Apparatus and method for forming and packaging molded tobacco
AssigneePhilip Morris USA Inc.
InventorsShannon Black, Andrew Nathan Carroll, Tom Holland
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for molding and packaging molded tobacco pieces includes a mold having cavities oriented to allow ejection of molded tobacco pieces into a container. The apparatus also includes a knockout for ejecting the molded tobacco pieces, and a cutter having at least two blades for cutting the molded tobacco pieces into vertically aligned slices by passing one or more blades horizontally through the cavities.
Claims14
An apparatus for packaging molded tobacco pieces, comprising:
- a mold having cavities oriented to allow ejection of molded tobacco pieces directly into a container, the cavities having sidewalls defined by openings in a mold plate and a bottom wall defined by a back plate;
- a knockout operable to eject the molded tobacco pieces from the cavities into the container when either the mold plate or the back plate is moved to a position allowing the molded pieces to pass through the mold plate;
- and
- wherein said mold plate includes multiple partially connected layers, which are separated by slits, and wherein the cavities in each layer are vertically aligned with cavities in other layers.
An apparatus for packaging molded tobacco pieces, comprising:
- a mold having cavities oriented to allow ejection of molded tobacco pieces directly into a container, the cavities having sidewalls defined by openings in a mold plate and a bottom wall defined by a back plate;
- a knockout operable to eject the molded tobacco pieces from the cavities into the container when the mold plate is moved to a position allowing the molded pieces to pass through the mold plate;
- and
- a cutter having at least two blades configured to cut the molded tobacco pieces into vertically aligned slices by passing the blades horizontally through the cavities.
An apparatus for packaging molded tobacco pieces, comprising:
- a mold having cavities oriented to allow ejection of molded tobacco pieces directly into a container, the cavities having sidewalls defined by openings in a mold plate and a bottom wall defined by a back plate;
- a knockout operable to eject the molded tobacco pieces from the cavities into the container when the mold plate is moved to a position allowing the molded pieces to pass through the mold plate;
- and
- wherein the mold plate is arranged to deposit a first layer of molded tobacco pieces in the container, a second mold plate is arranged to deposit a second layer of molded tobacco pieces on the first layer and a third mold plate is arranged to deposit a third layer of molded tobacco pieces on the second layer in the container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.