Bead feed unit and method
AssigneeAltria Client Services LLC
InventorsDwight David Williams, Charles David Howe
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bead delivery disk, system and method of delivering flavor beads to a tobacco rod or tow including a bead source, a bead delivery disk in communication with the bead source, including a central disk portion having front and back sides and a first central thickness, an inner annular rim around the central disk portion, the inner annular rim having a second thickness less than said first thickness, a series of pockets spaced around the inner annular rim and multiple vacuum transmission apertures located on one side of the disk, each aperture communicating with at least one of the pockets.
Claims18
A bead delivery system comprising:
- a bead delivery disk including,
- a central disk portion having a first side and a second side,
- an inner annular rim around the central disk portion, the inner annular rim between the first side and the second side, the inner annular rim offset in a perpendicular direction from the first side and the second side,
- a plurality of pockets defined in the inner annular rim,
- a plurality of apertures on the first side of the central disk portion, each of the plurality of apertures fluidly communicating with at least one of the plurality of pockets, and
- an outer annular rim around a periphery of the inner annular rim,
- wherein,
- the outer annular rim extends outward from an exterior surface of the inner annular rim,
- a thickness of the outer annular rim is less than a thickness of the inner annular rim, and
- the bead delivery disk is configure to pick up a plurality of beads, each of the plurality of beads defines a nominal diameter greater than the thickness of the outer annular rim and less than the thickness of the inner annular rim.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.