Molins Plc

Francis A Labbe

Desmond W Molins

Dennis Hinchcliffe

Edward G Preston

Hugh M Arthur

Ivan Yehudi Hirsh

Paul R Wiese

Jan A Rakowicz

Godfrey A Wood

John R Nowers

Ronald A Ahern

Derek H Dyett

Robert E Williams

Clifford Russell Marritt

Brian A Hodsall

Paul Dingli

Edward J Orpin

Air is blown into filter tow during or immediately after the application of plasticizer; this foams and distributes the plasticizer in the tow. Air may be delivered from a porous plate closely adjacent to the path of the tow or from nozzles in an air injecting unit. Alternatively air may be used to foam plasticizer at a location remote from the tow and foamed plasticizer subsequently conveyed to and into the tow by a roller.

Applying fluid additive to fibrous material

Loss of tobacco from the ends of cigarettes is reduced or prevented by applying foamed adhesive thereto. The foam may in general be blown onto the cigarette ends [(FIGS. 1, 2 and 4)] or may be 'printed' onto the cigarette ends [(FIG. 3 and FIGS. 5 and 6)]. The expansion ratio of the foam in preferably at least 10:1, so that very little liquid adhesive is needed to contact a significant area of tobacco. Thus the liquid content of the adhesive may be readily absorbed into the tobacco so as not to create a drying problem. In a preferred example [(FIG. 1)] foam is supplied by a pipe [24] to fill apertures on a disc [20] from which measured quantities of foam are blown by an air jet from a pipe [28.] Suction is applied to the filter ends [108]of the cigarettes via a manifold [18] and flexible seals [12C] to help in drawing the foam into the cigarettes.

Cigarette manufacture

A cigarette making machine includes a channel (10; 100; 204) through which tobacco is pneumatically conveyed to form a cigarette filler stream (15; 209) on a conveyor (12; 130; 220) at the outlet of the channel, a first louvre (20; 110; 214) through which some of the air entering the channel through its inlet end is drawn from the channel while tobacco continues towards the conveyor, and a second louvre (22; 120; 216), closer than the first louvre to the outlet end of the channel, through which an additional amount of the air entering the channel is drawn while the tobacco continues towards the conveyor. The channel (202) may be arranged to extend around a cylinder with an inclined axis (208) so that upward movement of the tobacco is converted into approximately horizontal movement with a substantial component in the direction of movement of the conveyor (200) on which the tobacco collects to form a cigarette filler stream (209).

Cigarette making machine

A method of and apparatus for feeding tobacco pneumatically from a common supply station and substantially continuously to a number of cigarette making machines, in which tobacco is drawn from a common tobacco-spreading feed table at the supply station by a number of pipes leading to the respective cigarette making machines at an average controlled rate for each pipe which corresponds to the rate at which tobacco is used by the corresponding cigarette making machine. In one preferred form of apparatus, each feed pipe includes a buffer which receives all the tobacco drawn intermittently into the pipe and from which tobacco is fed continuously at a variable rate into a downstream portion of the pipe.

A cigarette making machine has an arrangement for showering tobacco A (a high-taste tobacco) on to a first conveyor carrying outward projections defining the ends of portions of tobacco A which are then transferred at spaced intervals to a second conveyor arranged thereafter to receive a layer of tobacco B (a low-tar tobacco or substitute) filling the spaces between the portions of tobacco A and extending over those portions. The machine includes a trimming device for removing excess tobacco B to form a cigarette filler stream ready for enclosing in a paper wrapper to form a continuous rod. This allows the manufacture of 'light' cigarettes of which the first few puffs have an enhanced taste as a result of the tobacco A at the lit end.

Loss of tobacco from the ends of cigarettes is reduced or prevented by applying foamed adhesive thereto. The foam may in general be blown onto the cigarette ends or may be 'printed' onto the cigarette ends. The expansion ratio of the foam in preferably at least 10:1, so that very little liquid adhesive is needed to contact a significant area of tobacco. Thus the liquid content of the adhesive may be readily absorbed into the tobacco so as not to create a drying problem. In a preferred example foam is supplied by a pipe to fill apertures on a disc from which measured quantities of foam are blown by an air jet from a pipe. Suction is applied to the filter ends of the cigarettes via a manifold and flexible seals to help in drawing the foam into the cigarettes.

Method and apparatus for minimizing loose ends in cigarettes

A cigarette making machine includes a channel (10; 100; 204) through which tobacco is pneumatically conveyed to form a cigarette filler stream (15; 209) on a conveyor (12; 130; 200) at the outlet of the channel, a first louvre (20; 110; 214) through which some of the air entering the channel through its inlet end is drawn from the channel while tobacco continues towards the conveyor, and a second louvre (22; 120; 216), closer than the first louvre to the outlet end of the channel, through which an additional amount of the air entering the channel is drawn while the tobacco continues towards the conveyor. The channel (202) may be arranged to extend around a cylinder with an inclined axis (208) so that upward movement of the tobacco is converted into approximately horizontal movement with a substantial component in the direction of movement of the conveyor (200) on which the tobacco collects to form a cigarette filler stream (209).

