Abstract: A method and apparatus of forming portions of tobacco, and of removing the same by an conveyor having at least one path of holders for a respective portion, in which the holders are filled with individual portions of the contents at least two filling lines of one or more filling stations, and, prior to the individual filling operations, individual portions of the contents are weighed and weighed portions that satisfy the predetermined conditions—acceptable portions—are filled cyclically into the holders and weighed portions that do not satisfy the predetermined conditions are detected and ejected as defective portions, characterized by components and steps of (a) following detection of a defective portion, that holder which the filling line originally predetermined for filling this holder would have filled with the contents portion, on which the defective portion is based, had the contents portion satisfied the predetermined conditions—defective-portion holder—is sensed, and a filling line other than that ori

Abstract: A cigarette making apparatus comprises an application nozzle for applying a flavoring material to a wrapping-paper web supplied continuously to a wrapping machine, a pump for supplying the flavoring material to the application nozzle, and a pump control device for controlling the pump driving speed depending on the wrapping machine operating speed. The pump control device divides the wrapping machine operating speed into a plurality of speed regions and determines an approximation pump characteristic which approximates a relationship between the pump driving speed and the rate of discharge of the flavoring material from the pump in each of the speed regions, in advance, and determines the speed at which the pump should be driven, depending on the wrapping machine operating speed, according to the approximation pump characteristic. Consequently, the flavoring material is applied to the wrapping-paper web in an appropriate amount depending on the wrapping machine operating speed.

Abstract: A method of feeding cigars to a hopper of a wrapping machine, wherein the cigars are housed in bulk and in orderly manner inside containers; each container has a top opening by which to receive and unload the cigars in the aforementioned orderly manner; a full container of cigars is picked up and inverted at the hopper by means of a manipulating device so that the opening faces downwards; and the full container is rested on a supporting surface having a passage smaller than the opening, so as to partly close the opening and provide for controlled unloading of the cigars.

Abstract: A tray unloader for rod-like articles of the tobacco industry includes a horizontally-movable, slidable carriage supporting an independently-driven tray inverting carrier arranged to pick up an upright full tray from a receiving position and invert it during movement to an unloading position. In the unloading position articles are received directly over opposed horizontal bands having a delivery channel between confronting ends and defining the initial level at which articles are received over most of the width of the tray. Downstream of the channel is a conveyor which operates at a relatively high rate during a first phase of unloading for each tray and at a reduced rate during a second phase, so as to allow controlled emptying of the tray and establishment of the residual level of articles in the channel after completion of unloading of each tray.

Abstract: A method of detecting the positions occupied on a pallet by stacks of blanks arranged on the pallet in a number of superimposed layers and, in each layer, in a number of side by side rows, to enable automatic pickup of each stack and supply of the stack to a cigarette packing machine; the method including the step of moving a sensor along each row to determine a lateral contour of the row close to a bases of the relative stacks.

Abstract: A method of and an appratus for automatically determining the moisture content of a tobacco sample and for then automatically determining the stem content of the tobacco sample are disclosed. The apparatus utilizes a dryer, such as a rotary drum dryer with internal agitating vanes, for applying heat to remove moisture and volatiles from the sample and for reducing the sample to lamina and stem portions. Electronic scales are used to weigh the sample before and after drying to determine and store the "wet" and "dry" weights of the sample. Based on the stored wet and dry weights the moisture content is determined. The stem portions are classified into two categories and weighed to determine the stem content by weight of the sample.

Abstract: A pressure sensor (P) and a time-measurement component actuate a gate (15) for clearing out a duct (7) as a function of a predetermined program. When the gate is open, the feed of the machine is interrrupted. When the gate is closed, suction air carries along tobacco particles from a bed (5), and negative pressure having a critical threshold exists at the level of the sensor. If, when the gate is closed, a plug of tobacco forms in the bottom opening of a sleeve (23), this sleeve is drawn upward by suction and butts against bolts (19), which dislodges the plug of tobacco. If the pressure continues to drop, the gate is opened, the sleeve falls back, and the plug is definitely dispelled.

Abstract: A tobacco stream which is built at the underside of the lower reach of an endless foraminous belt conveyor is monitored by a detector which generates a signal in response to detection of excessive accumulations of tobacco in the stream. Such signals are used to interrupt the delivery of a tobacco flow to the belt conveyor, to arrest the device which supplies tobacco that forms the flow, to remove tobacco from the belt conveyor, and to restart the delivery of tobacco to the belt conveyor, to restart the tobacco supplying device, and to deactivate the tobacco removing device when the stream is removed from the belt conveyor. The interruption of delivery involves diversion of tobacco into a path which leads to a magazine. The tobacco removing device can include a valve which deactivates a suction chamber serving to attract tobacco to the belt conveyor, a mechanical tobacco remover and/or one or more nozzles which serve to blow compressed air against tobacco on the belt conveyor.

