Method and apparatus for manufacturing of rods

An apparatus for the manufacturing of rods of a continuous material strand (2) comprising a feeding unit (3) for feeding the material strand (2), a guiding unit (6) for guiding the material strand (2), a compressing unit (7) for compressing the strand and forming a continuous rod (CR) of the material strand (2), and an object feeding unit (8, 51, 70) for feeding an object (9, 50, 75) to the compressing unit (7), the apparatus being adapted to feed three partial strands (a, b, c) of the material strand (2), whereas the partial strands (a, b, c) are fed through the guiding unit (6) to the compressing unit (7) characterised in that the object feeding unit (8, 51, 70) is adapted to insert the object (9, 50, 75) in the radial direction of the formed continuous rod (CR) into the compressing unit (7) between the partial strands (a, b, c);

• further characterised in that the object feeding unit (8, 70) is adapted to feed the object (9, 75) into the region of the compressing unit (7) by means of a feeding wheel (23, 77);
• and in that at least over a part of the length of the compressing unit (7) in the guiding unit (6) there is situated at least one separating element (27, 28, 29) to separate at least two partial strands (a, b, c).