Japan Tobacco Inc.

The Japan Tobacco Salt Public Corporation

Tokyo Automatic Machinery Works, Ltd.

Sanjo Machine Works, Ltd.

Japan Tobacco Inc./tokyo Automatic Machinery Works Ltd.

Tadao Etani

Koichiro Obara

Yoshiyuki Muto

Toshio Shigeta

Taizo Ogata

Satoru Aida

Hiromitsu Ohara

Sumio Honda

Shinya Kato

A cigarette supplying apparatus is provided with supplying passages each having a lower end, and holding members each having a jaw portion directed upward from a horizontal plane. Each holding member is provided on the lower portion of each supplying passage and engageably holds a cigarette. Receiving depressions are formed in a receiving member of each receiving drum. The cigarette is disengaged from the jaw portion by the receiving member and then received in the receiving depression. Secure mechanical holding of the cigarette on the jaw portion obviates a negative pressure mechanism such as suction holes and simplifies the structure of the apparatus. Since the cigarette is disengaged from the jaw portion and then received in the receiving depression, secure operation of the apparatus is ensured.

Cigarette supplying apparatus

A plurality of cigarette piling heads are provided on a cigarette piling drum. The same number of cigarettes as the number of cigarettes in a cigarette package are piled on each cigarette piling head. An intermediate drum includes the same number of cigarette holding heads as the number of the cigarette piling heads and is provided at an axial end of the cigarette piling drum. A pushing-out drum has the same number of pushers as the number of the cigarette piling heads and is disposed at the other axial end of the cigarette piling drum. The cigarettes on each cigarette piling head are transferred to the corresponding cigarette holding head. The intermediate drum is disposed adjacent to and at a side of the first drum of a packing apparatus. The cigarette holding heads swing synchronously with packing heads of the intermediate drum. The cigarette piling heads swing synchronously with the cigarette holding heads of the first drum.

Apparatus for piling and transferring cigarettes

An apparatus for arranging, side by side, cigarettes to form three cigarette layers, seven, six and seven cigarettes in the corresponding layers, the total number being twenty cigarettes and piling the cigarette layers on one after another in a staggered way to form a three-layered cigarette package. Twenty cigarette supplying passages are provided so as to communicate with the bottom portion of a hopper. Cigarettes are supplied to the cigarette supplying passages in an aligned state. Cigarettes are taken out one by one from the bottom end of each cigarette supplying passage and supplied to three cigarette arranging drums on which three cigarette layers are formed. The cigarette layers on these cigarette arranging drums are transferred to a cigarette piling drum through transfer drums disposed between the cigarette arranging drums and the cigarette piling drum and piled on each cigarette piling head of the cigarette piling drum to form a three-layered cigarette stack. The arrangement of the transfer drums between the cigarette transfer drums and the cigarette piling drum widens the distance between the adjacent cigarette arranging drums, allows the cigarette supplying passages to extend substantially vertically and linearly, thereby facilitating smooth transfer of cigarette in the apparatus and reducing the diameter of the cigarette piling drum so as to speed up the operation of the apparatus.

Apparatus for arranging and piling cigarettes

A piling machine of a cigarette packaging apparatus comprises a number of transferring drums disposed between the respective aligning drums of the apparatus for aligning a given number of cigarettes in rows and the piling drum for piling rows of cigarettes into layers in an orderly and staggered manner in the cigarette packaging apparatus. The transferring drums are provided with suction nozzles and ejection nozzles so that the system is capable of holding cigarettes coming from the aligning drums to the transferring drums by negative pressure in the suction nozzles and ejecting the cigarettes on any of the transferring drums of the apparatus by applying compressed air through the ejection nozzles whenever one or more than one defective cigarettes are detected in the row of cigarettes on any of the transfer ring drums or when the row of cigarettes on the transferring drum contains an insufficient number of cigarettes.

Cigarette ejecting apparatus of a cigarette packaging apparatus

A variable speed transferring device for a cigarette parallel-arranging device used in a cigarette wrapping apparatus comprises variable speed transferring drums disposed between a plurality of cigarette parallel-arranging drums for holding groups of parallel-arranged cigarettes and a cigarette piling drum. Each variable speed transferring drum is provided on its peripheral surface with holding grooves for holding at least one group of parallel-arranged cigarettes and is rotated by a variable speed driving mechanism at a lower speed when the holding grooves face the variable speed transferring drums and at a higher speed when the holding grooves face the piling drum. Since the peripheral speed of the receiving drums disposed upstream of the variable speed transferring drums is lowered, the shock applied to cigarettes when they are received by the receiving drums from cigarette supplying passageways is reduced and the speed-up of the operation of the variable speed transferring device is achieved.

Variable speed transferring device fo a cigarette wrapping apparatus

Apparatus for attaching seal-strip segments to individual packages, where the segments are in the form of a strip having opposed surfaces, includes a transfer element moveable periodically between a receiving position for receiving a segment from a supply thereof and a transfer position for transferring the segment. The transfer element releasably holds a segment with one surface thereof in contact with the element. A rotatable turret is provided having a plurality of stations at equal angular positions about the axis of rotation of the turret, each station having a support surface for supporting a segment. Rotation of the turret is synchronized with movement of the transfer element such that, during one revolution of the turret, a different one of the stations is operatively associated with the transfer element each time the latter moves to its transfer position. At each station, a holder is made effective when the station is operatively associated with the transfer element for effecting a transfer of a segment from the transfer element to the station such that the other surface of the segment is held in contact with the support surface of the station and the opposite surface is exposed. An adhesive applicator is used to apply adhesive to the exposed surface of the segments held by the stations. Finally, the turret has an angular position at which a surface of a package tangentially contacts a station for adhering a segment held thereon to the package.

Apparatus for applying seal-strips to packages travelling on a conveyor

Apparatus for automatically threading the leading end of a web spooled on a reel into one end of a conveying passage includes a draw-out lever having a web support surface and movable to a first position at which the support surface engages the web spooled on the reel. A nipping finger is provided which is actuatable to trap the leading end of the web against the surface when the lever is in its first position. The lever is movable to a second position at which the support surface is spaced from the web spooled on the reel for unspooling the web from the reel. A feed mechanism is made effective after the lever is moved to its second position, and after the nipping finger has been deactuated, for engaging the unspooled web and feeding the leading end thereof into the conveying passage.

Apparatus for automatically threading the leading edge of a spooled web

An apparatus of this invention includes first and second supply rolls of wrapping film sheets. The film sheet is fed from first supply roll to a wrapping machine. The distal end of the film sheet of the second supply roll is partially fixed by an adhesive tape. In this state, the film sheet cannot be fed from the second supply roll. The second supply roll can be rotated in the forward or reverse direction. The apparatus also includes a knife for cutting the adhesive tape of the second supply roll. When the remaining length of the film sheet fed from the first supply roll becomes short, the knife is brought into contact with the outer surface of the second supply roll. By utilizing the rotation of the roll, the knife is inserted under the distal end of the film sheet of the second supply roll. Thereafter, the knife is moved along the outer surface of the second supply roll in the axial direction thereof, thereby cutting the adhesive tape of the second supply roll. The apparatus also includes a belt conveyor for feeding the film sheet fed from the second supply roll to the feed path of the film sheet fed from the first supply roll.

Apparatus for continuously supplying sheets from supply rolls

An oil sealing bearing for an axially reciprocating shaft is provided. Tobacco products are evaluated in terms of their fragrance or aroma, however the reciprocating shaft through the oil sealing bearing is required to effect its function reliably and very quickly, that is the reciprocating shaft requires

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Tokyo, Japan

Tadao Etani