Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
  • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
  • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
  • A24C5/32—Separating, ordering, counting or examining cigarettes; Regulating the feeding of tobacco according to rod or cigarette condition
  • A24C5/34—Examining cigarettes or the rod, e.g. for regulating the feeding of tobacco; Removing defective cigarettes
  • A24C5/3412—Examining cigarettes or the rod, e.g. for regulating the feeding of tobacco; Removing defective cigarettes by means of light, radiation or electrostatic fields

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for measuring at least one quality parameter of rod-shaped products of the tobacco processing industry, in particular of heat-not-burn products, the rod-shaped products being conveyed transversely to their longitudinal axis.
• the invention further relates to a measuring device of the tobacco processing industry comprising a conveying device for conveying rod-shaped products of the tobacco processing industry, in particular heat-not-burn products, the conveying device having receiving troughs for receiving the rod-shaped products, the conveying device is designed to promote the rod-shaped products in a direction that is transverse to the longitudinal axis of the receiving troughs.
• a diameter, the roundness, the position of segments, the shape of segments, an inner diameter of a tube, the presence and / or the location of additional elements, such as, for example, with liquid are defined under a quality parameter filled capsules, the length of the rod-shaped product and similar parameters understood.
• a quality parameter filled capsules the length of the rod-shaped product and similar parameters understood.
• heat-not-burn products have an aluminum foil which is wound around the rod-shaped products or is seen as the outermost layer or one of the outer layers of such rod-shaped products. It is not possible with these products to enable a transmission image in the optical or infrared range.
• This object is achieved by a method for measuring at least one quality parameter, in particular the length of one or more segments or a type of at least one segment, of rod-shaped products of the tobacco processing industry, in particular of heat-not-burn products, the rod-shaped products being transverse are conveyed to the longitudinal axis thereof and X-ray radiation passes through the rod-shaped products during the conveyance, the transmitted X-ray radiation being recorded by means of an area detector and a transmission image of the respective rod-shaped product being generated by means of time delay integration.
• the method according to the invention and the longer exposure time resulting therefrom results in a significantly higher contrast and therefore a higher image quality.
• the evaluation of the transmission image by means of, in particular, digital image processing is thus simplified and has greater accuracy.
• a speed signal is preferably made available to a control device which controls the recording of the transmission image by the area detector, so that the time delay integration is preferably carried out in a synchronized manner as a function of the conveying speed of the rod-shaped products.
• the transmission image of the respective rod-shaped product is preferably integrated or integrated in synchronization with the conveying movement of the rod-shaped product. As a result, very precise transmission images are possible and the contrast is also significantly increased.
• rod-shaped products are completely arranged in a receiving trough of a conveyor device during measurement.
• the rod-shaped products are preferably used during measurement in the Sucking trough sucked in to fix the rod-shaped products in the receiving trough.
• At least a portion of the receiving trough is preferably transparent to the x-rays.
• radiation-permeable absorption means less than 50%, in particular particularly preferably less than 40%, particularly preferably less than 30%, particularly preferably less than 20%, in particular preferably less than 10%. It can also be preferably provided that at least a section of the receiving trough does not provide any absorption of the X-ray radiation, for example when a recess is provided in the receiving trough or a slot through which the X-ray radiation can pass, specifically directly into the rod-shaped one Product.
• the conveying device has at least one section transverse to the longitudinal axis of the rod-shaped products or the receiving trough in addition to the receiving trough, which section is essentially impermeable to the X-rays or is completely impermeable.
• a material is preferably used which has a high absorption coefficient for the x-ray radiation used and / or is a sufficient thickness of the Material provided.
• a transmission image of the rod-shaped product is formed in that when the X-ray radiation passing through the rod-shaped product passes over the surface detector, the lines or line groups of the surface detector for the surface detector are synchronized with the speed of conveyance of the rod-shaped products Integration of the signal are taken into account.
• the image is very accurate.
• the background radiation can be calculated by measuring the intensity outside the area in which the image of the rod-shaped product falls on the surface detector and subtracting it. This can be achieved with appropriate control and image processing.
