Rhone-Poulenc Rhodia Aktiengesellschaft

Thomas Leutner

Eberhard Teufel

Christoph Greiner

A method of producing at least one filter skein for cigarettes and other smokable rod-shaped articles, from at least one filter tow strip comprises the steps of: (a) drawing at least one filter tow strip, from at least one supply, (b) feeding the at least one filter tow strip to a treatment in a treatment unit; (b1) at the beginning of the treatment unit, subjecting at least one filter strip to a brake force to adjust at least the quantity to be processed, the brake force being set automatically, and (b2) afterwards, stretching and fluffing the filter tow strip(s) by the use of two pairs of rolls, wherein the surface of one roll of at least one pair of the two pairs is smooth and the other roll is profiled over its entire surface, (c) after the treatment, collecting the treated filter tow strip from step (b) in a formating unit to at least one round skein with an enveloping material to form at least one continuous, wrapped filter skein, (d) detecting and measuring a characteristic value of the produced filter skein from step c), to obtain an actual value of the characteristic value, and (e) controlling and regulating the brake force as a function of the obtained actual value from step (d) and of a predetermined desired value of the characteristic value at the beginning of the treatment in step (b1), prior to the stretching step (b2), the brake force acting on the at least one filter tow strip. The apparatus is described.

Method and apparatus for producing fiber skeins

A method for producing at least one fiber skein for the production of filters for cigarettes and for other smokable rod-shaped articles, comprises the steps of drawing from a supply at least one filter tow strip, supplying the drawn fiber strip to a subsequent treatment, in which the fiber strip is stretched and fluffed, then the treated fiber strip is collected in a formating unit to a fiber skein which is finally provided with an enveloping material, to form a continuous, wrapped fiber skein. The fiber strip of strips are exposed at the beginning of the treatment to a brake force, to adjust at least the quantity to be processed of the fiber strip of strips, the brake force being set automatically. The apparatus comprises a feed device for continuous feeding at least one fiber strip from a supply to a treatment unit in which the fed fiber strip is stretched and fluffed; a formatting unit for forming at least one wrapped separate fiber skein from the treated fiber strip; and a brake unit (4) arranged at the inlet in the treatment unit (1), which exerts an automatically settable brake force on the fiber strip, to adjust the quantity to be processed of each fiber strip to a predetermined value.

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Herbolzheim, Germany

Thomas Leutner