GB404354A - A new or improved method of and means for making cigarettes - Google Patents

Abstract

404,354. Cigarette-making machines ; cigarettes. MOLINS, W. E., 2, Evelyn Street, Deptford, London. July 15, 1932, No. 20051. [Class 130.] A method of manufacturing plugged-end cigarettes consists in feeding double length plugs in succession to a point between two parallel rows of cigarettes having hollow ends (or loosely filled cigarettes) and assembling the axially aligned plug and two cigarettes, for instance by axial pressure, and then cutting the plug to secure two plugged cigarettes. The cigarettes may be cut from a continuous rod having periodical gaps, as described in Specifications 372,088 and 373,745. The length of plug material employed may consist of crepe or crinkled paper, shredded wood, cottonwool or similar absorbent material and may be made in a machine similar to a continuous-rod cigarette machine. In the machine shown, pieces of plug material 1 of a length suitable for six plugs are fed from a hopper 2, having a vibrating bottom plate 3 and a knurled co-operating roller 5, to a fluted drum 4. The hopper is described in Specification 209,487, [Class 94 (i), Packing &c.]. Rotary knives 8, sharpened by grinding discs 9 and co-operating with circumferential slits in the drum 4, cut each length of plug material into three doublelength plugs, which are delivered to the flutes of a drum 11 running at a higher peripheral speed than the drum 4. A shield 10 for the drum 4 is stopped at the lower end, as shown in Fig. 7, so that the three double-length plugs fall into three consecutive flutes on the drum 11. By means of a shroud 12 on the drum 11, connected by a pipe 13 to a pump, compressed air blows all the plugs along the flutes and against one side of the shroud, bringing them all into line with a subsequent fluted rotary disc 20, Figs. 1 and 3. While the plugs are in the flutes of the disc 20, the ends of the plugs are coned or pressed to star or other shape by dies 26 carried by pressers 24 sliding on rods 23 and actuated by cam tracks 25a on fixed drums 27. At the point 27a, Fig. 1, the plugs are transferred by a forked plate 29 and a guide 18 to a fluted rotary disc 28 between a pair of fluted drums (not shown) to which cigarettes are deflected from the endless tape 45 of a cigarette machine over a bridge 50 by a rotating vaned deflector 48. Gum is applied to the plugs by a roller 30 working in a slot of a gum foot 31 connected to a gum pot 32, and a pair of cigarettes is pressed endwise upon a plug by a pair of cam-actuated pressers similar to the pressers 24, Fig. 3. A rotating knife 42, furnished with grinding discs 43, cuts through the middle of the plug, and the two finished cigarettes are delivered upon a belt 49. Instead of gumming the plugs, they may be compressed and allowed to expand, for instance by slitting them as shown in Fig. 14 or Fig. 16. When the plugs are made in a continuous-rod machine, they may have their wrappers slit immediately before insertion in the cigarettes.