US2971516A - Skip feed device for cigar machine - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 14, 1961 s. T. GUSTAVSON SKIP FEED DEVICE FOR CIGAR MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 2, 1959 FIG. 1

INVENTOR.

STERUNG T. GUSTAVSON Feb. 14, 1961 s. T. GUSTAVSON 2,971,516

SKIP FEED DEVICE FOR CIGAR MACHINE Filed. Feb. 2, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VENTOR.

BY STERLING T. GUSTAVSON 2,971,516 SKIP FEED DEVICE FOR CIGAR MACHINE Sterling .T. Gustavson, Rosedale, N.Y., assignor to International Cigar Machinery Company, a corporation of New Jersey Filed Feb. 2, 1959, SenNo. 790,510 6 Claims. (Cl. 131-21) This invention relates to the measuring, severing and handling of long filler tobacco in a cigar machine. More particularly, it relates to handling of the filler in the crossfeed of a cigar machine.

It is cutomary in such machines to feed a, slight overage to the measuring chamber to insure that that unit will always be sufficiently full. When the measuring chamber is filled to a predetermined level skip feed means are provided to eliminate feed during one or more cycles of the machine. t

With certain tobaccos and particularly those of a very high moisture content, such as is employed in the manufacture of Toscani cigars, there is a tendency during the skip feed for the tobaccoto extend or creep somewhat along the belt. This produces inaccuracies in the length ofthc charge and also results in the crossfeed knife cutting a small shaving from the crossfeed stack. Such shavings then tend to obstruct mechanical portions of the machine. It is accordingly an object of the invention to prevent the creeping of certain tobaccos on a crossfeed belt during the skip feed.

. .It is more particularly antobject of my invention to provide a simple means for controlling at the skip feed mechanism, the operation of .the crossfeed presser foot, and of the vertical cutoff knife. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a modified drive means for the presser foot and the knife which may be inactivated for a cycle or more and then reactivated in cycle with the machine.

. The hotel features which I believe to be characteristic of my invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims My invention itself, however, both as to its organization and method of operation may be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the cigar machine showing a portion of the crossfeed, the measuring chamber, skip feed mehcanism, and the vertical knife and presser foot mechanisms in accordance with my invention; 7

Fig. 2 is a detailed showing of themechanism in accordance with my invention for operating the vertical knife and presser foot; 1,

Fig. 3 is a plan view, partly in section, of the crossfeed andvertical knife mechanism; and a Fig. 4 is an enlarged detailed showing of a portion of the drive means in accordance with the invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 3 of the drawings, there is shown a crossfeed conveyor 10, bottom belt 12 and side belts 14 which guide the tobacco. T beneath the presser foot 16. The belts 12 and 14 are intermittently driven by a skip feed mechanism generally indicated at 18. This type of mechanism and its drive means may be more fully understood by reference to the patent to Clause et al. 2,667,171, dated January 26, 1954.

In Fig. 1 a portion of a ratchet wheel 24 corresponding to the ratchet wheel 24' of the aforementioned patent is shown. Adjacent the ratchet wheel on a shaft 26 is pivotally mounted an arm 28 carrying an L-shaped pawl controlling member. 30. The arm '28 is urged counterscribed in'the aforesaid Clausen et'al. patent. When a feed cycle is called for, it is released by a movement 'ice of rock arm 34 caused in turn by a downward move ment of the vertical rod 36 when it is contacted by the stud37 on the measuring plunger mechanism 40.

. It should be understood that as the tobacco T is fed past the vertical knife K and severed it is pressed downward by the measuring plunger 42 into the measuring chamber 44 from the bottom of which metered quantities are removed in a well known manner. The tobacco T is fed in aquantity slightly in excess of the demands of the measuring chamber. Accordingly, when the measuring chamber is filledto a certain predetermined amount, the stud 37 on the measuring plunger apparatus will fail to strike and depress the vertical rod 36. When this occurs, arm 28 will not be released by the lock member 34 and will remain in its clockwise position resulting in a skip feed of crossfeed belts 12 and 14. The mechanism of the measuring chamber plunger 42 is operated by a cam driven vertical rod 46 which, by means of an arm 48, secured to a shaft 50, rocks the shaft 50 which in turn raises and lowers a vertical shaft 52 of the measuring plunger 42 by means of an arm 54 also secured to the shaft 50. p

