EP2855279B1

EP2855279B1 - Apparatus for forming groups of smokers' articles

Info

Publication number: EP2855279B1
Application number: EP13731959.6A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Michele Ferrari; Roberto GUBELLINI; Stefano Negrini
Original assignee: GD SpA
Current assignee: GD SpA
Priority date: 2012-05-25
Filing date: 2013-05-21
Publication date: 2016-08-03
Anticipated expiration: 2033-05-21
Also published as: EP2855279A1; PL2855279T3; ITBO20120287A1; WO2013175400A1

Description

Technical field

This invention relates to an apparatus for forming groups of smokers' articles.
More specifically, the invention relates to an apparatus for forming groups of smokers' articles to be packed and consisting, in particular, of cigarettes.
Hereinafter in this description, reference is made to smokers' articles consisting of cigarettes, without thereby restricting the scope of the invention.

Background art

As is known, groups of cigarettes to be packed are usually formed using a vertical hopper into which the cigarettes are fed through an opening at the top of it. The lower portion of the hopper is divided into a plurality of substantially vertical, horizontally juxtaposed channels equal in number to the number of cigarettes to make up the group. Each channel is designed to receive a pile of cigarettes placed on top of each other. Groups of cigarettes, or layers which are then placed on top of one another to form the groups, are extracted by suitable extractor elements in succession from the bottom of the hopper channels and directed to the packing stations.
Operators in the tobacco industry sometimes have the necessity to make packets of cigarettes containing a group with cigarettes of two different kinds.
For this purpose, utility model CN2554095Y proposed to subdivide the cigarette hopper vertically into two parts and to feed the two parts with respective flows of different cigarettes. The result is that the channels associated with one part of the hopper deliver cigarettes which are different from those delivered by the channels associated with the other part of the hopper and the groups thus obtained are made up of a first portion with cigarettes of one kind and another portion, juxtaposed with the first portion, having cigarettes of a different kind. Each of the portions of the cigarette groups, according to utility model CN2554095Y , contains at least one cigarette, but their positions cannot be but juxtaposed horizontally, which means that the apparatus described in that utility model is not suitable for obtaining groups of cigarettes where the position in which to place one or more cigarettes different from the others can be freely chosen.
Patent KR100544302B1 describes an apparatus comprising a hopper into which cigarettes of a first kind are fed through an opening at the top of it. At the bottom of it, the hopper has a plurality of substantially vertical, horizontally juxtaposed channels like the ones mentioned above, equal in number to the number of cigarettes to make up the group, minus one. Next to one side of the lower portion of the hopper, there is a further vertical channel, juxtaposed with the last channel on one of the sides of the hopper and connected at the top of it to a feed unit which supplies cigarettes of a diffrent kind from those supplied by the hopper. Groups of cigarettes, or layers which are then placed on top of one another to form the groups, are extracted in succession by suitable extractor elements from the bottom of the hopper channels and of the further channel and directed to the packing stations.
In this apparatus, too, however, it is not possible to obtain groups of cigarettes in which the position of the cigarette that is different from the others in each group can be freely chosen.

Disclosure of the invention

The aim of this invention is to provide an apparatus which can form groups of smokers' articles made up of articles of two different kinds and which is free of the above mentioned disadvantages.
The invention accordingly provides an apparatus for forming groups of smokers' articles as described in the appended claims.

Brief description of drawings

The invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate a non-limiting embodiment of it, and in which:

Figure 1 shows a group of smokers' articles obtained using an apparatus made according to this invention;
Figure 2 is a schematic axonometric view of a portion of an apparatus made according to this invention for forming groups of smokers' articles ;
Figure 3 is a schematic elevation cross section showing certain details of the apparatus of Figure 2;
Figure 4 is a schematic front view of a variant embodiment of the apparatus of Figure 2; and
Figures 5-8 are four schematic elevation cross sections showing a part of a variant embodiment of the apparatus of Figures 2-4 in different working steps.

Detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention

The numeral 1 in Figure 1 denotes a group of smokers' articles 2 to be packed and consisting, for example, of cigarettes. Hereinafter in this description, for brevity, reference is made to smokers' articles consisting of cigarettes, without thereby restricting the scope of the invention.
In the group 1, the cigarettes 2 are arranged (for example) in three layers 3, 4 and 5 (from the bottom up in the drawing) juxtaposed in pairs. the layers 3 and 5 comprise (for example) seven cigarettes, while the middle layer 4 comprises six cigarettes.
The numeral 6 in Figure 2 denotes in its entirety an apparatus for forming groups 1 of cigarettes 2.
The apparatus 6 comprises a hopper 7 which is equipped, at the bottom of it, with four substantially vertical. identical outlets 8, a pocket conveyor 9 and an expulsion device 10 designed to extract the groups 1 of cigarettes 2 from the outlets 8 of the hopper 7 in a manner which will be explained below. The conveyor 9 comprises a working section 11 which follows a predetermined path P along a substantially horizontal direction D1 and has a plurality of equispaced pockets 12 designed to receive respective groups 1 of cigarettes 2. Each pocket 12 has a bottom wall 13 and two side walls 14 to contain a group 1 according to the arrangement shown in Figure 1.
The path P runs through a station 15 for forming the groups 1 at the outlets 8 of the hopper 7 and a feed station 16 by which the groups 1 are fed (in known manner) to at least one packing line, not illustrated.
Each outlet 8 comprises a plurality of partitions 17 which define channels 18 for feeding the cigarettes 2. Under the outlets 8 there is a supporting plate 19 which is substantially horizontal and which supports the groups 1 formed by the outlets 8.
The outlets 8 are distributed along the path P, next to the working section 11 of the conveyor 9, according to the same spacing as the pockets 12, and the top face 20 of the plate 19 is co-planar with the top faces of the bottom walls 13 of the pockets 12 located along the working section 11 itself.
The expulsion device 10 comprises four combs 21 located at the bases of the respective outlets 8 on the opposite side of the conveyor 9 relative to the selfsame outlets 8. Each comb 21 comprises fingers 22 which extend along a substantially horizontal direction D2 perpendicular to the direction D1 and which are designed to be engaged in respective channels 18 in order to expel one group 1 at a time from the base of the respective outlet 8. The combs 21 are connected to each other by a bar 23 oriented along the direction D1, which is in turn rigidly connected to a rod 24 oriented along the direction D2 and movable reciprocatingly in the selfsame direction D2 in such a way as to move the combs 21 between a working position, that is to say, with the respective fingers 22 inside the respective channels 18, and a rest position, where the combs 21 are located on the side of the hopper 7 opposite to the conveyor 9.
An upper portion of the hopper 7 communicates with an infeed duct 25 for the cigarettes 2 forming part of a feed device of essentially known type and schematically represented as a block 26, to which the cigarettes 2 are carried in essentially known manner by a conveyor (not illustrated) which transports them in the form of a layer.
One of the channels 18 of each outlet 8 of the hopper 7, and more specifically (by way of example) the one furthest to the right, labelled 27, in Figure 2, is associated with a further feed device 28 for feeding substantially cylindrical articles, consisting preferably of cigarettes 2' of a different kind from the cigarettes 2.
Described below are the structure and arrangement of only one of the feed devices 28 (for example, the one situated on the right in Figure 2), since the other feed devices are structured and arranged in the same way.
The feed device 28 is located behind and close to the rear face 29 of the hopper 7, and communicates with a conveyor 28', of essentially known type and schematically represented as a block, which transports the cigarettes 2' to the feed device 28 in the form of a layer. The end portion of the feed device 28 consists substantially of a vertical channel 30 in which the cigarettes 2' are stacked with their respective axes horizontal and parallel to those of the cigarettes 2 inside the hopper 7. The bottom end portion 31 of the channel 30 runs alongside the channel 27 situated on the right of the outlet 8, and the channel 27 is occluded by a closing element 32 just above the level of the selfsame bottom portion 31.
The bottom portion 31 of the channel 30 can, in use, be passed through with reciprocating motion parallel to the axes of the cigarettes 2' by an expulsion device or pushing means 33 designed to extract the cigarettes 2', preferably one at a time, from the bottom portion 31 itself and to insert them by axial motion into the top end of the channel 27 under the closing element 32 (see also Figure 3).