Abstract: The present invention comprises a product moving apparatus for moving a tobacco product, a vertical feeder tube for metering the tobacco product onto the product moving apparatus at a predetermined rate, a system for maintaining a predetermined height of the tobacco product in the feeder tube, and an infrared detection apparatus connected to the feeder tube to detect the concentration of menthol in the tobacco product.

Abstract: A variable capacity reservoir (88) for rod-like articles in stack formation comprises a variable length elevator (26) having an upper outlet (66) which rises and falls with the level of articles in the reservoir. The elevator (26) includes an endless band (24) which may be projected upwards from the floor of the reservoir (88), an extending membrane (44) shielding articles in the reservoir from engagement with a return run of the band. The reservoir (88) may receive filter rods and be located at or closely adjacent to a filter cigarette assembling machine.

Abstract: Tobacco trimmed from a filler rod is recycled and used in the control of the rod-forming operation. A reservoir vessel is divided into physically-separate chambers, a narrow one of which receives the recycled trimmed tobacco and a wider one of which receives cut tobacco. Tobacco is simultaneously fed from both chambers by a common feeding device to form a metered flow from which the filler rod is ultimately formed. The level of tobacco in the narrow chamber is sensed and the operation of the common feeding device is controlled in response to sensed levels outside a predetermined range. If the sensed level is too high, then the tobacco is being fed too fast to the rod formation and the common feeding device then is slowed down, thereby slowing the tobacco feed rate, while, if the sensed level is too low, then the tobacco is being fed too slowly to the rod formation and the common feeding device then is speeded up, thereby speeding up the tobacco feed rate.

Abstract: In a machine for making cigarette rods containing two types of tobacco there is provided a dual hopper (1200) for containing the two types of tobacco separately and a conveyor (1206) to transport the tobaccos side by side to a chute (1203) and then to a carding area (1214). The levels of the tobaccos in the carding area are monitored and if one is too high then an appropriate flap (306,308) in the chute is opened and that type of tobacco is diverted and recycled to the hopper (1200) until the level of that tobacco in the carding area has returned to an acceptable level, whereupon said flap is closed and that type of tobacco is able to re-enter the carding area.

Abstract: Tobacco shreds are drawn from a magazine by a pneumatic conveyor pipe which delivers the shreds into the lower chamber of an air separator whose upper chamber is separated from the lower chamber by an air-permeable partition and is connected with the inlet of a suction generating device serving to draw an air stream through the pneumatic conveyor pipe. The velocity of the air stream in the pipe is maintained at a constant value by a flow restrictor which is installed in the inlet of the suction generating device and is adjustable by hand or by a servomotor receiving signals from a device which ascertains the velocity of air in the pipe by comparing the velocity of air in the second chamber with the velocity of air in the inlet of the suction generating device. The air separator has an outlet for periodical admission of batches of tobacco shreds from the first chamber into a duct which delivers the shreds into the distributor of a cigarette rod making machine.

Abstract: The distributor of a cigarette maker has an upwardly travelling conveyor which transports particles of tobacco past a rotating paddle wheel serving to remove the surplus of particles and to return the removed surplus into the magazine of the distributor. The paddle wheel is connected with a tachometer generator or is designed to actuate a switch in response to a reduction of its rotational speed and/or in response to deflection by one or more foreign objects in the mass of tobacco particles on the conveyor. The signal which is generated by the tachometer generator or in response to actuation of the switch entails a stoppage of the motor for the conveyor and/or of the motor for the paddle wheel.

Abstract: Cigarette manufacturing machine with an auxiliary recirculated tobacco feed unit communicating with a downward duct supplying the machine itself. An input conveyor on the auxiliary unit communicates with a tray located between an output on the conveyor itself and the said downward duct, the tray being located in an essentially horizontal plane and being, in cross section, of essentially constant width.A vibratory unit is connected to the tray for imparting vibration of variable amplitude between points on the same, depending on output signals supplied by means detecting the tobacco level inside the duct.

Abstract: A pneumatic conveyor draws particles of tobacco from a vibrating trough by causing an air stream to flow from its intake end, which is adjacent to the trough, to its intake end which is connected to a suction generating device. A cyclone separator is installed in the conveyor to segregate the particulate material from the air stream and to discharge such material into a duct which feeds the material by gravity to an intermittently operated cell wheel evacuator. The latter drops batches of particulate material into the magazine of the distributor in a cigarette rod making machine. The conveyor has an elongated diffusor which is disposed upstream of the cyclone separator to decelerate the air stream, and such diffusor is followed by an arcuate portion whose radius of curvature is greater than the radius of the cylindrical wall surrounding the chamber of the cyclone separator.

