Feed mechanism
AssigneeTobacco Research and Development Institute (Proprietary) Limited
InventorGerhard Le Roux
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A feed mechanism to feed objects for insertion into tobacco industry products including a rotary member for receiving objects, the rotary member having a plurality of channels, each channel being adapted so that in use objects assemble in a row in the channel which rotates with the rotary member, each channel having an outlet for dispensing an object from the channel, and a pneumatic mechanism configured to hold an object in a row prior to the object being dispensed.
Claims20
A feed mechanism to feed objects for insertion into tobacco industry products, the feed mechanism comprising:
- a rotary disk for receiving objects, the rotary disk having a first axis of rotation and including a plurality of channels that rotate with the rotary disk about said first axis of rotation, wherein, in use, objects are urged centrifugally through said channels;
- and
- a delivery wheel comprising object-receiving pockets for receiving objects dispensed from said channels;
- wherein one or more of said channels deviates from a radial path;
- wherein a first angular separation between inlets of two neighboring channels measured from the first axis of rotation is greater than a second angular separation between corresponding outlets of said two neighboring channels measured from the first axis of rotation;
- and
- wherein the objects urged through said two neighboring channels are inserted into the tobacco industry product in close succession in correspondence with the second angular separation between the corresponding outlets.
Method of feeding objects for insertion into tobacco industry products, comprising:
- rotating a rotary disk so as to urge objects centrifugally through a plurality of channels which rotate with the rotary disk;
- guiding the objects through the channels so that an angular separation between objects changes as objects pass through neighbouring channels;
- receiving objects dispensed from said channels in object-receiving pockets of a delivery wheel;
- wherein a first angular separation between the objects as they pass through inlets of two neighboring channels measured from a first axis of rotation is greater than a second angular separation between the objects as they pass through corresponding outlets of said two neighboring channels measured from the first axis of rotation;
- wherein the objects urged through said two neighboring channels are inserted into the tobacco industry product in close succession in correspondence with the second angular separation between the corresponding outlets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.