Conveying and forming method and apparatus for forming a stream of tobacco industry segments

A method of forming at least one stream (S) of the tobacco industry segments (A), comprising steps wherein

• a group (G) of segments (A) is conveyed in a coaxial configuration of the segments (A) in the first flutes (4) of the first drum conveyor (2), the first flutes (4) being arranged with the first pitch (t1),
• the group (G) of the segments (A) is transferred to the second flute (9) of the second drum conveyor (8),
• the group (G) is conveyed in the second flute (9) of the second drum conveyor (8) while maintaining the coaxial configuration of the segments (A), the second pitch (t2) of the second flutes (9) of the second drum conveyor (8) being greater than the first pitch (t1) of the first flutes (4) of the first drum conveyor (2),
• the segments (A) of the group (G) from the second flute (9) of the second drum conveyor (8) are transferred to the third flutes (12) of the separating discs (11) of the third conveyor (10) and the configuration of the segments (A) in the group (G) is changed to the non-coaxial spiral configuration,
• the group (G) of the segments (A) in the non-coaxial spiral configuration is conveyed on the third conveyor (10) provided with separating discs (11), the third flutes (12) of the separating disc (11) being arranged with the third pitch (t3),
• the segments (A) are transferred to the fourth flutes (14) of the fourth drum conveyor (13) in the non-coaxial spiral configuration,
• the segments (A) are conveyed in the fourth flutes (14) of the fourth drum conveyor (13) in the non-coaxial spiral configuration,
• the segments (A) are aligned on the fourth drum conveyor (13) by means of the aligning mechanism (16) by shifting the segments (A) axially in the fourth flutes (14) in a direction parallel to the rotation axis (n) of the fourth drum conveyor (13) so as to change the non-coaxial spiral configuration on the circumferential surface (15) of the drum conveyor (13) to the circular configuration, thus forming at least one stream (S) of the segments (A).