Abstract: This application describes various possible modifications in the cigarette machine hopper described in G.B. specification No. 2,045,595. In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, a concave member 126 around a carded roller 23 from which tobacco is removed by a picker roller 24 has a straight land 126A along which the tobacco is propelled by the picker roller.

Abstract: A fixed quantity feed apparatus which includes a feeding device for shaping various kinds of articles such as bean sprouts, various cut vegetables, spaghetti and noodles, into the form of belt and conveying them, a weighing device for detecting that the articles which are being conveyed by the feeding device have reached a predetermined weight, and a dividing-feeding device for splitting up the belt-shaped articles when the weighing device has detected the predetermined weight, wherein the articles are divided by the fixed weight and fed to a packing device or the like, while they are continuously conveyed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for controlling the operation of a cigarette maker to produce a cigarette rod having a predetermined moisture content. The moisture of the rod leaving the maker is sensed and the tobacco being input to the maker is treated as a function of the measured moisture content, in such a manner as to cause the output rod to have the desired moisture content. Preferably, other characteristics of the output rod, such as density and firmness, are also monitored, and are taken into account in controlling the treatment of the tobacco stream being input into the maker.

Abstract: This invention relates to an automatic control device adapted to regulate, without interruptions, cigarette-making process and in a substantially continuous way, the cut tobacco being re-circulated back to the distributor, as trimmed excess tobacco (S) from the uniform tobacco rod, formed in the pneumatic suction belt forming assembly (N) of a continuous cigarette-making machine. Said device substantially comprises a detector suction head (1), through which all of said trimmed excess tobacco (S) is passed pneumatically, in its path of suction re-circulation, from trimmer (R) of the belt (N) the distributor of the cut tobacco for the formation of the rod. Said detector suction head (1) is associated with a photo-cell sensor (4, 5) whose light beam is liable to be attenuated by the total flow of trimmed cut tobacco (S) sucked through said head.

Abstract: An apparatus for pneumatically feeding tobacco to a number of cigarette making machines having a plurality of conveyors. The conveyors feed tobacco onto a circular feed table where the tobacco is distributed to each of the cigarette machines. The table is arranged to convey the tobacco along a circular path around the vertical central axis of the table. The apparatus further includes a number of suction pipes which are circumferentially spaced with respect to the table and are arranged to pick up tobacco for delivery to respective cigarette making machines. Each cigarette making machine has a hopper for accumulating tobacco including detectors for detecting the quantity of accumulated tobacco. In addition, there is a drive mechanism associated with each pipe for moving each pipe substantially radially with respect to the table to control the rate at which tobacco is picked up from the table. Such control is responsive to the detectors.

Abstract: Shredded tobacco is supplied from a storage reservoir to one or more cigarette making machines by way of discrete pneumatic conveying pipes. The reservoir receives fresh tobacco at regular or irregular intervals so that the quantity of tobacco in its interior is constant. The contents of the reservoir are maintained in suspension so that at least the major part of the supply of tobacco shreds forms a fluidized bed which is located directly below the intakes of the conveying pipes. When a machine requires a batch of tobacco shreds, the respective pipe is connected to a suction generating device so that it draws air from the region between the underside of the fluidized bed and the upper side of the bottom wall of the reservoir whereby the ascending current of air entrains tobacco particles directly from the fluidized bed.

Abstract: The magazine of each of an entire battery of filter tipping machines receives filter rod sections by way of two discrete pneumatic conveyors whose inlets receive filter rod sections from discrete sources by way of pneumatic propelling units and whose outlets admit files of axially moving filter rod sections into discrete receiving units having devices for converting the files into rows and for forcibly feeding the rows into spaced-apart portions of the respective magazines below the upper surfaces of the supplies of filter rod sections in such magazines. Each propelling unit can be started or arrested independently of the associated propelling unit, and each receiving unit can feed filter rod sections at less than maximum capacity and/or intermittently.

Abstract: A hopper for a cigarette making machine includes an elevator, conveying means for conveying a carpet of tobacco towards the elevator, whereby the elevator carries upwards a stream of tobacco from the carpet, and a photoelectric or other position-sensing device mounted near the elevator at a position such that it detects upward movement of tobacco from the carpet in a vicinity adjacent to the elevator indicative of the start of rolling; and including means for temporarily stopping or reducing the speed of conveyance of the tobacco carpet towards the elevator to obviate the rolling condition.