GB1364847A - Manufacture of cigarette paper tubes - Google Patents

Abstract

1364847 Forming and banding cigarette spills BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CORP 28 July 1971 [29 July 1970] 35433/71 Heading B8C [Also in Division F2] In an apparatus for forming and bundling cigarette spills, in which a web 36 is formed into a tube 44 about a rod 124 and is then cut by a knife 150 to form spills 52 which are longitudinally separated and fed to a collecting conveyer 58 by means of a conveyer 54, the spills on the collecting conveyer 58 are formed into groups by a retractable gate 60 and are fed to a mechanism 64 for bundling and banding. The web 36 of cigarette paper may be pre-printed with simulated cork-tipping regions 40, or such printing may be effected in the apparatus prior to tube-formation (Fig. 24). Alternatively, patches (4011, Figs. 25, 25a) of simulated corktipping are severed from a web (82) and glued to the cigarette paper prior to tubing. Cigarette paper-feed and tube-formation.-The web 36 is fed from a roll 34 by an endless tape 100 and is formed into a U-shape about the rod 124 by a guide 126. Glue is then applied to one edge of the web by a roller 128 and this edge is folded on to the other edge by a guide 130. The glue is then dried by a heater 132 and the tube 44 fed beneath a roller (136, Figs. 8-10) of a roller assembly 48 for flattening, the roller (136) having a peripheral ridge (138) which engages the central zone of the tube. Tube-cutting and transfer of spills to the collecting conveyer 58.-The knife 150 is carried on a rotatable shaft and co-operates with a horizontally reciprocable ledger 156 to cut the flattened tube. The operation of the knife is controlled so as to cut the tipping regions 40 medially and also cut the paper midway between the tipping regions. To this effect there is provided a photo-cell assembly 42 comprising two photocells (108, 110, Figs. 5-7), one (108) of which senses the leading edge of a tipping region 40 whilst the other (110) senses the region 40 itself. A third photo-cell (176, Fig. 14) senses the position of the knife 150. The three signals being fed to a control unit (174) for the knife. The conveyer 54 comprises three belts 216, 218, 220, Fig. 18, which take up each spill as it is severed and feed it to the collecting conveyer. Bundling and banding of spills.-The gate 60 comprises a brush (224, Figs. 19, 20) carried by a vertically reciprocable holder (226). The group of spills falls off the conveyer 58, into a shoot 238, and on to a web 245 of banding material 244 positioned across a pocket 236 in an indexing drum 234. The web 245 is fed from a roll 246 by a drive roller 248 and the leading edge of the web is gripped against a support 266 by a piston 265 prior to severing of the web by a knife 254 to form a band. A pusher 240 then pushes the group of spills 52 into the pocket 236 so as to form a bundle partially surrounded by a band. The drum 234 is then indexed to cause one end of the band to be folded against the other end thereof, and a heat-sealing head 270 bonds the ends together.