Method and apparatus to feed and form organized groups of smoking articles

An apparatus to feed and form organized groups of smoking articles, wherein said apparatus comprises:

• a transfer conveyor with pockets moved step-wise and provided with a plurality of pockets,
• forming drawers associated with said pockets,
• a plurality of thrusters configured to be actuated independently from each other, in order to thrust said organized groups of smoking articles, thus feeding said groups of smoking articles, in a direction of transfer and through respective forming drawers, into said pockets on the basis of a predefined production rhythm,
• an electronic system controller configured for commanding and controlling a variation of an operating speed of the plurality of thrusters, the variation of the operating speed arranged to, in the event of an obstruction, stoppage or blockage creating a blocked forming drawer, vary the operating speed of thrusters associated with one or more unblocked forming drawers so as to vary the operating speed at which the organized groups are fed and transferred by the thrusters to the unblocked forming drawers in coordination and in synchrony with the step-wise feed speed of said transfer conveyor, thereby obtaining an effective production rhythm equal or near to said predefined production rhythm.

A method to feed and form organized groups of smoking articles, comprising:

• providing a transfer conveyor having a plurality of pockets;
• arranging the transfer conveyer to move the pockets in steps at a step-wise speed;
• feeding the plurality of pockets using thrusters to thrust the organized groups in a direction of transfer through associated forming drawers;
• arranging the thrusters to be actuated independently from each other;
• moving the organized groups into the pockets on the basis of a predefined production rhythm;
• and
• in the event of a blocked forming drawer, varying an operating speed of the thrusters associated with one or more unblocked forming drawers in coordination with and in synchrony with the step-wise feed speed of the transfer conveyor;
• providing each forming drawer with a sensor, and wherein the sensor in the blocked forming drawer generates a signal;
• starting a cleaning cycle for the blocked forming drawer in response to the signal being received by an electronic system controller;
• and
• wherein each of said forming drawers has an upper wall and a bottom wall, and wherein, in a first condition of use, each of said forming drawers operates to transfer the organized groups in a direction of transfer from a feed location to the pockets of the transfer conveyor, and wherein said cleaning cycle activates a second maintenance condition of said transfer device in which the upper wall of the blocked forming drawer is kept in a fixed position and at least the bottom wall of the blocked forming drawer is automatically opened to allow the removal of a blockage from the blocked forming drawer.