• a time delay integration can alternatively take place in such a way that it is determined at any point in time exactly where the image of the rod-shaped product lies on the surface detector, for example by
• the rod-shaped product is preferably measured over the entire length of the rod-shaped product.
• the rod-shaped product is particularly preferably measured over the entire diameter of the rod-shaped product.
• edge areas of the receiving troughs may contribute somewhat more to the absorption of the X-rays, since a little more material contributes to the absorption in the beam direction of the X-rays. This can be taken into account when editing the image.
• a CCD Image sensor for example of the type CCD 5061 from BAE Systems Imaging Solutions, can be selected. This is a CCD sensor with 6,144 pixels by 128 lines. This can be read out at 80 MHz with a line rate of up to 12 KHz.
• an array of ordered line CCDs or an array of line detectors can also be used.
• a sampling frequency of 1 0 KHz for example,
• a measuring device of the tobacco processing industry comprising a conveying device for conveying rod-shaped products of the tobacco processing industry, in particular heat-not-burn products, the conveying device having receiving troughs for receiving the rod-shaped products, the Conveyor device is formed, the rod-shaped products in one
• an X-ray radiation source is provided and a flat end detector is provided, which is arranged such that the surface detector detects the X-ray radiation passing through a receiving trough and a rod-shaped product received in the receiving trough
• a control device is provided, which is set up to generate a transmission image of the rod-shaped product by conveying the rod-shaped product by means of a time delay integration.
• the surface detector preferably has an extension in the conveying direction which is greater than the diameter of the rod-shaped product or greater than the diameter of the receiving trough.
• the lines of the pixels or lines of the surface detector are preferably perpendicular to the conveying direction or parallel to the longitudinal axes of the receiving troughs.
• the extent of the surface detector in the conveying direction is particularly preferably between two to five times the diameter of the rod-shaped product or the diameter of the receiving trough.
• the complete rod-shaped product can preferably be measured if the extent of the area detector transverse to the direction of conveyance corresponds at least to the length of the rod-shaped product or the length of the receiving trough.
• the receiving troughs are radiolucent at least in sections in an area provided for receiving the rod-shaped products.
• the entire receiving trough is preferably transparent to X-rays.
• X-ray permeable means that the thickness of the material and / or the material selection is made in such a way that less than 50%, in particular less than 40%, in particular less than 30%, in particular less than 20%, in particular less than 10 % of the X-rays are absorbed by the material as it passes through the receiving trough.
• the receiving trough is preferably provided with a slit in sections, so that there is no X-ray radiation absorption at all. The receiving trough is therefore free of material in the area of the slot.
• the material thickness of the receiving trough is preferably less than or equal to 1 mm at least in sections.
• the material of the receiving trough is particularly preferably at least in sections aluminum or comprises aluminum.
• the front of the receiving troughs seen an annular border to stabilize the receiving troughs.
• the use of X-rays is proposed for measuring quality parameters of rod-shaped products in the tobacco processing industry, in particular heat-not-burn products. Since heat-not-burn products are often completely covered with aluminum paper, conventional sensor methods cannot be used or can only be used to a limited extent.
• the quality parameters that are measured include: the location of segments, the length of segments, spacing of segments and the material of the segments.
• the products to be tested are guided through an X-ray beam on a transverse axial conveyor device, for example a conveyor drum, a spider holding on one side or a conveyor belt.
• a transverse axial conveyor device for example a conveyor drum, a spider holding on one side or a conveyor belt.
• Line detectors with so-called time delay integration technology or TDI technology from Time Delayed Integration or Time Delay and Integration are particularly suitable in dynamic processes.
• the image is integrated synchronously with the linear object movement within the TDI sensor or surface detector in the scan direction, in particular analogously.
• the resulting longer exposure time results in a significantly higher image quality.
• the evaluations are simplified using digital image processing and are more precise.
• thin-walled conveying members are preferred in the measuring method and in the measuring device, which only slightly attenuate the X-ray signal.
• the x-ray radiation is preferably generated with a conventional x-ray tube, which has a suitable focus.
• the tube voltage of a commonly used X-ray tube should be between 5 keV and 450 keV.
• the x-ray beam is preferably collimated onto the area to be checked or the x-ray beam is shaded accordingly in order to avoid or reduce parasitic scattering effects and thus artifacts in the imaging.
• the transmitted radiation is given to a receiver.
• the receiver is preferably an area detector, which preferably has a scintillation layer and can preferably be a CMOS or CCD.
