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US 8,602,068 B2Granted
Method and apparatus for pouching tobacco having a high moisture content
AssigneePhilip Morris USA Inc.
InventorDwight D. Williams
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for dispensing charges of high OV moist smokeless tobacco (MST) includes a rotary metering device. The rotary metering device includes a lower disk, a metering disk, a plurality of cavities in the metering disk; and at least one vacuum housing located around the periphery of the lower disk and in communication with the plurality of cavities. A vacuum is applied to the cavities to aid in the filling of the cavities and an air discharge mechanism ejects a charge of the MST from each cavity at a discharge station.
Claims27
An apparatus for dispensing a charge of moist smokeless tobacco (MST), said apparatus comprising:
- a rotary metering device, said rotary metering device comprising:
- a rotatable lower disk, said lower disk comprising a plurality of through openings;
- a rotatable metering disk comprising a plurality of through openings aligned with the plurality of through openings in the lower disk so as to define a plurality of cavities;
- pins mounted in the through openings of the lower disk and extending into the through openings of the metering disk, said pins having an upper screen defining bottoms of the plurality of cavities within the metering disk;
- a vacuum source supplying a vacuum force to the cavities during loading of the cavities;
- a reservoir above the metering disk supplying MST to the cavities during loading of the cavities;
- an air discharge mechanism applying a blast of compressed air to each of the cavities when at a discharge station to eject a charge of MST therefrom;
- and
- an overlying feed tube positioned at a discharge station, the overlying feed tube comprising at least one pressure release hole and a rotatable closure ring having an aperture operable to adjust a size of an opening and closure of the at least one pressure release hole, wherein the feed tube delivers the charge of MST from a cavity in the rotary metering device to a pouching apparatus.
6 more elements
An apparatus for dispensing a charge of moist smokeless tobacco (MST), said apparatus comprising:
- a rotary metering device, said rotary metering device comprising:
- a rotatable lower disk, said lower disk comprising a plurality of through openings;
- a rotatable metering disk comprising a plurality of through openings aligned with the plurality of through openings in the lower disk so as to define a plurality of cavities;
- pins mounted in the through openings of the lower disk and extending into the through openings of the metering disk, said pins having an upper screen defining bottoms of the plurality of cavities within the metering disk;
- a vacuum source supplying a vacuum force to the cavities during loading of the cavities;
- a reservoir above the metering disk supplying MST to the cavities during loading of the cavities;
- an air discharge mechanism applying a blast of compressed air to each of the cavities when at a discharge station to eject a charge of MST therefrom;
- and
- a discharge opening and a feed tube positioned at a discharge station at which the air discharge mechanism delivers the charge of MST from a cavity in the rotary metering device to a pouching apparatus, and wherein the feed tube comprises at least one pressure release hole and a rotatable closure ring having an aperture to adjust a size of an opening and closure of the at least one pressure release hole.
6 more elements
A method of supplying charges of moist smokeless tobacco comprising:
- loading a charge of moist smokeless tobacco (MST) into a cavity in a rotatable metering disk;
- applying a vacuum to the cavity so as to substantially fill the cavity as the cavity rotates to a discharge station;
- removing the MST from the cavity at the discharge station by applying a blast of compressed air to the cavity when at a discharge station to eject a charge of MST therefrom to an overlying feed tube positioned at the discharge station;
- and
- controlling a distribution of the MST within an oral pouch by adjusting an aperture of at least one pressure release hole within the feed tube.
2 more elements
A method of dosing a tacky material, comprising:
- moving a metering cavity along a path;
- loading said moving metering cavity with said tacky material by communicating said metering cavity with said tacky material along a first path portion while simultaneously communicating a vacuum of less than 1 inch mercury to said metering cavity through a screen;
- discharging said tacky material from said metering cavity by moving said cavity beyond said first path portion to a discharge location so as to discontinue communication of said vacuum and to communicate a pulse of compressed air with said metering cavity through said screen;
- ejecting the charge of MST from the metering cavity with the pulse of compressed air to an overlying metering tube positioned at the discharge location;
- and
- controlling a distribution of the charge of MST by adjusting an aperture of at least one pressure release hole within the overlying metering tube.
3 more elements
An apparatus for repetitively dispensing a charge of material into a pouching apparatus, comprising:
- a loading arrangement that moves a metering cavity along a path while communicating the metering cavity with a material along a first path portion while simultaneously communicating a vacuum of less than 1 inch mercury to the metering cavity through a screen;
- a discharge arrangement that discharges the material from the metering cavity by moving the cavity beyond the first path portion to a discharge location so as to discontinue communication of the vacuum and to communicate a pulse of compressed air with the metering cavity through the screen;
- an overlying metering tube positioned at the discharge arrangement, the overlying metering tube comprising at least one pressure release hole and a rotatable closure ring having an aperture operable to adjust a size of an opening and closure of the at least one pressure release hole, wherein the pulse of compressed air delivers the charge of material from the metering cavity to the metering tube, which is in communication with the pouching apparatus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.