Also mounted in the main frame of the machine is another rock shaft 56 (Figs. 1 and 4) on which is loosely mounted a bell crank lever 58 whose arm 60 is raised and lowered by a cam driven vertical rod 62 operating from the main cam shaft (not shown) of the machine. The other arm 64 ofbell crank lever 58 carries a square stud 66., Stud 66 may be engaged by a cutout portion of a latch 68 pivoted on the free end of an arm 70 mounted on and keyed to shaft 56. An arm 70 carries a stud 72 and serves as an anchor for a spring 74 urging the latch 68 into latching engagement with square stud 66. The stud 72 further serves as an abutment for the adjustable stud 76 mounted in a boss 78 of arm 60 of hell crank lever 58. It will be seen by reference to Fig.

rock shaft 56 downwardly and link 82 lowers the slide 84 supporting the knife K. Opposite rotation of the shaft 56 is affected only when the latch 68 is engaged with the square stud 66 to raise the knife and also, as will be seen, the presser foot 16. To the hub of the lever is secured a cam plate 86 enga ing a cam follower 93 to operate the mechanism for the presser foot 16. The latch 68 may be engaged by a cam roller 67a on the bell crank lever 67 when the lever 28 is in its clockwise position as above described and as viewed in Fig. 1. In this position the arm 67 raises the link 65 which has a lost motion slot 65a. When the end of the slot 65a engages the pin 67b, the arm 67 is moved to the right as shown in Fig. land to the left as shown in Fig. 4. This motion unlatches the. latch 68 from the square stud 66 so that no motion is transferred to the shaft 56. Hence the knife and the presser foot remain in their lowermost positions during a skip feed cycle.

. The presser foot 16 is suspended from the free end of an arm 88 pivoted. on the stud shaft 90. Also pivoted on the stud. shaft .90 is an arm 92 resiliently connected being in i ts lowermost position) Thus the pre sser foot 16 is moved only when "the i Qrtical knife K islifted. When the arm 80 withthefvert'ic knife K descends, cam

"plate 86 yieldingly presses the'presser foot down on the strip of tobacco T through the spring-loading ofspring loaded rod 94.

' Operation -The tobacco stream T is intermittently advanced along the crossfeed by predetermined increments past vertical knife K. During the intermittency of this feed the knife K and presser foot 16 move downwardly due to the cyclical reciprocation of the vertical rod 62 rocking the rock shaft 56counter-clockwise as'illustrated in Fig. 1. The purpose of the measuring chamber 44 which is one well known in the art, is to columnize the severed leading charges where they may be compressed by the presser foot 42 and while compressed a bunch charge severed from the bottom by the horizontal knife 43. The operation of the knife 43 and the removal of the bunch charge are Well known in the art and since they do not form a part of the invention further description of these parts is deemed unnecessary.

However, in order to keep the measuring chamber fully charged, the crossfeed feeds slightly more tobacco than is necessary. When the measuring chamber becomes filled to a certain predetermined height, the presser foot '42 does not descend sufficiently to contact and move the vertical rod 36. Failure of the vertical rod 36 to move results in a skip feed from the intermittent feed mechanism 18 as is more fully described in such patents as Durning 2,470,766 and Clausen et al. 2,667,171. Since the precise functioning of how the skip mechanism works is not necessary for an understanding of this invention, further description thereof is likewise thought unnecessary. The shaft 62 is cyclically reciprocated by the main drive cams of the machine.

It is believed suflicient to note that when a skip feed occurs the arm 28 remains in a clockwise position as viewed in Fig. 1 with the result that the link 65 is raised by the arm 63 which is fixed to the arm 28 and the bell crank 67 moves under latch 68 to disengage the latch 68 from the square stud'66. Thus as the arm 60 of bell crank lever 58 is raised no motion is transmitted to the arm 70 and shaft 56. Consequently, the vertical knife K remains down as does the presser foot 16. This prevents creep of the tobacco stream T along and relative to the crossfeed belts 12 and 14 and, more importantly, prevents the knife K from severing a thin slice or shaving from the leading end of the stream T. The thin slice, of course, would result from the forward creep and the knife motion. Such a shaving can cause obstruction and jamming of the machine.