It should be noted that in the embodiment of the apparatus 6 shown in Figure 2, each outlet 8 of the hopper 7 comprises a single channel 27 associated with one feed device 28 and thus designed to feed the cigarettes 2' towards the supporting plate 19, but each outlet 8 might have two or more channels 27 associated with respective feed devices 28.
In use, the cigarettes 2 and 2' move down the channels 18 and 27, respectively, and come to rest on the plate 19 to form respective groups 1. The conveyor 9 is fed intermittently, alternating dwell steps with feed steps, during each of which each pocket 12 is moved forward by a step equal in length to the spacing of the pockets 12 in order to carry the respective group 1 into the station 16 by which the groups 1 are fed to the aforementioned packing line, not illustrated. Each time the conveyor 9 positions four consecutive empty pockets 12 at the outlets 8 of the hopper 7, the expulsion device 10 is driven from the rest position towards the conveyor 9 in the direction D2 to expel from each outlet 8 a respective group 1 and transfer it into a respective pocket 12. The expulsion device 10 is withdrawn to the rest position to allow the cigarettes 2, 2' to move down the channels 18 and 27 to form some more groups 1 on the plate 19. The cycle is repeated when the conveyor 9 has again positioned four empty pockets 12 at the outlets 8.
The fact that in the context of each feed device 28, the cigarettes 2' are extracted by the expulsion device 33 in succession from the bottom portion 31 of the channel 30 and concurrently inserted into the top end of the channel 27 under the closing element 32 means, in accordance with what was mentioned above, that the groups 1 formed on the plate 19 contain some cigarettes 2' which come from the channel 27 and which are different from the other cigarettes 2. In the embodiment of this invention shown in Figure 2, there are, in each group 1, three cigarettes 2' situated on the right in each group 1.
Figure 4 shows an apparatus 6' for forming groups 1 of cigarettes 2, 2', which differs from the apparatus 6 described above in that the hopper 7 comprises at the bottom of it three outlets 8, each having within it a plurality of channels 18; the outlet on the left in Figure 4 has a channel, on the right, labelled 27, which, in a manner similar to what is described above with reference to Figure 2, is designed to feed cigarettes 2' of a different kind from those that pass through the channels 18.
The lowermost cigarettes 2, 2' of each column of cigarettes housed in a channel 18, 27 are positioned, in use, in contact with a plate 34 located under the respective outlet 8 and at a distance just greater than the diameter of the cigarettes 2, 2' from the outlet 8 itself. The plate 34 comprises three horizontal plates 35 which are connected to each other. In the course of each working cycle of the apparatus 6', respective layers 3, 4, 5 of cigarettes 2, 2', positioned at a level just below the bottom end of the respective outlet 8 are formed on the plates 35, which are located under respective outlets 8 at increasing levels, from left to right in Figure 4, differing from each other by a height substantially equal to the diameter of a cigarette 2, 2'.
The upper working section 11 of the pocket conveyor 9 extends in front of the plates 35 and, during each working step of the conveyor 9, three pockets 12 which stop in front of respective plates 35 receive in succession three layers 3, 4, 5. As each pocket 12 moves past the three plates 35, the three layers are placed on top of each other inside the pocket 12 to form a group 1 of cigarettes 2, 2' that will go to make up the content of a packet (not illustrated). During each dwell step of the conveyor 9, each layer 3, 4, 5 is fed into the respective pocket 12 by an expulsion device (not illustrated) similar to the aforementioned expulsion device 10.
As shown in Figure 4, the end portion of a feed device 28 like the one described above, that is to say, the bottom portion 31 of its channel 30, runs alongside an upper zone of the channel 27 situated on the right of the left-hand outlet 8 of the hopper 7, and the channel 27 is occluded by a closing element 32 just above the level of the selfsame bottom portion 31. The bottom portion 31 of the channel 30 can, in use, be passed through with reciprocating motion parallel to the axes of the cigarettes 2' by an expulsion device 33 (not illustrated in Figure 4) designed to extract the cigarettes 2', preferably one at a time, from the bottom portion 31 itself and to insert them by axial motion into the top end of the channel 27 adjacent thereto, under the closing element 32. As a result, inside the channel 27 of the hopper 7, which receives the cigarettes 2' from the feed device 28, there are cigarettes 2' of a different kind from the cigarettes 2 inside the other channels 18, and each of the layers 3 from the left-hand outlet 8 of the hopper 7 comprises a cigarette 2' located on the right of the layer 3 itself. Obviously, each unit 1 which comprises one of the layers 3 is provided with a cigarette 2' of a different kind from the other cigarettes 2.
