Philip Morris Inc.

Andrew J Gillespie

Martin T Garthaffner

Billy J Keen, Jr

Charles Gary Atwell

Ronald D Honaker

William H Smick, Iii

Ricky N Cooper

George W Dingus

William H Pettigrew

Robert E Talley

Jack C Wheless

Michael S Braunshteyn

Renzer R Ritt, Sr

Donald H Jones

Robert H Raynor

Mikhail S Braunshteyn

John C Hamersley

Terry Babbitt

A drum elevator and method of elevating cigarettes, the apparatus including a series of rotatable cigarette transferring drums including a first plurality of horizontally disposed drums at a first elevation and a second plurality of vertically disposed drums extending to a second elevation, the second plurality of vertically disposed drums receiving output from the first plurality of drums, the series of drums adapted to receive a procession of cigarettes at the first elevation and to elevate the cigarettes along a transfer path to the second elevation while maintaining the cigarettes arranged substantially in the procession; a rejection station at a location along the transfer path; a controller operative to selectively actuate the rejection station; and a stack former at the second elevation, the stack former receiving output of the second plurality of vertically disposed drums.

Drum elevator system

A drum elevator and method of elevating cigarettes, the apparatus having a series of rotatable cigarette transferring drums including a first plurality of horizontally disposed drums at a first elevation and a second plurality of vertically disposed drums extending to a second elevation, the second plurality of vertically disposed drums receiving output from the first plurality of drums, the series of drums adapted to receive a procession of cigarettes at the first elevation and to elevate the cigarettes along a transfer path to the second elevation while maintaining the cigarettes arranged substantially in the procession; a rejection station at a location along the transfer path; a controller operative to selectively actuate the rejection station; and a stack former at the second elevation, the stack former receiving output of the second plurality of vertically disposed drums.

A method and apparatus is provided for cutting a disk of material from a continuously advancing strip of material, forming the disk into a cup, and inserting the cup into the end of a tube. The apparatus comprises a first rotating member having a plurality of workstations positioned around its periphery, a second rotating member into which tubes without cups are loaded and from which tubes containing cups are unloaded, and a set of stationary cams which control the operation of the workstations. The strip of material passes around a section of the periphery of the first member, advances at the same rate as the circumferential velocity of the first member, and comes into relative stationary contact with a number of the workstations. The rotation of the first member relative to the stationary cams provides motion to a cutting mandrel, a forming mandrel, a cutting and forming die, and an insertion mandrel associated with each workstation to perform the tasks of cutting, forming, and inserting.

Method and apparatus for cutting, forming, and inserting cups into tubes

A radiant energy reflector sleeve is provided for a smoking or flavor generating article of the type having a heat source and a flavor bed which generates a flavored aerosol or other flavors when heated. The sleeve can be erected from a one-piece foil blank in a continuous or semi-continuous process as part of the assembly of the article.

Reflector sleeve for flavor generating article

Relatively fragile components for cigarette-like smoking articles are wrapped with an overwrap by bringing an exposed axial surface portion of the component into resilient contact with the overwrap, and by then rolling the component about its longidudinal axis, again by resiliently contacting the component. Smoking articles including the foregoing components as the distal component and at least one other proximal component are made by supplying a pair of distal components with their distal ends facing one another and pushed up against an interposed stop. The overwrap is slit parallel to the stop just prior to application to the distal components. After overwrapping, the distal components are reoriented so that their distal ends face away from one another. A pair of proximal components is then placed between the distal components, and each proximal component is joined to the adjacent distal component by a tipping overwrap.

Methods and apparatus for making multiple component smoking articles

The housing of web sectioning apparatus having a rotary knife assembly and a rotary cutting drum is provided with a pair of bearing surfaces. A frame is pivotally mounted on these bearing surfaces, and the rotary knife assembly is rotatably mounted to the frame eccentrically of the pivot axis between the frame and the housing. Thus, by pivoting the frame relative to the housing, the axis of rotation of the rotary knife assembly can be moved towards or away from the cutting drum to adjust the degree of engagement between the edges of the knife assembly and the cutting drum. Clamps are provided to force the frame against the bearing surfaces of the apparatus to prevent movement at the pivot axis between the frame and housing during operation. These clamps are released to allow adjustment. The frame can be pivoted in small increments to finely adjust the position of the knife assembly rotation axis relative to the cutting drum.

Web sectioning apparatus with adjustable knife engagement

The knives of a rotary cutter assembly are mounted on a centrally disposed pivot and elastic means are used to apply bias force to the knife ends to normally maintain the cutting edges of the knives substantially parallel with the axis about which the rotary cutter assembly rotates, the mounting being such to allow the knives to pivot when contacting the surface of a rotary drum against which they operate to assure that the cutting edges are parallel to the drum surface during the actual cutting through of a material web passing in a winding course on the drum. Additionally, means for adjusting the radial positioning of the pivots relatively of the said cutter assembly axis of rotation are included and means for locking the pivots in a particular position are also included.

Growing community of inventors

Richmond, VA, United States of America

Andrew J Gillespie