Philip Morris Inc.

Rayco Industries, Inc.

Ronald L Edwards

Harry V Lanzillotti

Edwin L Cutright

Richard E Thatcher

Jon R Butt, Sr

Navin Gautam

Tyrone W Murray

D Anh Phan

Thomas E Dougherty

Thomas L Fillio

Phillip L Ursery

Vladimir Hampl, Jr

Hugh H Anderson

Horace L Odom

H Edmund Clark

A method and apparatus of manufacturing a web which is striped with add-on material, comprising: a first arrangement which establishes a sheet of base web from a first slurry and moves the established sheet along a first path; a second arrangement for preparing a second slurry; a moving orifice applicator operative so as to repetitively discharge the second slurry upon the moving sheet of base web, the moving orifice applicator comprising: a chamber box arranged to establish a reservoir of the second slurry across the first path; an endless belt having an orifice, the endless belt received through the chamber box; a drive arrangement operative upon the endless belt to continuously move the orifice along an endless path and repetitively through the chamber box, the orifice when communicated with the reservoir being operative to discharge the second slurry from the reservoir through the orifice; a flow distribution system for introducing the second slurry into the chamber box at spaced-apart feed locations along the chamber box; a flow monitoring system for reading fluid pressure at spaced-apart locations along the chamber box; and a controller arranged to identify which of the feed ports is operatively adjacent a monitored location of highest pressure variation, the controller selectively adjusting output of the flow distribution system at the identified feed location counteractively to the highest pressure variation, the controller adjusting output of a remainder of the feed locations counteractively to the output adjustment at the identified feed location.

Method and apparatus for applying a material to a web

An improved nail transfer device includes an inlet and an outlet with a transfer passage disposed therebetween. A cycling indexer transfers nails one at a time from the inlet to the outlet. A first magnet draws a nail from the inlet to the transfer passage and a second magnet adjacent to the outlet dislodges the nails from the transfer passage and loads the nail into the automatic nail gun.

Nail transfer apparatus

A tobacco leaf mixture containing lighter and heavier fractions is fed into one side of a housing while an airstream flow is introduced at the other side of the housing and in an upwardly directed flow course so as to cause it to entrain the lighter fraction of the mixture therein, with the heavier fraction falling to the bottom of the housing. A suction lift is maintained at the top of the housing to increase the velocity of the lighter fraction containing air flow outwardly from the housing. The lighter fraction containing air flow is then delivered to a separator unit to recover the lighter fraction. The lighter fraction can, for example, be the laminae material from which shredded cigarette tobacco filler is made.

Method and apparatus for separating tobacco mixture into lighter and

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Richmond, VA, United States of America

Ronald L Edwards