Figures 5-8 show, in four different working steps, a portion of an apparatus 6" constituting a variant embodiment of the apparatus 6 described herein.
The reference numbers used in the description of the apparatus 6" are, where possible, the same as those used in the foregoing description of the apparatus 6.
In the apparatus 6", the bottom end portion 31 of the channel 30 of the feed device 28 is positioned close to the top face 20 of the plate 19 and is spaced from the selfsame face 20 by a gap just greater than the diameter of a cigarette 2' and such as to allow the passage, between the bottom portion 31 itself and the face 20, of an expulsion device or pusher means 36 designed to extract cigarettes 2', preferably one at a time, from the selfsame bottom portion 31. The channel 30 runs alongside the rear wall of the channel 27, which is occluded at the top by a closing element 32, like the channel 27 shown in Figure 3.
The pusher means 36 can be equipped with motor means, not illustrated, for imparting reciprocating motion parallel to the axes of the cigarettes 2' contained in the channel 30, and defined at the top by two horizontal surfaces 37 and 38 located on the left and right, respectively, in Figures 5-8. The surface 37 is located at a lower level than the surface 38, and is spaced from it by a gap just smaller than the diameter of a cigarette 2', so that the top of the pusher means 36 has a "stepped" shape comprising, on the left in Figures 5-8, a portion 39 smaller in thickness than a cigarette 2' and, on the right, a portion 40 greater in thickness.
In use, the conveyor 9 is fed intermittently, alternating dwell steps with feed steps, during each of which each pocket 12 is moved forward by a step equal in length to the spacing of the pockets 12. Each time the conveyor 9 positions four consecutive empty pockets 12 at the outlets 8 of the hopper 7, the expulsion device 36 is driven from the rest position (on the right in Figures 5 and 7) towards the conveyor 9 in the direction D2. Figure 5 shows how, in the situation where the pusher means 36 is located on the right in the fully withdrawn position, one cigarette 2' is resting on the surface 37 of the portion 39 of the selfsame pusher means 36, and there is no cigarette 2' inside the channel 27.
The pusher means 36 is then driven towards the conveyor 9, until reaching the fully advanced position shown in Figure 6, in such a way that the cigarette 2' on its portion 39 is carried under the channel 27. When that cigarette 2' is removed from the channel 30, the cigarettes 2' inside the selfsame channel 30 move one short step down and the lowermost of these cigarettes 2' comes to rest on the portion 40 of the pusher means 36.
The pusher means 36 is then driven back to its home position on the right (Figure 7), and the cigarette 2' just placed under the channel 27 engages, with its right-hand end, a small tooth 41 located on the bottom edge of the wall 42 which delimits channel 27 in the proximity of the channel 30. The action of the tooth 41 prevents the cigarette 2' from following the pusher means 36 by friction as the pusher means returns to the withdrawn position. The cigarettes 2' inside the channel 30 move one short step down and the lowermost of these cigarettes 2' comes to rest on the portion 39 of the pusher means 36.
The pusher means 36 is then driven towards the conveyor 9 again, until reaching the fully advanced position shown in Figure 8. During this movement, the cigarette 2' that was under the channel 27 is pushed into a pocket 12 carried by the conveyor 9, and together with that cigarette 2', other cigarettes 2 located at the bottoms of the channels 27 not adjacent to the channel 30 are pushed by the expulsion device 10 into the pockets 12 waiting at the outlets 8, as described previously. During this movement of the pusher means 36, the cigarette 2' resting on the portion 39 of the pusher means 36 is pushed towards a lower portion of the channel 27, and more specifically, under the channel 27.
The steps described with reference to Figures 5-8 are repeated cyclically and, with each machine cycle, one cigarette 2' is placed under the channel 27 and. simultaneously, another cigarette 2' enters a pocket 12.
It should be noted that in the embodiment of the apparatus 6' shown in Figure 4, one outlet 8 of the hopper 7 comprises a channel 27 associated with one feed device 28 and thus designed to feed the cigarettes 2' towards the supporting plate 34, but more than one outlet 8 might comprise one channel 27 - and, if necessary, more than one - for delivering cigarettes 2' associated with respective feed devices 28. Lastly, it should be noted that the feed devices 28 associated with the hopper 7 might be used to insert into the channels 27 substantially cylindrical articles different from the cigarettes 2' and consisting, for example, of cylindrical cigarette lighters.

