Apparatus for testing cigarettes or the like

Abstract

A testing apparatus for cigarettes or the like has a rotary drum having axially parallel flutes for cigarettes, at least one ring-shaped carrier which is adjacent to one end and is driven at the speed of the drum about an axis which makes a small acute angle with the axis of the drum so that successive increments of the carrier approach the respective end of the drum during travel toward a testing station and move away from the drum during travel beyond the testing station. The carrier supports engaging elements in the form of pins or elastic sleeves which engage the adjacent ends of cigarettes during travel past the testing station. The pins can penetrate into relatively soft fillers of cigarettes and thereby cause a transducer to produce signals which are used for segregation of the respective cigarettes. The sleeves can engage the ends of wrappers of cigarettes during travel past the testing station to admit into the fillers a pressurized testing fluid or to draw a testing fluid through the fillers. The pressure of testing fluid is monitored by a transducer which produces signals for ejection of cigarettes having leaky wrappers because the pressure of fluid which passes through such defective wrappers deviates from a predetermined range of pressures which are indicative of satisfactory wrappers.