Cone staging apparatus and related methods

A cone staging apparatus for production of smoking articles, comprising:

• a. a frame;
• b. a cone pallet releasably supported by the frame, the cone pallet including a plurality of cavities, each cavity having an open upper end for receiving a cone therein;
• and
• c. a cone magazine disposed above the cone pallet, the cone magazine including a plurality of tubes, each tube for holding a stack of the cones, the magazine further including a plurality of escapements each at a lower end of a respective tube for dispensing the cones one-by-one from a bottom of a respective stack, each escapement in alignment with an open upper end of a respective cavity;
• and
• d. a vacuum source in fluid communication with the escapements through respective cavities for applying a suction force to draw the bottom-most cone from each stack downward through the escapements and into the respective cavities, and wherein the plurality of escapements are configured so that the cones drawn from each of the respective stacks all move in the same direction through the respective escapements downward and into the respective cavities.

A cone staging apparatus for production of smoking articles, comprising:

• a. a frame;
• b. a cone pallet releasably supported by the frame, the cone pallet including a plurality of cavities, each cavity having an open upper end for receiving a cone therein;
• c. a cone magazine adjacent the frame for holding a supply of cones, the cone magazine including at least one escapement alignable over the open upper end of a respective cavity of the cone pallet to facilitate transferring a single cone from the supply of cones to the respective cavity, wherein the single cone is, prior to transfer, a lowermost cone of the supply of cones, and the escapement is configured to apply a retaining force against the lowermost cone to prevent unwanted release of the lowermost cone from the supply of cones;
• and
• d. an actuator for applying a transfer force on the single cone to urge the single cone past the escapement and into position in the respective cavity, wherein the actuator comprises a vacuum source in fluid communication with the escapement via the respective cavity, the vacuum source applying the transfer force in the form of suction, wherein each cavity includes an open lower end opposite the open upper end, wherein the vacuum source is in fluid communication with the open lower end, and wherein the frame comprises a housing having a chamber for providing fluid communication between the vacuum source and the open lower end of each cavity.