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AssigneeDecoufle S.A.R.L.
InventorJacquest Chatelet
Estimating the term…
A conveyor for testing successive plain or filter cigarettes or other rod-shaped smokers' products having non-circular (such as oval) cross-sectional outlines employs a rotary drum-shaped conveyor for sidewise transport of smokers' products toward, through and beyond a station where the products are tested by streams of a gaseous fluid entering the products at one axial end and issuing from satisfactory products at the other axial end. The end portions of the products are sealingly received in complementary sockets of elastically deformable sealing sleeves which are connected to their tubular fluid-conveying carriers in a manner to ensure that each sleeve remains in a selected position for optimum testing of the products. For example, each sleeve can be form-lockingly coupled to its carrier in such a way that the sleeve is held against any appreciable angular and/or axial movement relative to the carrier when the conveyor transports smokers' products but that the sleeve can be detached from the carrier, in response to adequate deformation, for the purpose of inspection, cleaning and/or replacement.
A sealing sleeve for non-circular end portions of rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry which advance with elongated tubular carriers on a rotary conveyor past a pneumatic testing station, comprising an at least partly resilient body having at least one annular portion surrounding, securing and form-lockingly engaging at least one tubular section of a carrier to thus maintain the sleeve in a predetermined position relative to the carrier and relative to an end portion of an article being tested, wherein said at least one annular portion has an internal profile which has a rotationally asymmetrical circumferential surface which is complementary to an external profile of the respective carrier to thus hold the sleeve against movement relative to the carrier in both the circumferential and longitudinal directions.
A pneumatic testing apparatus for elongated rod-shaped smokers' products having non-circular cross-sectional outlines, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.