Manufacturing Grooved Smoking Rods
A machine for making grooved smoking article rods has an axially rotatable drum (5) with a generally cylindrical outer surface (8). A pressing member (10) has a pressing surface (11) that includes grooves (12) facing the outer surface of the drum. The pressing member is heated by a heater (13). Filter rod segments (1) are fed from an inlet supply (9) between the pressing surface (11) and the drum (5) to be rotated and pressed against the grooves (12) so that a pattern of grooves (15) is formed in the outer surface of the filter segment.
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This specification concerns the manufacture of a grooved smoking article rod such as a grooved filter for a cigarette.
BACKGROUNDHitherto, machines have been used to form longitudinal peripheral grooves in filter segments used in cigarettes. One example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,238 in which a cylindrical rod is formed with longitudinally extending grooves arranged around the rod's circumference, formed by heated elements disposed around the periphery of the drum over which the filter rod is arranged to rotate.
SUMMARYDescribed hereinafter is an embodiment of a machine for making grooved smoking article rods, comprising an axially rotatable drum having a generally cylindrical outer surface, a pressing member spaced from and extending around a portion of the outer surface of the drum, the pressing member having a pressing surface that includes grooves facing the outer surface of the drum, a heater configured to heat the pressing surface, and an inlet feed to supply smoking article rods between the outer surface of the drum and the pressing surface when heated by the heater so as to be rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves and impress a pattern of grooves into the rod.
The pressing member may be configured to be retro-fitted to the rolling drum of apparatus for wrapping tipping paper around a smoking article such as cigarette, which has a rolling plate with a surface facing the drum for rolling tipping paper around the circumference of a filter segment and a coaxial rod of smokeable material. The retro-fittable pressing member may have a pressing surface that includes grooves to face the outer surface of the drum, a heater to heat the pressing surface, and a pressing member being so configured that smoking article rods passing between the outer surface of the drum and the pressing surface when heated by the heater are rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves to press the pattern of grooves into the rod.
The pressing member may be configured to be retro-fitted in place of the rolling plate, spaced from and extending around the portion of the outer surface of the drum.
Also described is a method a method of making grooved smoking article rods, comprising feeding smoking article rods between a generally cylindrical outer surface of an axially rotating drum and a heated pressing member spaced from and extending around a portion of the outer surface of the drum, the pressing member having a pressing surface that includes grooves facing the outer surface of the drum such that the rods are rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves and become impressed with a pattern of grooves corresponding to the grooves in the pressing surface.
In order that the invention may be more fully understood, an embodiment thereof will now be described by way of illustrative example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring to
Referring to
A generally arcuately extending pressing member 10 has a curved pressing surface 11 which is generally coaxial with axis 6. The pressing surface 11 is formed with a pattern of uniformly spaced grooves 12 that extend in a direction parallel to the rotational axis 6 of the drum. The pressing member includes an electrical heater 13 driven from an electrical power supply (not shown). In use, the filter segments 1 are fed successively from the inlet hopper 9 into an arcuate gap 14 between the cylindrical surface 8 of the drum 5 and the pressing member 10. Successive ones of the filter segments 1 are received in individual grooves 7 in the drum 8. On rotation of the drum 5 in a direction of arrow Y, the segments 1 are entrained into the gap 14 and are rotated over the grooves 12 in the pressing surface 11, which is heated by the heater 13 so as to form a regular pattern of grooves 15 that as shown in
The filter segments 1 thus travel in a direction of arrow A in the peripheral gap 14 to an outlet area 16 from which the resulting grooved filter segments 1′ fall in a direction of arrow B into a receptacle (not shown) for subsequent assembly into cigarettes.
A kick bar 17 is provided on the pressing surface 11 in order to encourage each grooved filter segment 1′ to release itself from the receptacle 7 in which it was guided during passage along the annular gap 14 during the groove forming process. More than one such kick bar 17 may be provided along the pressing surface 11 in order to ensure proper rotation of the filter segments as they move along the pattern of grooves 12.
The grooves may have a depth of between 0.2 to 2.0 MM, more particularly from 0.2 to 1.0 mm, from 0.5 to 1.0 mm, from 1.0 to 2.0 MM or from 1.5 to 2.0 MM, and may be for example spaced with a periodicity of 0.5-2 mm. It will be appreciated that any suitable grooving pattern may be formed by appropriately configuring the pattern of grooves 12 in the pressing surface 11. The radial spacing D between the pressing surface 11 and the axial surface 8 of the drum 5 is suitably selected in order to ensure that the filter segment 1 is subject to compression whilst rotated and moved in the direction of arrow A and in this way, the pattern of grooves 12 is pressed into the cylindrical surface of the filter rod segment 1.
The electrical heater 13 heats the pressing surface 11 to warm the plug wrap 3 so as to form a stable groove pattern 15 in the cylindrical surface 4 of the filter segment 1. Conveniently, the pressing surface is heated to a temperature of between 150-250° C. for this purpose.
Typically, the grooves are spaced so as to form 20-40 grooves 15 around the circumferential surface 4 of the filter segment 1. However, a smaller or greater number of grooves of a selectable, appropriate depth can be formed as required by suitably configuring the pattern of grooves 12.
