GB1604790A

GB1604790A - Tobacco distributor

Info

Publication number: GB1604790A
Application number: GB2585378A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Dickinson Eng Ltd W H
Current assignee: Dickinson Eng Ltd W H
Priority date: 1978-05-31
Filing date: 1978-05-31
Publication date: 1981-12-16

Description

(54) TOBACCO DISTRIBUTOR (71) We, W. H. DICKINSON ENGINEER ING LIMITED, a British Company, of Moorside Road, Winchester, Hants. S023 7SS, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to devices for distributing tobacco to machines in which the tobacco is fabricated into smokers' articles such as cigarettes. It is particularly concerned with a device which is capable of distributing tobacco evenly amongst a number of such machines, even when some of the machines are not operating continuously or operate in such a way that they only require tobacco to be delivered to them intermittently.

A tobacco distributing device in accordance with the present invention comprises a generally circular vibratory tray; means for delivering tobacco onto the tray; rotary vibratory drive means for the tray arranged to convey tobacco in a circular path around the tray; a plurality of tobacco pick-up devices positioned around the periphery of the tray; and means for guiding the tobacco towards the inlet of each said pick-up devices.

Preferably, the pick-up means comprises open-ended pipes whose ends are positioned near the surface of the tray. The guide means preferably includes ramp extending upwardly from the surface of the tray, whose motion is preferably such as to cause the tobacco to "shuffle" up the ramps.

Preferably the guide means also includes outwardly extending flow dividers on the outer regions of the surface of the tray which channel portions of the tobacco "carpet" towards each of the individual pick-up pipes. In use, the tobacco forms an evenly distributed carpet in the central area, and then, as the motion of the tray causes it to move outwards, it is divided into segments íh3wing towards each pick-up pipe. If any particular pipe is not picking up tobacco, the tobacco reaching the respective ramp will pass over it and on to the next pick-up pipe.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic plan view of part of a system including a number of vibratory conveyors, for feeding cigarette-making machines from a number of storage silos; Figure 2 is a plan view of one of the vibratory conveyors of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a partial section on the line III-III of Figure 2; Figure 4 is a plan view of the drive mechanism of the conveyor, with the vibratory tray removed; and Figure 5 is a side elevation of the conveyor.

Figure 1 shows a tobacco distributing system including four identical tobacco feeding units A, B, C and D. The parts of the units will be described generally using basically the same reference numerals. In Figure 1 these reference numerals are used with the addition of a letter suffix corresponding to the reference letter of the unit of which they form a part.

Each unit has a storage silo 10 of known form. A linearly vibrating tray 12 feeds cut tobacco from the silo 10 to a vibratory conveyor in the form of a generally circular tray 14; the tray 12 extends approximately radially towards the tray 14 and has an oblique downstream edge 13 so that it delivers tobacco across the centre of the tray 14. A pneumatic feed pipe 16 is arranged to feed cut tobacco to a cigarette making machine (not shown). The feed pipe 16 has a number of branches forming conveyor pick-up pipes 18A to D which are arranged to pick-up tobacco from the corresponding tray 14. It will be understood that although, for the sake of clarity, only one feed pipe 16 is shown in Figure 1, there would in fact be several pneumatic feed pipes, one for each cigarette making machine being fed from the system.Each cigarette making machine may include, for example, a tobacco-receiving arrangement such as that shown in British Patent speci fication No. 1,192,177 or No. 1,396,273.

It will be further appreciated, that although four units, A, B, C and D are shown in Figure 1, there could be more or less units than this, depending on the number of blends being supplied. Each silo 10 may contain a different blend of tobacco.

There would be a sufficient number of pick-up pipes 18 associated with each of the pneumatic feed pipes 16 to the cigarette making machines to be able to pick-up tobacco from the tray 14 of any one of the units or possibly from two or more units simultaneously.

Figure 2 shows a vibratory tray 14 having, by way example, eight pick-up pipes spaced around the periphery which are respectively referenced 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7 and 18.8, arranged to pick-up tobacco from the tray. The pick-up pipes will be referred to generally by the reference 18.

In the example shown, the tobacco is decanted by the conveyor 12 onto an inverted cone 20 in the centre of the tray which helps to spread it uniformly outwardly towards the pick-up pipes 18.

Immediately surrounding the cone is a flat annular surface 22 which in turn is surrounded by an outer annular region 24 which is divided into separate segments by curved deflector walls 26. The deflector walls divide up the outwardly moving carpet of tobacco into separate sections for each pick-up pipe, directing it towards a respective ramp 28 at the foot of each pipe, the arrangement being such that the tobacco "shuffles" up the ramp under the influence of the rotary vibratory motion and into the mouth of the pick-up pipe, as shown in Figure 3. Each ramp has a serrated, somewhat steplike floor to assist this motion. It will be clearly seen from Figures 2 and 3 that if one of the pick-up pipes is not sucking up tobacco, the tobacco can pass right over the corresponding ramp and join the flow into the next pick-up pipe.

The sides 30 of the tray are preferably about 6 inches high and the normal depth of tobacco may be about 1.4 inches. The overall diameter of the tray is about 70 inches, and the maximum height of each ramp is about 3 inches and its angle about 10 .

