Hauni-werke Korber & Co Kg.

Korber Ag

Hauni Maschinenbau Ag

Peter Brand

Uwe Heitmann

Peter Pinck

Heinz-Christen Lorenzen

Adolf Helms

Anton Baier

Wolfgang Steiniger

Werner Komossa

Berthold Maiwald

Wolfgang Siems

Rolf Lindemann

Gerhard Hensgen

Herbert Berlin

Franz P Koch

Andreas Ducci

Peter Menzel

Siegfried Abrahams

The distributor of a cigarette rod maker has a chamber bounded at least in part by a concave guide for a flow of fragments of smokable material in a stream of transporting fluid, such as air. The stream contains a surplus which is withdrawn from a centrally located zone of the chamber by a stationary apparatus having at its underside an inlet for the entry of surplus fluid and containing a nozzle which conveys the surplus fluid to a suction pipe serving to convey the surplus from the chamber.

Apparatus for evacuating surplus air for the distributor of a tobacco

A tobacco distributor wherein a flow of tobacco particles is delivered to a rotary carded drum by a duct which is at least substantially horizontal so that the overall height of the distributor can be reduced accordingly. The duct comprises or cooperates with devices which segregate fragments of rock and/or fragments of metallic material from the flow which is being advanced into the range of the carding on the drum. The latter converts the flow into a carpet which is ready to be transformed into one or more continuous rod-shaped fillers. The duct is agitated to promote the advancement of the flow from its receiving section to its discharge end at the carded drum.

Distributor for particles of tobacco and the like

A tobacco stream which is built at the underside of the lower reach of an endless foraminous belt conveyor is monitored by a detector which generates a signal in response to detection of excessive accumulations of tobacco in the stream. Such signals are used to interrupt the delivery of a tobacco flow to the belt conveyor, to arrest the device which supplies tobacco that forms the flow, to remove tobacco from the belt conveyor, and to restart the delivery of tobacco to the belt conveyor, to restart the tobacco supplying device, and to deactivate the tobacco removing device when the stream is removed from the belt conveyor. The interruption of delivery involves diversion of tobacco into a path which leads to a magazine. The tobacco removing device can include a valve which deactivates a suction chamber serving to attract tobacco to the belt conveyor, a mechanical tobacco remover and/or one or more nozzles which serve to blow compressed air against tobacco on the belt conveyor.

Method of and apparatus for eliminating irregularities from a stream of

The diameters of successive rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry are ascertained while the articles advance in the flutes of a conveyor, first along a rolling unit which turns successive articles at random through different angles and thereupon past a photoelectronic detector wherein a radiation source emits a narrow beam of radiation which impinges upon successive articles for intervals of time which are dependent upon the diameters of the articles. The transducer of the detector generates signals which are indicative of the monitored diameters, and such signals are transmitted to an evaluating circuit which controls an ejector for unsatisfactory articles and/or displays the monitored diameters on a screen. The articles are partially lifted off the conveyor by cushions of compressed air during transport past the rolling unit.

Method of and apparatus for rolling rod-shaped articles

Belt conveyors which advance two or more discrete streams of fibrous material past discrete surplus removing equalizing devices are guided in such a way that the portions of streams which are in the process of being trimmed are spaced apart from each other stream. This renders it possible to employ reliable equalizing devices having pairs of coplanar rotary trimming discs. The conveyors are guided by pulleys and/or their marginal portions extend into grooves which are provided in the sidewalls of channels for the streams of fibrous material. The equalizing devices are staggered with respect to each other in the direction of transport of the streams.

