Abstract: Method and apparatus for removing tie elements from hands of tobacco leaves on a conveyor belt involve a rotating drum having radially emergent cutting blades that contact the tie elements without contacting the belt. The axle of the drum is disposed at an angle to the direction of belt travel, and the blades are disposed at a compensatory angle with respect to the axle, whereby the drum provides an advancing effect on the leaves, yet the blades cut along the mid-rib of the leaves.

Abstract: A cutting apparatus for cutting tobacco leaves into small pieces. The cutting apparatus has a feed belt conveyor including a plurality of parallel narrow endless belts. At the tail section of the feed belt conveyor is provided a pulley on which a plurality of lower rotary cutting blades are coaxially mounted. The diameter of the blades is larger than that of the pulley and each lower cutting blade projects from between adjacent narrow endless belts. There are further provided a plurality of upper rotary cutting blades above the lower rotary cutting blades and each upper rotary cutting blade overlaps each corresponding lower rotary cutting blade. The endless belts are led to proceed from the pulley but not to proceed beyond the outfeeding edges of the lower rotary cutting blades and then return to the head section after they pass the overlap section.

Abstract: A tobacco bale tipping apparatus (10) delaminates tobacco bale (12) into slabs of tobacco. The slabs of tobacco are separated into right hand and left hand wedges (14) by conveyor belts (27) and (26) and by weight chains (24). The wedges (14) are tipped by knives (20) which are adjustable toward or away from the conveyors to accommodate tobacco leaves of various lengths.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for processing baled tobacco leaves to separate the lamina portions of the leaves from the stem portions. The bale is cut symmetrically, crosswise to its length, into three or preferably five separate sections, of different characteristic types. A center section is cut from the middle of the bale. On each side of the center section a second section is cut; and two end sections are preferably cut, one at each end of the bale. The different types of sections have different lamina-to-stem ratios, and are processed differently. The second sections are coarsely threshed, to dislodge the larger lamina portions of the leaves from the stem portions therein, and the coarsely threshed material is separated into a first light fraction (comprising mostly lamina) and a first heavy fraction (enriched in stem content). The center section can be combined with the light fraction and can be dried and packed without the necessity of further threshing.