• a line detector or area detector with TDI technology is preferably used.
• the image is integrated analogously to the linear object movement within the TDI sensor in the scan direction. The resulting longer exposure time enables a significantly higher image quality.
• the resulting high-resolution images can be evaluated very well using algorithms for digital image processing.
• a conveying drum In order to increase the rigidity of the conveying device, for example a conveying drum, massive rings are provided on the end face, into which the walls of the receiving troughs are edged.
• the control flange must be adjusted so that there is no material in the beam path between the X-ray tube and the area detector.
• the walls of the receiving troughs can also be made of other materials such as plastic, composite materials or other materials that have a low absorption of X-rays.
• a conveyor belt can also be provided, which is conveyed via corresponding conveyor belt drums.
• Embodiments according to the invention can fulfill individual features or a combination of several features.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of part of the measuring device according to the invention in a first embodiment
• Fig. 2 is a schematic sectional view of part of a
• Fig. 4 is a schematic plan view of a section of a
• FIG. 1 shows a schematic sectional view of part of an inventive measuring device.
• a conveyor drum 1 6 On a conveyor drum 1 6 are on recesses 15 are introduced, in which rod-shaped products 1 0 are held. The conveyor drum 1 6 is rotated or moved in the conveying direction 14.
• X-ray radiation 12 is generated and sent in the direction of the area detector 13.
• the rod-shaped product 10 passes through the X-ray radiation 12, which is designed here in the manner of a cone, the transmission image of the rod-shaped product is recorded by means of the area detector 1 3.
• the transmission image is moved during the movement of the rod-shaped product 10 in the conveying direction 14.
• the transmission image on the surface detector 1 3 moves from right to left.
• the transmission image is integrated accordingly, so that a very high-contrast transmission image is generated by means of a time delay integration.
• the areas between the receiving troughs 15 have a relatively high wall thickness, so that relatively little X-ray radiation passes through there.
• the material can, for example, stainless steel so that the X-rays are well absorbed.
• the receiving trough 15 can be made of aluminum at least in sections or completely made of aluminum and relatively thin-walled, so that X-rays pass through well here in order to enable the best possible image of the material of the rod-shaped product 10.
• Fig. 2 shows schematically in a sectional view a section of a conveyor drum 16 in another embodiment.
• the receiving trough 15 has a section of a material and otherwise a material-free area 18 or a slot 18 in order to provide no absorption of the X-ray radiation by additional material in this loading, which does not belong to the rod-shaped product.
• FIG. 3 schematically shows a further embodiment of a measuring device according to the invention.
• a conveyor belt 17 is deflected via two drums 25.
• the conveyor belt 17 is conveyed in the conveying direction 14.
• receiving troughs 15 are applied, are introduced into the rod-shaped products 10.
• the receiving troughs 15 and the rod-shaped products 10 are only partially shown.
• an X-ray radiation source 20 is provided, which radiates X-ray radiation 12 in the direction of the surface detector 13.
• an exact image of the respective rod-shaped products 10 is made possible with a time delay integration.
• a control device 21 is provided both in the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 1 and in the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 3, which records or reads out the area detector via a control line 24 13 controls.
• the control device 21 receives a speed signal from the machine control and processes this signal in such a way that, based on the geometric conditions, the speed signal is converted into a signal. nal is converted, which represents a speed of the image of the rod-shaped product 10 on the surface detector 13 in order to enable a synchronized integration of the signal.
• 4 shows a section of a further embodiment
• the receiving trough 15 is essentially thin-walled and has a slot 18 in the central area, that is to say an area in which no material is arranged. So that the receiving trough is stable, in particular in the edge region, a border 23 is provided, which is also connected to the material that is provided between the receiving trough 15 of the conveyor drum 16.
• the rod-shaped products indicate several segments. Typically, however, an aluminum foil is wrapped around these segments, for example, so that the various segments themselves would not be visible in a plan view. Instead of the beam cone shown in the figures, parallel or substantially parallel X-rays can also be used.

Landscapes

• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Toxicology (AREA)
• Analysing Materials By The Use Of Radiation (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=65237025

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Families Citing this family (1)

Family Cites Families (13)

• 2019
  • 2019-01-24 WO PCT/EP2019/051717 patent/WO2020151823A1/de unknown
  • 2019-01-24 EP EP19702050.6A patent/EP3914101A1/de active Pending
  • 2019-01-24 CN CN201980090179.5A patent/CN113316397B/zh active Active

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events