Claims

An apparatus for forming groups of smokers' articles in a packing machine, comprising a hopper (7) equipped at the bottom of it with a plurality of outlets (8) housing inside them a plurality of partitions (17) defining, in pairs, channels (18; 27) for the downfeed of respective piles of smokers' articles (2, 2'); a feed device (26) for feeding smokers' articles (2) of a first type to an upper portion of the hopper (7); an intermittent conveyor (9) comprising a succession of pockets (12) distributed according to a certain spacing and extending along a path (P) near the outlets (8) and at a feed station (16) where the smokers' articles (2, 2') are fed to at least one packing line of the packing machine; and expulsion means (10) for transferring smokers' articles (2, 2') from the outlets (8) of the hopper (7) into the respective pockets (12) of the conveyor (9), characterized in that it comprises at least one further feed device (28) for feeding substantially cylindrical articles (2') of a second type, which has an end portion (30) juxtaposed with an upper portion of a respective channel (27) related to an outlet (8) of the hopper (7) and which is mounted in the proximity of the selfsame hopper (7) and in communication with a conveyor (28') for supplying substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type; a portion of the channel (27) located above a bottom end portion (31) of the further feed device (28) being occluded by a closing element (32); and pushing means (33; 36) being provided for extracting substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type in succession from the bottom end portion (31) of the further feed device (28) and inserting them into the channel (27) under the closing element (32).
The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that every operating step of the expulsion means (10) transfers into the respective pockets (12) of the conveyor (9) a number of groups (1) which is equal to the number of outlets (8) of the hopper (7), each further feed device (28) causing a number greater than one of substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type to be inserted into each group (1).
The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that every operating step of the expulsion means (10) transfers into the respective pockets (12) of the conveyor (9) a number of layers (3, 4, 5) of smokers' article (2, 2') which is equal to the number of outlets (8) of the hopper (7), each further feed device (28) causing one substantially cylindrical article (2') of the second type to be inserted into one layer (3, 4, 5).
The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the at least one further feed device (28) for feeding substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type is located behind the hopper (7); the pushing means (33) associated with it, in use, being designed to impart axial motion to the substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type to move them from the bottom end portion (31) of the further feed device (28) into the upper portion of the channel (27).
The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the at least one further feed device (28) for feeding substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type is located behind the hopper (7); the pushing means (36) associated with it, in use, being designed to impart axial motion to the substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type to move them from the bottom end portion (31) of the further feed device (28) to the lower portion of the channel (27).
The apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that the pushing means (36) associated with the at least one further feed device (28) are provided with reciprocating motion parallel to the axes of the substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type contained in the end portion (30), and have at the top of them the shape of a step comprising a thin portion (39) whose thickness is less than that of a substantially cylindrical article (2') of the second type and which faces towards the conveyor (9), and a thick portion (40) connected to the thin portion (39) and further from the selfsame conveyor (9); the thin portion (39), in use, cyclically pushing substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type into respective pockets (12) of the conveyor (9), and the thick portion (40) pushing substantially cylindrical articles (2') of the second type from the bottom end portion (31) of the further feed device (28) towards a lower portion of the channel (27).