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AssigneeBritish American Tobacco (Investments) Limited
InventorsAndrew Jonathan BRAY, Sam WHIFFEN, Gerhard LE ROUX
Estimating the term…
An apparatus for use in the manufacture of tobacco industry products. The apparatus including a rotatable drum having a plurality of flutes formed in a curved outer surface of the drum to receive axially-aligned components of a tobacco industry product, a roll hand having a contact surface facing and spaced from the outer surface of the drum to define a space, between the contact surface and the outer surface, within which space components of a tobacco industry product are rollable upon rotation of the drum, and a kicker bar disposed adjacent to the roll hand and having a contact edge facing and spaced from the outer surface of the drum, where at least one of the roll hand contact surface, kicker bar contact edge and drum outer surface includes a groove extending in a substantially circumferential direction of the drum and configured to least partially receive one or more of the tobacco industry product components as the drum rotates.
An apparatus for manufacture of tobacco industry products, the apparatus comprising a rolling unit comprising:
A method of manufacturing tobacco industry products, comprising use of apparatus for manufacturing tobacco industry products, the apparatus comprising a rolling unit having a rotatable drum having a plurality of flutes extending in an axial direction of the drum and spaced circumferentially around a curved outer surface of the drum, the flutes being formed in a curved outer surface of the drum, a roll hand having a contact surface facing and spaced from the outer surface of the drum to define a space between the contact surface and the outer surface within which space components of a tobacco industry product are rollable across the contact surface upon rotation of the drum, and a kicker bar disposed adjacent to the roll hand and having a contact edge facing and spaced from the outer surface of the drum, the curved drum outer surface including a groove extending in a substantially circumferential direction of the drum between the circumferentially adjacent flutes, the method comprising transferring a plurality of components of tobacco industry products to the drum, receiving the plurality of components in axial alignment in the flutes, rotating the drum relative to the kicker bar and roll hand so that the components of the tobacco industry products engage the kicker bar and roll hand, and at least one of the components of the tobacco industry products being at least partially received in the groove as the drum rotates.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.