Feeding unit for feeding beads and apparatus for manufacturing rods
The objects of the application are a feeding unit and a rod manufacturing apparatus. The feeding unit for feeding beads comprises a supply channel for feeding a stream of beads, a transferring wheel provided with at least one transferring pocket, a pushing mechanism comprising a holding pocket for receiving the beads from the supply channel, and a pushing element for transferring the beads individually from the holding pocket to the transferring wheel. The unit is characterised in that the pushing element having a pushing edge is a rotatable element of a horizontal rotational axis. The pushing edge is arranged for passing during the rotation through the holding pocket and the transferring channel in order to push the bead out of the holding pocket through the transferring channel to the transferring pocket.
An object of the application is a feeding unit for feeding beads and an apparatus for manufacturing rods of tobacco industry.
BACKGROUNDThis invention relates to a feeding of spherical or oval objects which are placed into rods being tobacco industry products or semi-finished products. For the sake of simplicity, such objects will be hereinafter referred to as beads. A known product in the market are cigarettes whose filters are provided with beads comprising aromatic or odorous substances. The substances comprised in the beads are released during smoking or yet before lighting up a cigarette by squeezing the filter resulting in crushing a bead. In the production process, the beads are placed in continuous rods which are cut into rods, and the rods are cut into segments which are connected with other semi-finished products.
A difficult and a very significant issue is the feeding of individual beads to a machine forming filters at great speeds in a way which guarantees that the beads remain undamaged and a high feeding efficiency is maintained, i.e. each manufactured filter rod actually comprises correctly placed beads.
There are known bead feeders in which, tubes are used for feeding the beads to an area from which they are transferred to a bead delivery wheel with the function of the said wheel being to place the delivered beads into the filter material, between the fibres of the filter material or between the segments made of filter or other material.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,975,877B2 discloses a bead feeder, wherein the bead feeding unit is provided with a plurality of tubes which are radially connected with a cylindrical bowl, whereas the tubes rotate together with the bowl, and the beads are picked up by means of vacuum by a bead transfer wheel from pockets situated at the outlets of the tubes, and then transferred to a bead delivery wheel.
The document WO 2009/071271 discloses a bead feeder in which the bead feeding unit is provided with passageways rotating with the bowl, where the beads are fed to a bead delivery wheel after separating the lowermost bead from those situated above it using a stationary arched wedge-ended element.
The document WO 2009/071272 discloses a similar bead feeder, where the beads are fed to a bead delivery wheel using two plates having a plurality of openings and rotating relative to each other, and a bead is fed after aligning respective openings directly on top of each other.
Patent EP2617302B1 discloses a solution, in which the beads are fed through supply channels to holding pockets from which they are further transferred to a feeding wheel after pushing them out of the pockets by means of a cam.
The object of this invention is to develop an improved feeding unit for the feeding of beads in a rod manufacturing apparatus to be applied in different configurations of the apparatus.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe object of the invention is a feeding unit for bead feeding comprising a supply channel to feed a stream of beads, a transferring wheel provided with at least one transferring pocket, a pushing mechanism comprising a holding pocket to receive the beads from the supply channel and a pushing element to transfer the beads individually from the holding pocket to the transferring wheel. The unit according to the invention is characterised in that the pushing element having a pushing edge is a rotational element with a horizontal rotational axis, with the pushing edge being adapted to pass during the rotation through the holding pocket and the transferring channel in order to push the bead out of the holding pocket through the transferring channel to the transferring pocket.
The unit according to the invention is characterised in that the pushing element is a plate with a cylindrical surface.
The unit according to the invention is characterised in that the transferring channel leads tangentially to the transferring wheel.
The unit according to the invention is characterised by being provided with at least one guide next to the path of movement of the transferring pocket.
The unit according to the invention is characterised in that the guide on a side of supply channel has the form of two concentric circular surfaces.
The unit according to the invention is characterised in that the rotational axis of the pushing element overlaps a rotational axis of the transferring wheel.
The object of the invention is also an apparatus for manufacturing rods of a continuous rod provided with a filling material feeding unit, a feeding unit for bead feeding, a forming unit for continuous rod forming, a cutting head for continuous rod cutting into individual rods, with the feeding unit for bead feeding being provided with a feeding wheel having a plurality of transporting pockets to transfer the beads, and at least one feeding unit according to the invention.
The feeding unit according to the invention guarantees that each position of the bead after leaving the supply channel on the path to the continuous rod being formed is fully controlled. Furthermore, it is possible to use the feeding unit in different configurations of the rod manufacturing apparatus. Among others, it is possible to use the feeding unit to manufacture the rods of a continuous rod in which the beads are unevenly spaced.
The object of the invention is shown in a preferred embodiment in a drawing in which:
An example filter rod R shown in a cross-section in
The bead C, while being transferred downwards to the transporting pocket 22, moves in the transferring pocket 34 on a circular path in a guiding channel 42 formed by surfaces 35 and 36, a ring 40 and an outer guide 41 (the channel 42 is shown in a cross-section in
In the feeding unit 5 in
The rod manufacturing apparatus 1′ in the second embodiment shown in
The rod manufacturing apparatus 1″ in the third embodiment shown in
Claims
1. A feeding unit (21) for feeding beads (C) comprising
- a supply channel (24) for feeding a stream of beads (C),
- a transferring wheel (26) provided with at least one transferring pocket (34),
- a pushing mechanism (25) comprising a holding pocket (29) for receiving the beads (C) from the supply channel (24) and a pushing element (31) for transferring the beads (C) individually from the holding pocket (29) to the transferring wheel (26), characterised in that
- the pushing element (31) having a pushing edge (32) is a rotatable element of a horizontal rotational axis (n),
- the pushing edge (32) being arranged for passing during the rotation through the holding pocket (29) and the transferring channel (30) in order to push the bead (C) out of the holding pocket (29) through the transferring channel (30) to the transferring pocket (34).
2. The unit as in claim 1 characterised in that the pushing element (31) is a plate having a cylindrical surface.
3. The unit as in claim 1 characterised in that the transferring channel (30) adjoins tangentially to the transferring wheel (26).
4. The unit as in claim 1 characterised by being provided with at least one guide arranged next to a path of movement of the transferring pocket (34).
5. The unit as in claim 1 characterised in that the guide on a side of the supply channel (24) has the form of two concentric circular surfaces (35, 36).
6. The unit as in claim 1 characterised in that the rotational axis (n) of the pushing element (31) overlaps a rotational axis (m) of the transferring wheel (26).
7. An apparatus for manufacturing rods of a continuous rod (CR) provided with a filling material feeding unit (4, 4′), a feeding unit (5, 5′) for feeding beads (C), a forming unit for forming a continuous rod (CR), a cutting head (7) for cutting the continuous rod (CR) into individual rods (R, R′, R″),
- characterised in that
- the feeding unit (5, 5′) for feeding beads (C) is provided with a feeding wheel (20) having a plurality of transporting pockets (22) for transferring the beads (C), and at least one feeding unit (21) according to claim 1.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 27, 2021
Publication Date: Mar 3, 2022
Inventors: Bartosz Cieslikowski (Radom), Radoslaw Figarski (Radom)
Application Number: 17/443,803