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.
Claims19
A feed mechanism configured to feed objects for insertion into tobacco industry products, comprising:
- a rotary member, the rotary member having a plurality of sets of one or more channels configured such that in use objects are urged centrifugally through the channels;
- a first input configured to pass objects received therein into a first of said sets of channels;
- and
- a second input configured to pass objects received therein into a second of said sets of channels.
A method of feeding objects for insertion into tobacco industry products, comprising:
- guiding objects from a first input into a first set of one or more channels of a rotary member;
- guiding objects from a second input into a second set of one or more channels of the rotary member;
- and
- rotating the rotary member so that objects are urged centrifugally through the channels.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.