Method of and apparatus for building, guiding and trimming streams of

A first stream of tobacco particles is subdivided into several narrower streams at a diverting station where the lowermost portions of several upwardly sloping panels are inclined with reference to each other and with reference to a foremost panel which guides the first stream. First nozzles which discharge compressed air are used to compel the particles of the first stream to advance along the concave upper side of the foremost panel, and additional nozzles are used to discharge compressed air which compels the second streams to advance along the concave upper sides of the respective panels. The distribution of particles across the first stream and/or at the diverting station can be regulated by one or more partitions at the diverting station, by nozzles which blow particles across the first stream, by a pivotable flap in the distributor which supplies particles to the building zone for the first stream, or by a pivotable flap in a vibratory conveyor which returns to the distributor surplus particles removed from the second streams during their conversion into rod-like fillers of discrete tobacco rods.

Method of and apparatus for simultaneously making plural tobacco streams

A cigarette rod making machine wherein the distributor forms a continuous stream of tobacco particles including freshly admitted tobacco particles and surplus which is removed from the stream by a trimming device. Fresh tobacco particles are drawn from a duct and are converted into a shower which is classified prior to admission of the surplus. The surplus is admitted across the full width of the shower of fresh tobacco in such quantities that the combined mass of the surplus and fresh tobacco in the trimmed stream is substantially constant. This is achieved by monitoring the quantity of surplus which is removed from the stream and regulating the rate of admission of fresh tobacco in accordance with the characteristics of signals denoting the monitored quantities of the surplus.

Method and apparatus for building a continuous stream of tobacco or the

A shower of fibrous material is directed against the underside of the lower reach of a foraminous endless belt conveyor so that the fibrous material gathers into a continuous stream which is attracted to the conveyor by suction and is moved longitudinally past a trimming device which removes the surplus. The density of the stream is monitored upstream and downstream of the trimming device, and the corresponding signals are processed in an evaluating circuit into additional signals which are indicative of the quantity of the removed surplus. The removed surplus is weighed and the weighing device generates signals also denoting the quantity of the surplus. Such signals are compared with the additional signals and further signals, which denote the differences between the intensities of the compared signals, are used to modify signals denoting the density of the stream downstream of the trimming device. The thus modified signals are used to adjust the trimming device. This ensures that, if the density monitoring operation is carried out by detectors employing sources of infrared light, signals which are generated by such detectors are not affected by certain variable parameters of the fibrous material, such as by the color of tobacco shreds.

Method of and apparatus for making a rod of fibrous material

A shock absorber with a variable damping characteristic has a piston which is reciprocable in a cylinder to divide the oil-filled interior of the cylinder into two chambers. The chambers are connectable to each other by way of several passages including a first set for permitting the flow of damping fluid from one chamber into the other chamber through a first one-way valve in response to movement of the piston rod into the cylinder, and a second set of passages which permit the fluid to flow from the other chamber into the one chamber in response to extraction of the piston rod from the cylinder. The piston is further formed with several bypass channels which are adjacent one another and wherein the flow of fluid between the two chambers (either directly or by way of selected passages) is regulated by cores which are movable axially in response to energization of inductance coils or in response to dissipation of energy by springs. The number of energized coils determines the rate of fluid flow by way of one or more bypass channels to thus influence the damping characteristic of the shock absorber.

Shock absorber

The wrappers of filter cigarettes are tested during transport in the peripheral flutes of a drum-shaped conveyor through a testing station where at least one end of the wrapper receives air at a previously stabilized pressure. The stabilized pressure is monitored by an electropneumatic transducer which further monitors the pressure differential between the interior and the exterior of the wrapper at the testing station and transmits appropriate signals to a computer which generates test signals by forming a quotient from the signals denoting the pressure differential and the signals denoting the stabilized pressure. The computer can further process and evaluate signals denoting a selected reference pressure as well as the pressure of air which is used to reduce the likelihood of leakage of air from the interior of the wrapper at the testing station.