The pressing member 10 is mounted on a shaft for rotation about axis W and can be locked in position by means of locking mechanism (not shown). The locking mechanism allows movement of the pressing member radially in a direction Z-Z′ in order to allow adjustment of the pressure imparted to the filter segments 1 as they move along the gap 14 during the groove forming process. Also, the pressing member can be adjusted in a direction of arrow D transversely of axis W in order to configure the pressing member 10 to have a uniform radial distance D along the length of the gap 14 or to slightly taper the gap 14 along its length.
Typically in cigarette manufacture, filter segments are attached to a rod of smokeable material by means of tipping paper which is rolled around the circumference of the rod of smokeable material and the filter. Conventionally, a rolling machine is utilised which has a drum generally similar to the drum 5 shown in
Another example of a cigarette that uses a grooved filter segment 1′ is illustrated schematically in
Many modifications and variations with described examples will be evident for those skilled in the art. For example, the groove 15 may not be continuous as shown in
In order to address various issues and advance the art, the entirety of this disclosure shows by way of illustration various embodiments in which the claimed invention(s) may be practiced and provide for superior machines and methods for making grooved smoking article rods. The advantages and features of the disclosure are of a representative sample of embodiments only, and are not exhaustive and/or exclusive. They are presented only to assist in understanding and teach the claimed features. It is to be understood that advantages, embodiments, examples, functions, features, structures, and/or other aspects of the disclosure are not to be considered limitations on the disclosure as defined by the claims or limitations on equivalents to the claims, and that other embodiments may be utilized and modifications may be made without departing from the scope and/or spirit of the disclosure. Various embodiments may suitably comprise, consist of, or consist essentially of, various combinations of the disclosed elements, components, features, parts, steps, means, etc. In addition, the disclosure includes other inventions not presently claimed, but which may be claimed in future.
Claims
1. A machine for making grooved smoking article rods, comprising:
- an axially rotatable drum having a generally cylindrical outer surface;
- a pressing member spaced from and extending around a portion of the outer surface of the drum, the pressing member having a pressing surface that includes grooves facing the outer surface of the drum;
- a heater configured to heat the pressing surface; and
- an inlet feed to supply smoking article rods between the outer surface of the drum and the pressing surface when heated by the heater so as to be rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves to impress a pattern of grooves into the rod.
2. The machine according to claim 1 including a plurality of axially extending circumferentially spaced receptacles in the cylindrical surface of the drum to receive individual ones of the smoking article rods.
3. The machine according to claim 1 including at least one kick bar on the pressing member to promote rotation of the smoking article rods along the pressing surface.
4. The machine according to claim 1 wherein the grooves in the pressing member extend generally parallel to the axis of the drum.
5. The machine according to claim 1 wherein the pressing surface extends generally coaxially around part of the outer surface of the drum.
6. The machine according to claim 1 wherein the grooves have a depth of between 0.2 to 2.0 mm.
7. The machine according to claim 1 wherein the grooves are of substantially the same depth and regularly spaced so as to form a regular grooved pattern around the circumference of the smoking article rods.
8. The machine according to claim 1 wherein the heater is configured to heat the pressing surface to a temperature of between 150-250° C.
9. A pressing member configured to be retro-fitted to the rolling drum of an apparatus that has a rolling plate with a surface facing the drum for rolling tipping paper around the circumference of a filter segment and a coaxial rod of smokeable material, the pressing member having
- a pressing surface that includes grooves to face the outer surface of the drum,
- a heater configured to heat the pressing surface, and
- the pressing member being so configured that smoking article rods passing between the outer surface of the drum and the pressing surface when heated by the heater are rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves to impress a pattern of grooves into the rod.
10. The A pressing member according to claim 9 and being adapted to be fitted in place of the rolling plate spaced from and extending around a portion of the outer surface of the drum.
11. A method of making grooved smoking article rods, comprising:
- feeding smoking article rods between a generally cylindrical outer surface of an axially rotating drum and a heated pressing member spaced from and extending around a portion of the outer surface of the drum,
- the pressing member having a pressing surface that includes grooves facing the outer surface of the drum such that the rods are rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves and become impressed with a pattern of grooves corresponding to the grooves in the pressing surface.
12. The method according to claim 11 wherein the smoking article rods comprise filter rods, and including impressing the grooves longitudinally into the filter rods.
13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the filter rods comprise cellulose acetate tow wrapped in a plugwrap, and including forming the grooves by impressing the plugwrap.
14. The method according to claim 13 including attaching a tobacco rod to the filter rod or a segment thereof using said rotary drum.
15. A method of making grooved smoking article rods, comprising:
- heating a pressing member spaced from and extending around a portion of an outer surface of an axially rotating drum;
- singularly feeding a plurality smoking article rods into spaced grooves on the outer surface of the rotating drum such that the smoking article rods are positioned between the cylindrical outer surface of the rotating drum and the pressing member;
- rotating the axially rotating drum to rotatably pass the smoking article rods against a grooved surface of the pressing member;
- impressing on the outer surface of each of the smoking article rods a pattern of grooves;
- wherein the pressing member has a pressing surface that includes the grooves facing the outer surface of the rotating drum such that the rods are rotated by the rotation of the drum over the grooves and become impressed with the pattern of grooves corresponding to the grooves in the pressing surface.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 30, 2012
Publication Date: Jul 24, 2014
Applicant: British American Tobacco (Investments) Limited (London)
Inventor: Karl Kaljura (London)
Application Number: 14/240,110