B.a.t. Cigarettenfabriken Gmbh

Friedrich Walther

Meinhard Meyer

Hartmut Federle

Arno Weiss

Wilfried Stiller

Paul-Georg Henning

Jorn Ulrich

Friedrich Weinhold

Heinz-Werner Masurat

Manfred Kuhne

Horst Gaisser

Werner Wollburg

A device provides a directed supply of tobacco ribs to a cutting tool. A vibrator conveyor conveys the tobacco ribs into the inlet area of a press conveyor disposed upstream of the cutting tool. The vibrator conveyor includes vertical partitions extending in the direction of tobacco rib transport. The intervals between the partitions are less than the average tobacco rib length. A device regulates the level of the tobacco rib flow transported between the partitions. Tobacco ribs can be precisely aligned in the axial direction prior to cutting, and can be transferred to the cutting tool without any loss of orientation.

Device for the directed supply of tobacco ribs to a cutting tool

An apparatus for the continuous determination of two physical properties of the constituents of a smokable article from the mechanical properties of a rod of tobacco or filter fibres during the production of said rod employs a format finger for compacting the rod of tobacco or filter fibres to a predetermined diameter; the format finger made from hard metal comprises at a first point, at which the diameter of the rod corresponds substantially to the diameter of the finished rod, at least one opening for subjecting the rod to a gas stream; the one or each opening is connected via a critically traversed nozzle in a supply conduit to a gas source; a measuring-value transducer determines the pressure drop of the gas stream with constant volume occurring at the rod and thus the draw resistance. At a second point of the format finger a transducer of the temperature of the format finger caused by the friction heat at a predetermined conveying speed of the rod is disposed in a blind bore; said temperature represents a measure for the hardness of the smokable article.

Apparatus for the continuous determination of two physical properties of

In a method for controlling at least two physical properties, decisive for the quality of the finished smokable article, of a material rod of filter or tobacco material for the manufacture of smokable articles, in particular in filter or cigarette manufacture, the actual values of said properties are detected, the respective differences between the actual and desired values are determined and from the differences determined control signals are obtained for actuating elements influencing the mass of the material making up the rod; to facilitate the generation of the desired values, the control is performed during start-up or when specific events occur by means of only a single primary product parameter. On reaching the desired value for this primary product parameter, the associated actual values for at least one other secondary product parameter are detected; and at least one of said actual values is used after calculation and evaluation as desired value for the then switched on or added control by means of said secondary product parameter.

Method for controlling at least two of the physical properties, decisive

In a method and an apparatus for controlling the physical properties of a rod of smokable material the actual values of at least two physical properties, in particular resistance to draw and hardness or deformation of the tobacco rod or of the smokable article, are detected; the differences between said actual values and predetermined desired values are determined and control signals derived therefrom; said control signals are compared with each other and the particular instantaneously largest control signal is supplied to a single actuator, that is an ecreteur or a hopper. An auto-selector circuit with maximum selection is used to compare the control signals.

Method and apparatus for controlling at least two physical properties,

A device for determining continuously the hardness of a smokable article, more particularly a cigarette, from the mechanical properties of a rod of tobacco fibres during the manufacture of this smokable article, which ascertains the temperature of the former finger which compacts the rod of tobacco fibres to a predetermined diameter dependent on the diameter of the finished smokable article. This temperature measurement, which can be carried out by a thermocouple element, a resistance thermometer or a semiconductor temperature sensor, represents an exact reproducible measure of the hardness of the smokable article which is produced with this rod of tobacco fibres.

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Bargteheide, Germany

Friedrich Walther