Apparatus for severing rod-shaped smokers' products

Abstract

Filter rod portions in the flutes of a rotating drum are severed by a rotary disk-shaped knife to yield shorter sections which are used for the making of filter cigarettes. During severing, the filter rod portions are flexed by stationary components to produce tensional stresses in those parts of filter rod portions which move into the range of the knife. This enables the knife to make a clean cut and to become immediately separated from the shorter sections. The stationary components may include annular members which urge the outer parts of successive filter rod portions against sloping portions of bottom surfaces of the respective flutes. If the depth of the flutes is constant, the components further include stationary cams which extend into circumferential grooves of the drum and lift the central parts of successive filter rod portions out of the adjacent portions of the flutes during travel past the knife.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.