Process and apparatus for producing (cigarette) packs

A process for producing cigarette packs having as their pack contents a cigarette block, the cigarette block including a cigarette group and a wrapper made of heat-sealable film that completely surrounds the cigarette group, with a U-shaped supporting insert being arranged within the cigarette block and covering the front side of the cigarette group with a front wall and the side surfaces of the cigarette group with side tabs, the process comprising the following steps:

• transporting the cigarette group through a plurality of stations along a rectilinear pack path until the cigarette block is completed;
• feeding a blank for the supporting insert in a push-in station, wherein the blank for the supporting insert is fed transverse to the pack path and to a first folding turret in the region of the pack path, the blank folded into a U-shape in a pocket of the first folding turret;
• inserting into the pocket of the first folding turret a cigarette group in the conveying direction of the pack path;
• feeding along the pack path the cigarette group and supporting insert, wherein upon being pushed out of the first folding turret as a unit, the cigarette group and supporting insert are fed along the pack path to a blank station in whose region a wrapper blank for the wrapper is first folded around the unit of the cigarette group and supporting insert, forming the cigarette block;
• transporting through a sealing turret the cigarette block, in which folding tabs of the wrapper are joined by heat-sealing;
• and
• feeding from the sealing turret the finished cigarette blocks along the pack path to a second folding turret for the production of the cigarette pack.