Apparatus for testing cigarettes or the like

Abstract

A cigarette testing apparatus wherein each end of the wrapper of a cigarette advancing with a rotary conveyor past a testing station receives a stream of gaseous testing fluid from a conduit which is connected with a source of testing fluid, and wherein a further conduit connects the interior of the wrapper at the testing station with an electropneumatic transducer which generates signals denoting the condition of successively tested wrappers. In order to prevent columns of testing fluid in the conduits from oscillating as a result of abrupt establishment and/or abrupt termination of communication between such conduits and the wrappers of cigarettes moving toward, past and beyond the testing station and from thereby distorting the signals which are generated by the transducer, at least one such conduit admits a stream of fluid into an oscillation-preventing device having an injector nozzle serving to convert the inflowing stream into a coherent laminar flow which traverses, without guidance, a chamber whose interior is maintained at atmospheric pressure, and which thereupon advances toward the testing station or toward the transducer by flowing through an intercepting orifice. Alternatively, the nozzle can receive testing fluid from the chamber and then directs the laminar flow toward one end of the wrapper of the cigarette at the testing station.