Tobacco – Cigar or cigarette making – Molding or forming
Patent
1980-07-17
1984-08-07
Millin, V.
Tobacco
Cigar or cigarette making
Molding or forming
131280, A24C 514
Patent
active
044637667
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
Cigarette making machines commonly comprise means for forming a stream of tobacco or other smokable material which is enclosed in a continuous wrapper to form a continuous rod which is then cut at regular intervals. The rod-forming device commonly includes a garniture tape which supports the wrapper web while the cigarette filler stream is on the web and is being compressed and shaped to the final cross-section, and which assists in wrapping the web around the filler stream; the edges of the web are then normally brought together and secured by adhesive. The filler stream is commonly trimmed by means of a trimming device before being enclosed in the wrapper web. Examples of such machines are the Molins Mark 8 and Mark 9 cigarette making machines.
Cigarette filter making machines are commonly similar apart from the fact that the filter tow does not require trimming. An example of an existing filter making machine is the Molins PM5 machine.
In the Mark 8 generation of cigarette making machines, and also in the filter making machines of the same period, it was common to provide a main shaft which was driven at a speed equalling the number of rods per minute produced by the machine. For example, a machine making 2,000 cigarettes per minute would have a main shaft rotating at 2,000 revolutions per minute, the cutting device comprising commonly a rotary arrangement making one cut per revolution.
A more recent trend embodied, for example, in the Mark 9 and PM5 machines which are capable of running at speeds of 4,000 rods per minute or even higher, is to provide a main shaft running at well below the machine speed (i.e. in terms of rods per minute). The cut-off device is then driven from the main shaft through step-up gearing; and various other gears with appropriate ratios provide driving connections from the main shaft to the various other driven parts of the machine. By this means, the noise of the machine is reduced.
Noise has become an important criterion in the modern generation of machines, and machines have been built with cut-off devices having two blades so as to make two cuts per revolution and so as to rotate at half the previous speed. It is also possible to cut double-length rods which are cut later in the filter-attachment machine; assuming a double-knife cut-off device, this enables the cut-off device to rotate at one quarter the machine speed in terms of finished rods per minute. However, even with such an arrangement, at speeds in excess of 5,000 rods per minute, noise remains a problem; noise is generated by many parts of the machine, including the gearing.
According to one aspect of this invention in a method of making rods of the cigarette industry in which a continuous rod is formed and is cut at regular intervals, at least two different devices used in the manufacture of the rods are driven by separate motors, the speed of a first motor (the "master") being sensed, and the speed of a second motor (the "slave") being controlled so that the second motor runs at a speed having a predetermined relationship with the speed of the first motor.
Preferably the speed of the first motor is sensed by generating a pulsed electrical signal derived directly or indirectly from a rotary part on or associated with the first motor, and the speed of the second motor is sensed by generating a pulsed electrical signal derived directly or indirectly from a rotary part on or associated with the second motor.
In a cigarette making machine according to this invention the "master" motor preferably drives the cut-off device including, preferably, the moving parts (if any) of the ledger which supports the rod during cutting. Other parts of the machine are driven by one or more separate "slave" motors synchronised to the cut-off either as regards speed alone or as regards both speed and phase.
Various parts of the machine may be driven by separate motors synchronised to the cut-off. The accuracy with which synchronisation needs to be achieved varies. For example, the garniture tape drive needs to be accurately controlled
REFERENCES:
patent: 3196880 (1965-07-01), Pinkham
patent: 4063563 (1977-12-01), Lorenzen
patent: 4190061 (1980-02-01), Heitmann et al.
Arthur High M.
Dyett Derek H.
Wood Godfrey A.
Millin V.
Molins Limited
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