The tray 14 is driven so as to vibrate substantially rotationally about its axis. One way of doing this is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5. A shaft 40 mounted in bearings 39 is driven from an electric motor 41 (e.g.

by a belt drive). Each end of the shaft 40 carries an eccentric 42 on which one end of a connecting rod 43 is pivotally attached: and the other end of each connecting rod is pivoted to a bracket 44 on the tray. Thus each eccentric, during rotation, moves the associated side of the tray cyclically towards and away from the shaft 40, e.g. through a distance of about one inch. The two eccentrics 42 are mounted on the shaft 1800 out of phase. Thus rotation of the shaft 40 causes the tray 14 to be oscillated in a circular fashion.

As can be seen from Figure 5, the tray 14 is supported by a number of pivoted links 46 equally spaced around the tray 14.

The bottom ends of the links 46 are carried by a chassis 50 which also carries the drive arrangement. The chassis 50 is carried on anti-vibration mountings 52. Each link 46, viewed in a radial direction (towards the centre of the tray), is inclined to the vertical in a direction such that the tray is lifted slightly during each rotational movement in a clockwise direction to produce a clockwise motion of tobacco around the tray.

As an alternative, the tray may be vibrated rotationally by means of only one connecting rod.

In order to control the feed of tobacco to the distributor, a detector such as a photocell level detector may be incorporated in a similar manner to the arrangement of our application No. 51679/74 (Patent No.

1 520 424). Alternatively a proximity switch type of detector may be used to detect the presence or absence of tobacco on the tray.

In either case, if there is a sufficient depth of tobacco remaining on the tray 14 the supply of tobacco to the tray 14 is stopped until the level on the tray 14 drops. The tray 12 may, when it is operating, deliver tobacco at a rate about 20% greater than the average rate at which tobacco is sucked off the tray 14.

The control circuitry connected to the detector preferably incorporates an averaging effect so that the feed to the tray 14 is not started up or shut down for short periods of time as a result of small hollows or humps in the flow of tobacco on the tray 14.

For example, the circuit would disregard signals from the detector which were of less than a predetermined minimum duration.

Referring again to Figure 1, each of the silos 10 may be supplied with a different blend of tobacco. Each pick-up pipe 18 incorporates a valve. Thus if, for example, it is desired to feed the cigarette making machine to which pipe 16 leads with the blend of tobacco in the silo 10B, the valves in pipes 18A, 18C and 18D are closed and the valve in pipe 18B left open. Selection of the appropriate valve combination thus allows any of the cigarette making machines to receive the blend of tobacco in any one of the silos 10.

As shown in Figure 5, the bottom 20 of the tray 14 is flat and horizontal. Alternatively, it could be slightly inclined (e.g. by about 3 degrees) so as to rise towards the outer circumference of the tray; by this means the natural tendency of the tobacco to move slowly can be at least partially countered.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. Apparatus for use in distributing tobacco, comprising a generally circular tray; means for delivering tobacco onto the tray; rotary vibratory drive means for the tray arranged to convey tobacco in a circular path around the tray; a plurality of tobacco pick-up devices positioned around the periphery of the tray; and means for guiding the tobacco towards the inlet of each said pick-up device.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the pick-up devices comprise openended pipes whose ends are positioned near the surface of the tray.

3. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which each guide means includes a ramp extending upwardly from the surface of the tray, and positioned upstream of the inlet of each pick-up pipe so as to present the tobacco to the inlet of the pipe.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 in which the surface of each ramp is serrated in a steplike manner to assist movement of tobacco up the ramp.

5. Apparatus according to any preceding claim in which the guide means include generally outwardly extending flow dividers on the outer regions of the surface of the tray which are arranged to channel portions of the tobacco "carpet" of the tray towards each of the individual pick-up devices.

6. Apparatus according to any preceding claim in which the tray is mounted on a number of spaced, upwardly extending links inclined slightly to the vertical so that reciprocation of the links causes rotary vibration of the tray about its axis which in turn causes tobacco on the tray to move around the tray.

7. Apparatus according to claim 6 in which the rotary vibration of fhe tray is produced by two connecting rods which are connected respectively to diametrically opposite portions of the tray and are connected to and driven respectively by eccentrics 1800 out of phase with one another.

8. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7 in which in use the tobacco is delivered onto the centre of the annular tray by a linearly vibrating tray which extends approximately radially towards the annular tray.

9. A tobacco feed system including a number of feed pipes for use in delivering tobacco to different cigarette making machines, each pipe having a plurality of branches forming pick-up pipes of a number of tobacco distributing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. Apparatus according to claim 1 and substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. means the natural tendency of the tobacco to move slowly can be at least partially countered. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. Apparatus for use in distributing tobacco, comprising a generally circular tray; means for delivering tobacco onto the tray; rotary vibratory drive means for the tray arranged to convey tobacco in a circular path around the tray; a plurality of tobacco pick-up devices positioned around the periphery of the tray; and means for guiding the tobacco towards the inlet of each said pick-up device.