Smoking article dispenser
AssigneeBritish American Tobacco (Investments) Limited
InventorsChris Houghton, Ian Mckinnon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A dispenser comprises a housing defining a chamber to receive a charge of smoking articles coupled by a belt and such that the longitudinal axis of each smoking article extends between first and second ends of die housing. The dispenser includes a mechanism to advance the belt in a lateral direction so as to move a smoking article of the belt into alignment with an aperture in said first end of the housing. The mechanism is also operable to push said aligned smoking article from the belt and eject it in a longitudinal direction from the housing through said aperture. A belt for use in such a dispense!, and a method of filling such a dispenser.
Claims33
A dispenser comprising:
- a housing, the housing defining a chamber to receive a charge of smoking articles coupled by a continuous belt wherein the longitudinal axis of each smoking article extends between first and second ends of the housing, and a mechanism to advance the belt in a lateral direction to move a smoking article of the belt into alignment with an aperture in said first end of the housing, said mechanism including a belt drive wheel rotatably mounted to the second end of the housing and extending upwardly within the chamber towards said first end, the belt drive wheel including a plurality of radially extending elements to engage smoking articles held in the belt to advance the belt, the mechanism also being operable to push the aligned smoking article from the belt and eject it in a longitudinal direction from the housing through said aperture.
A belt to receive a charge of smoking articles comprising an endless belt of first and second material layers permanently connected to each other at spaced locations along the length of the belt to define a series of sleeves each sleeve extending in a direction across the width of the belt, each sleeve configured to receive a single smoking article wherein the belt is folded following insertion of a charge of smoking articles to form at least one of a bundle and a cartridge of smoking articles, and wherein adjacent material layers of the bundle are releasably joined at discrete locations to retain the smoking articles in bundled form.
A method of filling a dispenser with a belt of smoking articles, the dispenser comprising a housing defining a chamber to receive a charge of smoking articles coupled by a continuous belt, wherein the longitudinal axis of each smoking article extends between first and second ends of the housing, and a mechanism to advance the belt in a lateral direction to move a smoking article off the belt into alignment with an aperture in said first end of the housing, said mechanism including a belt drive wheel rotatably mounted to the second end of the housing and extending upwardly within the chamber towards said first end, the belt drive wheel including a plurality of radially extending elements to engage smoking articles held in the belt to advance the belt, the mechanism also being operable to push the aligned smoking article from the belt and eject it in a longitudinal direction from the housing through said aperture, the belt comprising an endless belt of first and second material layers permanently connected to each other at spaced locations along the length of the belt to define a series of sleeves each sleeve extending in a direction across the width of the belt, each sleeve able to receive a single smoking article wherein the belt is folded following insertion of the charge of smoking articles to form at least one of a bundle and a cartridge of smoking articles, and wherein adjacent material layers of the bundle are releasably joined at discrete locations to retain the smoking articles in bundled form, comprising opening the housing and inserting a bundle of cigarettes into the chamber.
A method of using a dispenser, the dispenser comprising a housing defining a chamber to receive a charge of smoking articles coupled by a continuous belt and wherein the longitudinal axis of each smoking article extends between first and second ends of the housing, and a mechanism to advance the belt in a lateral direction to move a smoking article off the belt into alignment with an aperture in said first end of the housing, said mechanism including a belt drive wheel rotatably mounted to the second end of the housing and extending upwardly within the chamber towards said first end, the belt drive wheel including a plurality of radially extending elements to engage smoking articles held in the belt to advance the belt, the mechanism also being operable to push the aligned smoking article from the belt and eject it in a longitudinal direction from the housing through said aperture, comprising sliding an actuator in a direction towards the top end of the housing to initially rotate the drive wheel so at least one of the plurality of radially extending elements on the drive wheel engages a smoking article to move a leading smoking article into alignment with an aperture in said top end and to push said leading smoking article out of said housing through said aperture.
A smoking article dispenser comprising:
- a dispenser housing to receive a smoking article cartridge;
- a smoking article dispensing aperture formed in the surface of the dispenser housing;
- a cartridge advancement mechanism that comprises a plurality of surface-engagable elements to facilitate advancing cartridge position and dispensing smoking articles from the smoking article cartridge when a user-operable element is actuated;
- wherein the plurality of surface-engagable elements are configured to urge a drive wheel that advances smoking articles from the smoking article cartridge within the dispenser housing into alignment for dispensing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.