Method of and apparatus for making rod-shaped smokers' articles with dense ends
AssigneeKorber AG
InventorUwe Holznagel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Longitudinally spaced-apart portions of a tobacco stream in a cigarette maker are densified and the stream is then draped into a web of cigarette paper prior to being severed across the densified portions to yield a succession of plain cigarettes each having two dense ends. The characteristics of both ends of some or all of the cigarettes are monitored independently of each other and the resulting signals are totalized and thereupon compared to indicate the extent of deviation of the quality of one dense end from the other dense end. If the deviation exceeds a selected threshold value, the densifying station is shifted nearer to or further away from the severing station so as to eliminate or reduce the differences.
Claims14
A method of making rod-shaped smokers' articles, comprising the steps of forming a continuous stream of smokable fibrous material and advancing the stream longitudinally in a predetermined direction along an elongated path;
- densifying longitudinally spaced-apart portions of the stream at a condensing location in said path;
- draping the densified stream into a web of wrapping material;
- severing the draped stream across the densified portions in a predetermined portion of said path so that the draped stream yields a series of rod-shaped articles each having a fibrous filler with first and second densified end portions;
- testing at least some of the articles including separately monitoring the characteristics of the first and second end portions of the articles and comparing the monitored characteristics of the first and second end portions of tested articles;
- and shifting the condensing location with reference to said predetermined portion in the longitudinal direction of the path when the characteristics of the first end portions of tested articles deviate to a predetermined extent from the characteristics of the respective second end portions.
Apparatus for making rod-shaped smokers' articles, comprising means for forming a continuous stream of smokable fibrous material;
- means for advancing the stream longitudinally in a predetermined direction along an elongated path;
- means for densifying longitudinally spaced-apart portions of the stream at a condensing location in said path;
- means for draping the densified stream into a web of wrapping material downstream of said location;
- means for severing the draped stream across the densified portions in a predetermined portion of said path so that the stream yields a series of rod-shaped articles each having a fibrous filler with first and second densified end portions;
- testing means including means for separately monitoring the characteristics of the first and second end portions of at least some of the articles and for generating first and second signals respectively denoting the monitored characteristics of the first and second end portions, and means for processing said signals including means for comparing the first and second signals;
- and means for shifting said densifying means longitudinally of said path in response to said signals when the characteristics of the second end portions deviate from the characteristics of the respective first end portions of tested articles to a predetermined extent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.