco roll through the through-bore and into the empty cigarette tube.
6. The device of claim 1, wherein the paper tube dispenser includes a conveyor for transporting individual cigarette paper tubes.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 30, 2012
Publication Date: Feb 28, 2013
Applicant: INFOSTER (Tarnow)
Inventors: Górski Ryszard (Ptaszkowa), Ptaczek Dariusz (Tarnow), Gawron Krzysztof (Pogorska Wola)
Application Number: 13/598,838