Apparatus for testing cigarettes or the like

Abstract

A cigarette testing apparatus wherein a rotary drum-shaped conveyor has axially parallel peripheral flutes for cigarettes and is flanked by two swash plates which rotate therewith and carry annuli of elastically deformable sealing elements for the respective ends of cigarettes on the conveyor. Each sealing element has a socket facing the adjacent end of the cigarette in the corresponding flutes of the conveyor when the cigarette is inserted into the flutes. The swash plates thereupon move the sealing elements nearer to the ends of the cigarettes therebetween whereby the ends of the cigarettes enter the corresponding sockets and displace transversely extending partitions of the sealing elements with attendant radial contraction of those tubular sections of the sealing elements which surround the respective sockets. This moves the internal surfaces of such sections into sealing engagement with the external surfaces of the ends of the cigarettes during transport of cigarettes through the testing station where the cigarettes receive streams of testing fluid flowing through centrally located apertures of the adjacent partitions. The sealing elements have thin-walled annular membranes flanking the respective partitions to allow for movement of the partitions in response to the application of pressure by the respective ends of a cigarette as well as to facilitate radial deformation of the tubular sections in response to such displacement of the partitions. The sealing elements reassume their undeformed states when they move away from the respective ends of the cigarette therebetween in response to further rotation of the swash plates.