Method and apparatus for testing rod-shaped articles of the tobacco

The diameter of a continuous filter rod is monitored in a tubular nozzle through which successive increments of the rod are conveyed axially and which directs against the external surface of the tubular envelope of the rod a narrow annular stream of compressed air at a pressure which does not result in deformation of the envelope. The thus admitted air is permitted to escape into the atmosphere only by way of two narrow passages which flank the region of contact between the air stream and the envelope. A flow meter indirectly monitors the rate of flow of air through such passages and generates signals which are indicative of the diameters of successive increments of the envelope. The pressure of the air stream which impinges upon the envelope is constant. The permeability of the material of the envelope can be ascertained by a discrete testing unit, and the results of such test are processed with the results of monitoring of the diameter by a computer which transmits signals serving to adjust the machine, to actuate an alarm or to arrest the machine.

Method and apparatus for monitoring the diameters of rod-shaped products

Pileups of tobacco particles at or between the inlet of the draping mechanism and the stream forming station in a cigarette maker are ascertained by a device which monitors the density of successive increments of the cigarette stream prior or subsequent to trimming or the extent of deformation of the finger which compresses the trimmed stream in the garniture of the cigarette maker. The monitoring device generates signals which are utilized to automatically interrupt the admission of tobacco particles into the stream forming channel.

Method and apparatus for regulating the operation of machines for the

Apparatus for selectively transferring cigarettes, uniting bands or other discrete articles from a first onto a second conveyor has a first suction generating device which communicates with suction ports in the periphery of the cylindrical rotor of the first conveyor while such ports advance along a first portion of a first endless path, and a discrete second suction generating device which can be activated to draw air from the ports in a second portion of the first path adjacent to a portion of a second endless path defined by the second conveyor. When the second suction generating device is activated, the articles which reach the second portion of the first path are not transferred onto the second conveyor. The second suction generating device can constitute an injector which can be activated or deactivated by a valve within a few milliseconds. Such injector can receive compressed gas from a source which is further connected with a pipe admitting compressed gas into the ports of the second conveyor during travel of such ports past the transfer station between the two conveyors and while the second suction generating device is activated. The ports in the first portion are sealed from the ports in the second portion of the first path by a stationary valve member.

Apparatus for transporting and classifying discrete articles of the

A cigarette testing apparatus wherein a rotary drum-shaped conveyor has axially parallel peripheral flutes for cigarettes and is flanked by two swash plates which rotate therewith and carry annuli of elastically deformable sealing elements for the respective ends of cigarettes on the conveyor. Each sealing element has a socket facing the adjacent end of the cigarette in the corresponding flutes of the conveyor when the cigarette is inserted into the flutes. The swash plates thereupon move the sealing elements nearer to the ends of the cigarettes therebetween whereby the ends of the cigarettes enter the corresponding sockets and displace transversely extending partitions of the sealing elements with attendant radial contraction of those tubular sections of the sealing elements which surround the respective sockets. This moves the internal surfaces of such sections into sealing engagement with the external surfaces of the ends of the cigarettes during transport of cigarettes through the testing station where the cigarettes receive streams of testing fluid flowing through centrally located apertures of the adjacent partitions. The sealing elements have thin-walled annular membranes flanking the respective partitions to allow for movement of the partitions in response to the application of pressure by the respective ends of a cigarette as well as to facilitate radial deformation of the tubular sections in response to such displacement of the partitions. The sealing elements reassume their undeformed states when they move away from the respective ends of the cigarette therebetween in response to further rotation of the swash plates.

Apparatus for testing cigarettes or the like

A method of monitoring filters and sections in a filter tipping machine wherein pairs of coaxial plain cigarettes are united with filter plugs of double unit legnth by adhesive-coated bands. When a filter plug is missing, a mechanical or a photosensitive filter plug detector transmits a signal to a valve which admits compressed air to two nozzles to cause the plain cigarettes which are not separated by a filter plug to move toward each other so that a uniting band which is applied around the adjacent inner end portions of the thus shifted plain cigarettes can adequately connect the plain cigarettes to each other during further transport to a station where the united plain cigarettes can be readily segregated from satisfactory products.

Growing community of inventors

Hamburg, Germany

Peter Brand