GB749188A - Improvements in defective cigarette ejecting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

749,188. Cigarette ejecting-apparatus. INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY CO., Ltd. March 5, 1954 [March 16, 1953], No. 7205/53. Class 130. In a mechanism for ejecting cigarettes 3 produced in a continuous-rod machine which are defective in that they possess an incorrect quantity of tobacco or the density thereof does not accord with a predetermined standard for example, such irregularities being detected by suitable means, not shown, through which the cigarettes 3 pass before reaching the ejection station, comprising a rotary drum 1 mounted over the path of the cigarettes 3 after they have been severed from the rod and with its axis parallel to the path, the drum carries a plurality of radially-displaceable ejecting members, such as plungers 4 and means, for example an electrical relay 15, actuated by the detecting apparatus for effecting the displacement of the plungers 4 to the ejecting position. The drum has twelve spring-loaded plungers 4 with blades 5, each plunger being retained within the drum by a spring-loaded pawl 9 ; the number of plungers 4 provided is in excess of the number of cigarettes which will occupy the space between the measuring and ejecting points and the drum is driven so that each blade 5 is synchronized with a cigarette 3 in the ejecting station, the plungers being electrically released when an impulse is received from the detecting apparatus. The relay 15 is mounted inside the drum 1 on a fixed arbor about which the drum rotates, the arbor being adjustable for timing purposes, the relay comprising a coil 19 and a spring-loaded armature 20 embodying a lug 22 which when the relay is energised is displaced into the path of one of the pawls 9. The relay may be enclosed by a cover, not shown, with transparent observation panels. The plungers 4 are reset by a pair of spaced rails 26 carried by plates 27 on the relay-cover fixing-flanges 17, the plungers passing between the rails ; each plunger has a collar 28 engaged by the rails whereby it is forced inwardly until the plunger head passes over and is then held by a shoulder 11 on the associated pawl 9. The electrical impulse may be amplified and any form of detecting apparatus, such as a movable finger, may be used. Specification 744,311, [Group XXXVI], is referred to.