GB471521A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for feeding cigarettes or other articles of rod like shape - Google Patents

Abstract

471,521. Delivering articles from hoppers. CHALMERS, J. W., FOALE. A. A., and MOLINS MACHINE CO., Ltd. Feb. 6, 1936, No. 3682. [Class 78 (i)] [Also in Group XVII] In apparatus of the type in which cigarettes or other articles of rod-like shape pass from a hopper down partitioned spaces, the hopper is formed with an inclined guide surface or surfaces becoming less steep near the outlet to retard the speed of the articles and means, movable into and out of the path of the articles, are provided to ensure alignment of the articles, when they reach the hopper outlet, with the partitions between which they have to pass. In the apparatus shown, cigarettes descend from a hopper outlet 6 between vertical partitions 7 to a table 5 where a layer or layers are removed by a pusher 8 carried by an endless chain 38. The inclined sides 10, 11 of the hopper, merge to the horizontal at the outlet, above which is provided an agitating device, oscillated by a crank pin 16 and comprising a pair of members 12, 13 carried by a V-shaped plate 14 pivoted at its apex 15 so that the horizontal edges of the members 12, 13 move substantially concentrically with the fixed guide surfaces 10, 11, a block 18 secured to the. V-plate 14 being slotted to engage the crank pin. Above the agitator, the weight of the cigarettes is supported by a fixed V-shaped shroud 19, below the lower edges of which are arranged pusher blades 20, 21, pivoted respectively in brackets 22, 23 and pushed out alternately in opposition to springs 24, 25 to loosen the cigarettes by studs 26 on the members 12, 13. To preserve parallelism of the cigarettes, a guide or aligning member 27 may be secured to the block 18 to oscillate with the members 12, 13. In addition, a reciprocable partition plate 7 is arranged against the outlet edge to arrest and align the cigarettes. The opposite sides of the outlet may be at different levels to avoid impacts of the cigarettes. In the outlet passage alternate partitions 7a are fixed whilst the others are secured to a carriage vertically reciprocable by a cam. The top edges of the movable partitions lie above the edges of the fixed partitions to facilitate subdivision of the cigarettes into the passages. One of the partitions may be provided with a thickened edge 32. The Provisional Specification describes also an alternative construction wherein, instead of the oscillating V-shaped member, oscillating or reciprocating plates may be arranged to move into and out of the path of the cigarettes through slots in the guides or from within the shroud.