Apparatus for assembling and forming first and second articles of rod-like configuration into at least one composite rod includes a wheel (14) for alternately axially separating the first articles or tobacco sections (10) which are then transversely shifted in opposite directions by a wheel (16) onto two parallel moving conveyors on which the first articles or tobacco sections are spaced axially forming respective rod lines (11A, 11B). The second articles or filter portions (20) are conveyed towards the respective conveyors and introduced into the spaces between the first articles or tobacco sections on each rod line by means of a further wheel (18). The second articles or filter portions may be initially supplied as a single line and divided into two streams by staggering on the wheel (18). Some of the first articles or tobacco sections and second articles or filter portions on each rod line are moved axially relative to other first and second articles to assemble them into spaced groups by a timing wheel (28). A single continuous wrapper (104) may be longitudinally slit and then cut into wrapper sections. The wrapper sections are wrapped around the assembled first articles or tobacco sections and second articles or filter portions to unite the assembled first and second articles in each rod line.

Conveying rod-like articles

Filter cigarettes are produced by uniting tobacco sections (12, 122) and filter portions (21, 120) with a wrapper (28, 124) which carries a relatively thick circumferential bead (126) of adhesive or other filler material to provide an effective seal around the cigarette. The cigarettes may be assembled on parallel assembly lines (16, 18) supplied with tobacco sections from a common maker line (10) by a carrier conveyor (14) arranged to supply alternate sections to different assembly lines disposed at 90.degree. to the maker line.

Uniting rod-like articles, particularly for filter cigarette manufacture

Apparatus for applying fluid additive to a stream of fibrous material such as a filter tow. The apparatus provides structure for blowing air into the filter tow during or immediately after the application of the fluid additive, a plasticiser; this foams and distributes the plasticiser in the tow. Air may be delivered from a porous plate closely adjacent to the path of the tow or from nozzles in an air injecting unit. Alternatively air may be used to foam plasticiser at a location remote from the tow and foamed plasticiser subsequently conveyed to and into the tow by a roller.

Apparatus for applying fluid additive to fibrous material

In the production of filter cigarettes by a process in which the tobacco sections and filter portions are united while moving in an axial direction, the wrapper sections are resiliently pressed onto the abutting tobacco sections and filter portions, preferably by resilient pads. The pads are carried by a suction conveyor and their spacing may be adjusted by means for changing their timing or path length, to suit different lengths of tobacco sections and filter portions. The tobacco sections and filter portions may be assembled on a suction conveyor adapted to allow axial adjustment of the position of a conveyed article following slight lateral displacement of the article to reduce the suction grip of the conveyor.

Conveying and uniting rod-like articles of the tobacco industry

Apparatus for feeding tobacco pneumatically into a cigarette making machine has a duct defined on one side by a wall whose width (i.e. in cross-section) increases along the length of the duct from an inlet end to an outlet end, is concave in longitudinal section so that centrifugal force on the tobacco will urge the tobacco against that wall of the duct, and carries a splitter member arranged to split the tobacco stream flowing along the said wall into separate streams passing along opposite sides of the splitter member, and to spread apart the two streams. From the outlet end of the duct, the air and tobacco pass into an air separator from which the tobacco passes via a rotary seal into the hopper of a cigarette making machine. The rotary seal may have special provision for preventing tobacco being trapped and crushed between the rotary part and the surrounding housing of the seal.

Oval filter cigarettes are made by forming rod groups each comprising at least one cigarette portion and at least one filter portion in axial alignment; placing each rod group on a wrapping member rotatably carried by a conveyor having a succession of such wrapping members, each group being provided with a portion of uniting paper overlapping the members of the group; and rotating each wrapping member with respect to the conveyor about an axis parallel to that of the rods so as to wrap the uniting paper of least partly around the corresponding rod group. During rotation of each wrapping member the uniting paper may be gripped by suction ports to provide a tight wrap.

Filter cigarette manufacture

A method and apparatus for packing batches of cigarettes, in which batches B are transferred from a hopper 10 into compression boxes 16 of an intermittent conveyor 14, and are then packaged (e.g. in soft packs) while passing along continuous conveyors 22, 30 and 38. Compressed batches B are transferred into U-shaped foil wrappers F1 in compartments 28 of the conveyor 22, when folding flaps 88 fold over the two sides of the wrapper before the transfer is completed (FIG. 4). In a modification, the batches are formed from a continuous stream of cigarettes (FIGS. 8 and 9), and any voids V in the stream are filled by an intermittent acceleration rotor 350 (FIG. 11).

Cigarette packing machines

This application describes various possible modifications in the cigarette machine hopper described in G.B. specification No. 2,045,595. In particular, as shown in FIG. 2, a concave member 126 around a carded roller 23 from which tobacco is removed by a picker roller 24 has a straight land 126A along which the tobacco is propelled by the picker roller.

Growing community of inventors

Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

Francis A Labbe