Packaging machine for cigarettes with shaft wall mounted sensors

Abstract

Packaging machines for cigarettes are conventionally equipped with a (cigarette) magazine (11) which receives a stock of cigarettes (10). The lower region of the magazine (11) consists of a plurality of magazine shafts (12) which are divided off from one another by means of shaft walls (13). The cigarettes (10) are extracted at the lower ends of the magazine shafts (12) in groups each corresponding to the content of a cigarette pack, by being pushed out axially. In order to check the cigarettes for defective construction, especially for any gaps (16) in the tobacco in the region of the ends of the cigarettes (10), optoelectrical sensors, especially receivers (17, 18; 30, 31), are arranged in the shaft walls of appropriate thickness. These sensors are directed towards the side of the cigarettes (10) transversely relative to the longitudinal axis of these. Light entering from the end faces of the cigarettes (10) is received by the receivers (17, 18; 30, 31) and evaluated in terms of any gaps (16) in the tobacco. To generate the light, transmitters (19; 32) can be arranged on the end faces of the cigarettes (10) in the front wall (21) and/or rear wall (22) of the magazine (11). The magazine (11) equipped with test members in this way is suitable, in an especially simple and reliable way, for testing and separating out individual or extremely small groups of defective cigarettes.