Apparatus and method for detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes
AssigneeTEWS Elektronik Dipl.-Ing. Manfred Tews
InventorsRainer Herrmann, Udo Schlemm, Hendrik Richter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus and method for detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes in a production/packaging installation for cigarettes having an apparatus by means of which faulty cigarettes are segregated from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes, wherein the apparatus and method use a generator and evaluation circuits for radio-frequency electromagnetic fields and use a sensor past whose end surface the ends of the cigarettes are passed and which applies the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to the end surface of the sensor, whose size corresponds approximately to the size of the end surface of the cigarettes, with the changes in the electromagnetic fields as a cigarette passes being evaluated.
Claims21
An apparatus for detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes from a conveyed sequence of cigarettes, each cigarette having a generally cylindrical shape extending between opposite longitudinal ends, each longitudinal end having a cigarette end surface of a first diameter, said apparatus located in a production/packaging installation for cigarettes that includes an ejector which segregates faulty cigarettes from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes, said apparatus comprising:
- a radio-frequency generator;
- a sensor having a sensor end face and operatively connected to said radio-frequency generator so that a radio-frequency electromagnetic field having a second diameter is present adjacent said sensor end face, said second diameter being approximately same as said first diameter;
- an evaluation circuit connected to detect and evaluate changes in said radio-frequency electromagnetic field;
- said sensor end surface positioned so that the longitudinal end of each cigarette being evaluated passes through said radio-frequency electromagnetic field with the end surface generally parallel with the sensor end face and in a direction generally parallel with said sensor end face, said evaluation circuit detecting changes in said radio-frequency electromagnetic field corresponding to a faulty cigarette and providing a signal to the ejector to segregate the faulty cigarette from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes.
An apparatus for detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes from a conveyed sequence of cigarettes, each cigarette having a generally cylindrical shape with a longitudinal axis extending between opposite longitudinal ends, each longitudinal end having a cigarette end surface of a first diameter, said apparatus located in a production/packaging installation for cigarettes that includes an ejector which segregates faulty cigarettes from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes, said apparatus comprising:
- a coaxial microwave resonator defining a resonator cavity with a longitudinal axis, said resonator has a sensor end face and is operatively connected to a radio-frequency generator to generate a microwave field having a second diameter adjacent said sensor end face, said second diameter being approximately same as said first diameter, said sensor end face arranged so that the longitudinal end of cigarettes being evaluated pass through said microwave field with the cigarette end surface generally parallel with said sensor end face and in a direction generally parallel with said end face;
- and
- an evaluation circuit connected to detect and evaluate changes in said microwave field,
- wherein said microwave field is substantially homogeneous at least over said first diameter in two dimensions at right angles to the cigarette longitudinal axis and changes in said microwave field corresponding to a faulty cigarette result in segregation of the faulty cigarette from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.