Japan Tobacco Inc.

Kazuyu Adachi

Shuichi Sato

Mikio Komori

Masayoshi Saito

In an apparatus for detecting micro-holes of a cigarette having a filtered section, cigarettes are successively carried to a support section which is rotated and each of the cigarettes is supported between pads 14a and 14b. The supported cigarette is moved to a pre-pressuring stage in which one end face of the cigarette is closed and a pre-pressure is applied to other end face of the cigarette from a pre-pressure source. Therefore, the cigarette is reached to a measuring stage in which a measuring pressure is applied to the other end face of the cigarette so that air flows through micro-holes of the filter section and a reduced pressure is appeared in the one end of the cigarette. The measuring and reduces pressures are detected by pressure transducers and electrical signals from the transducers are proceed so that dilution value of the cigarette is calculated.

Method and apparatus for detecting micro-holes or examining the state of

In an apparatus for forming micro-holes on a cigarette, a laser beam is divided into first and second laser beams by a two-dividing mirror. Parts of the laser beams are detected by photo detectors, respectively and the other parts of the laser beams are guided to polyhedron mirrors through first and second optical paths and divided into segment beams by the mirrors, respectively. The segments beams are focused on the corresponding cigarette so that micro-holes are formed on the cigarette. The cigarette is transferred to a dilution detection stage and the dilution is detected in mode, detection signals from the photodetector are processed and a first driving signal is generated. Thus, the two-dividing mirror is driver by a driving mechanism in accordance with the first driving signal so that the intensity of the laser beams guided in the first and second optical paths are maintained in substantially equal level. In an stable driving mode, a second driving signal which is determined in accordance with the detected dilution is applied to the driving mechanism in stead of the first driving signal so that the two-dividing mirror is a driven in accordance with the second driving signal.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Kazuyu Adachi