SE328815B - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,105,009. Delivering cigarettes &c. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO 13 Dec., 1966 [20 Jan., 1966], No. 55807/66. Heading A2C. [Also in Division B8] In an apparatus for feeding cigarettes or filter rods, rods F fed from a rod-making machine are introduced one at a time from a shoot A, by an introduction means E comprising a roller 32 and two parallel belts 12 of a conveyer C, into a reservoir R from which they pass down an inclined chamber 34, having an adjustable agitator plate 36 and a spring mounted yieldable top plate 38, into a lower hopper L from which the rods F then pass between counter rotating toothed rollers 48 into a curved channel 56 and thence into grooves 58 of a feed drum 60. A plate 22, underlying the upper run of the conveyer C, may be adjusted by means of a screw 28 to vary the height of the entrance means E to accord with the diameter of the rods F to be fed. In use, stopping of the feed drum 60 results in the reservoir R being filled until it reaches a preset level detected by a photocell system 62-64 which system then stops the rod-making machine that supplies the shoot A. A time delay switch then stops the conveyer C and the feed roller 32. A second photocell system 66-68 is provided to stop the feed drum 60 should the reservoir R empty due to failure of the rod supply. In a modification, Fig. 3, where a high rod delivery rate is required, the rods F are fed from a plurality of sources directly on to the belts 12 towards the roller 32, refuser rolls 70 restricting the feed to the roller 32 to a single layer of rods F. The apparatus may be used for feeding cigarettes and/or filter rods to a filter tip-cigarette uniting device, or for feeding completed cigarettes to a packaging machine.