Machine for packing cigarettes or the like

Abstract

A packing machine wherein a first feeding unit supplies groups of cigarettes into successive mandrels of a first turret which is driven stepwise and moves successive mandrels into register with first and second supplying devices for tinfoil blanks and paper blanks which are thereupon draped around the mandrels to form open-ended packs. The packs and the groups of cigarettes are transferred simultaneously from successive mandrels into successive pockets of a second turret on which the packs are closed. The path of mandrels is monitored by a series of detectors one of which prevents the transfer of groups into the pockets of the second turret if the groups are not surrounded by open-ended packs, another of which prevents the first supplying device from delivering a tinfoil blank when the mandrel which approaches the first supplying device does not contain a group, and a third of which prevents the second supplying device from delivering a paper blank when the mandrel which approaches the second supplying device does not carry a tinfoil blank. A fourth detector prevents the admission of a group into the mandrel which remains filled because it was devoid of blanks during transport past the transfer station between the first and second turrets.