When the verticalrod 36 and lock member 34 are lowered by the action of the measuring chamber plunger,

the arm 28 swings to its counter-clockwise position as viewed in Fig. 1 and this through the arm 63 and the link 65 moves the bell crank lever 67 counter-clockwise moving the roller 67a out of contact with the latch 68, which then through the urging of the spring 74 re-engages the square stud 66 prior to the commencement of the feed stroke. This results in a raising of the knife K and the presser foot 16 during the feed stroke.

I claim:

1. In a cigar machine having an intermittently advanced crossfeed for advancing a stream of tobacco filler, a vertical knife mounted to reciprocate vertically to sever advanced portions of said strip during the intermittency of feed, a presser foot to press and firm a preceding segment of said stream during the operation of said knife, a lever, said lever being mounted to move about a center and operative to raise said knife and said presser said latch.

an'oscillating member driven to oscillate about said shaft 2. In a crossfeed mechanism for a cigar machine havinga reciprocating cutoff knife, an intermittent drive to operate said crossfeed, andia skip feed mechanism for said intermittent drive, a moving member on said skip feed mechanism having a skip feed position, a rock shaft having means secured thereon operative to reciprocate said knife when said shaft is rocked, a continuously oscillating member, a crank secured to said rock shaft, latch means to drivingly connect in at least one driving direction said continuously oscillating member with said crank, and means operated by said moving member on said skip feed mechanism to contact and unlatch said latch when said skip feed mechanism is in a skip feed position.

3. In a cigar machine having a crossfeed mechanism, a a reciprocable cutoff knife, an intermittent'drive means for said crossfeed, said drive means having a pawl and ratchet action, and a mechanism associate-d with said pawl and ratchet action to render it inoperative during a feed cycle, a rock shaft, operative mechanism drivingly connecting said rock shaft with said reciprocable knife to reciprocate said knife, a reciprocating member, latch means to drivingly connect in at least one direction of reciprocation of said reciprocating member said reciprocating member and said rock shaft, and a device operated by said associated mechanism to unlatch said latch means during a skip feed cycle. 4. In a crossfeed mechanism for a cigar machine having a reciprocating cutoff knife, a presser foot, an intermittent drive to operate said crossfeed, and a skip feed mechanism for said intermittent drive, a moving memher on said skip feed mechanism movable from a feed position to a skip feed position, a rock shaft, a lever secured to said shaft and having its free end operatively connected to reciprocate said reciprocating cutoii knife, a cam on the hub of said lever, a cam follower connected to said presser foot and engaging said cam to raise and lower said presser foot when said lever and said rock shaft move, a continuously oscillating member, a mem ber radially spaced from said rock shaft and connected thereto, latch means to drivingly connect in at least one driving direction said continuously oscillating member and said radially spaced member, and means operated by said moving member on said skip feed mechanism to contact and unlatch said latch when said skip feed mechanism is in a skip feed position, whereby movement in at least one direction of said presser foot and said reciprocating knife is eliminated.

5. In a cigar machine having drive means, a measuring plunger activated by said drive means, and skip feed means activated by said measuring plunger, a rock shaft,

by said drive means, a crank fixed on said shaft, a latch mounted to connect when latched said crank with said oscillating member to rock said shaft in at least one direction, and means activated by said skip feed means when said skip feed means is activated by said measuring plunger to move said latch into unlatching position.

6. In a cigar machine having drive means, a measuring plunger activated by said drive means, and skip feed means activated by said measuring plunger, 21 rock shaft, a presser foot, a cam piece secured to said shaft and operative to raise and lower said presser foot, an oscillating member driven to oscillate about said shaft by said drive means, a crank fixed on said shaft, a latch mounted to connect when latched said crank with said oscillating member to rock said shaft in at least one direction, and means activated by said skip feed means when said skip feed means is activated by said measuring plunger to move said latch into unlatching position.

ReferencesCited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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