Abstract: A fever detecting wrist band device comprises a flexible band and a fever detection device attached to the flexible band. The fever detection device comprises a thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) material, which can change colors corresponding to a set of temperature ranges, encased in a transparent casing. The transparent casing has a thin bottom section to allow the TLC material to gather body heat when the wrist band is worn by a user and the bottom section comes in contact with the skin of the user. The transparent casing also insulates the TLC material from all sides which are not in contact with the skin of the user so that surrounding temperature of a user does not affect the color change of the TLC material. When the user wears the fever detecting wrist band device, the TLC material might change color indicating a higher body temperature of the user which in turn could indicate that either the user has a fever or the user might have a fever soon if not treated immediately.

Abstract: A cigarette-making method is provided, comprising forming an elongate tobacco rod having a non-circular cross-sectional shape and opposed ends, by circumscribing a tobacco charge with a wrapping material. A filter element is formed having opposed ends and a non-circular cross-sectional shape corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the tobacco rod, by circumscribing a filter material with a plug wrap material. One end of the tobacco rod is axially aligned and abutted with one end of the filter element, and a tipping material is applied about the tobacco rod and the filter element, wherein the tipping material extends across the abutting ends thereof, so as to join the tobacco rod with the filter element and form a cigarette having a non-circular cross-sectional shape along a length thereof. Associated apparatuses and methods are also provided.

Abstract: Adhesive-coated bands of paper, tipping paper or plastic foil are convoluted around discrete one-piece or composite rod-shaped articles, such as coaxial plain cigarettes and filter mouthpieces, during travel through a rolling zone bounded by a pair of surfaces at least one of which moves relative to the other. The inlet of the rolling zone receives articles, each of which carries a non-convoluted band, from a conveyor which forms part of a pressing device operative immediately ahead of the inlet of the rolling zone and serving to press successively delivered bands against the respective articles and to effect an at least slight flattening of the articles immediately prior to entry into the rolling zone. The width of the path for the articles increases at the outlet of the rolling zone or immediately downstream of such outlet.

Abstract: Device for wrapping groups of filter segments with a wrapping material. The device includes a rolling channel defined between adjacent stretches of at least one first roller conveyor and at least one second roller conveyor. The rolling channel is structured and arranged to wrap the groups of filter segments with the wrapping material by rolling each of the groups of filter segments. This Abstract is not intended to define the invention disclosed in the specification, nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for forming a cigarette rod containing an additive material in a cigarette making machine, in which a continuous tobacco rod is fed along a vacuum conveyor and particles of the additive material are fed to and incorporated along the axis of the cigarette rod by a distributor which comprises a conveyor having a hollow drum with a cylindrical side wall on which there is a plurality of seats designed to house the particles; the drum rotating within a ring-shaped structure and the seats, during rotation of the drum, passing through an ejector unit designed to eject the particles from the seats and incorporate them in the tobacco rod through a feed pipe, so as to control the distribution of the particles of the additive material along the tobacco rod, obtaining a preset positioning of the particles in each cigarette length.

Abstract: An apparatus, such as a filter tipping machine, wherein groups of coaxial rod-shaped articles are connected to each other end-to-end by adhesive-coated uniting strips or bands, employs two endless conveyor belts having parallel stretches defining an elongated rolling channel and moving in the same direction but at different speeds. A first rotary drum-shaped conveyor is employed to deliver successive groups, each of which can carry a uniting band, sideways into the inlet of the channel wherein the groups are caused to roll and the uniting bands are convoluted around them. A second rotary drum-shaped conveyor receives successive groups of interconnected rod-shaped articles from the outlet of the rolling channel and delivers them to a processing station, such as a severing or packing station, or to a magazine. One of the endless conveyor belts is trained over the drum-shaped conveyors.

Abstract: A method of rolling cigarette portions, wherein a first succession of first pairs of cigarette portions and a second succession of second pairs of cigarette portions are advanced in a direction crosswise to the respective axes of the cigarette portions, each first pair being defined by a first and a second cigarette portion coaxial with and a given distance from each other, the second succession being parallel to the first succession, and each second pair being defined by a third and a fourth cigarette portion coaxial with and the aforementioned distance from each other; the first pairs and the second pairs are partially engaged combfashion in a relative position in which each third cigarette portion is partially inserted between two adjacent second cigarette portions; a double filter and a respective projecting band are inserted between the first and second cigarette portions and between the third and fourth cigarette portions to form respective groups; and the groups, arranged in the first and second succes

Abstract: A filter assembly machine wherein a succession of tobacco articles, each defined by at least one cigarette portion aligned with a respective filter, and a succession of respective gummed strips are fed by a conveyor drum to a first and a second rolling wheel rotating about respective axes and having a number of peripheral axial cavities, each of which houses a respective roller defining, with the cavity, a rolling channel; the tobacco articles, once rolled to connect the cigarette portions and filters by means of respective strips, are transferred from the first and second rolling wheel to an output drum by means of conveyors having seats on the end of respective ribs engageable between pairs of adjacent rollers.

Abstract: A rolling device wherein elongated elements, in particular tobacco items, are fed in an orderly succession to the inlet of a rolling channel at a first speed, and are fed along the rolling channel at a second speed equal to half the first speed; the device presenting a rolling initiating unit located at the inlet of the rolling channel and in turn presenting a number of brake elements, each of which provides for engaging and gradually reducing the speed of a respective elongated element from the first speed to the second speed.

Abstract: A device for rolling wrappers onto cigar bodies, includes a lower roll unit (10) with a first pair of parallel rolls (14, 16) lying in a horizontal plane and rotatable in the same direction about their own axes for supporting contact with a lower half of a cigar body when a wrapper is rolled thereon. The rolls are mounted in a holder (22) at either end of the rolls. An upper roll unit (12) has two parallel rolls (46, 48) rotatable in the same direction about their own axes, and which, when the wrapper is rolled on, are disposed in a horizontal plane above and parallel to the rolls in the lower roll unit (10) in counteracting contact against an upper half of a cigar body. The lower roll unit (10) includes at least two additional rolls (18, 20), which are mounted in the same holders (22) as the first pair of rolls (14, 16) in the lower roll unit, and rotatable about their own axes in the same direction as the first pair. The holders (22) are rotatable about their central axis in 90.degree.

Abstract: On a filter assembly machine, a rolling device provides for joining, by means of a succession of strips, a number of elongated elements in a corresponding succession of groups using a number of rollers, each presenting a respective seat for a respective group, and each rotating about a respective axis for rolling the groups in contact with a rolling surface; the axes of the rollers being moved, in relation to the rolling surface, at a first speed; and the rollers being so operated as to rotate about the respective axes and advance the respective seats at a second variable speed which is minimum when the groups are loaded and unloaded on and off the rollers.

Abstract: A device for applying a chevron-shaped cigar wrapper blank onto a rotating double cigar body as the body is being rotated in a mechanically driven nest where certain driving rods of the nest are modified to provide clearance for a tuck lifter that initiates the wrapping procedure.

Abstract: A machine and method for continuously applying wrappers to a stream of bound cigar bunches.