Tobacco – Cigar or cigarette making – Wrapping devices
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-05
2004-05-25
Griffin, Steven P. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Cigar or cigarette making
Wrapping devices
C131S066100, C131S066200, C131S070000, C131S074000, C131S075000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06739343
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a do-it yourself cigarette maker and component assemblies, such as, e.g., a conveying device for cigarettes or tubes fitted with a lifting device, a device for shaping a tobacco rod fitted with a plucking roller, a tobacco rod conveyor fitted with a spring tappet, and a tube-aligning device with a narrowable slit for introducing the tube.
Do-it-yourself cigarette makers are known, for example, as small manual fillers, in which a plug of tobacco is inserted into an externally mounted tube by means of a pusher. Such small devices require a relatively high manual input, and thus a relatively long production time when several cigarettes need to be made. In addition, the quality of the cigarettes made greatly depends on the manual skill of the producer, with the result that rejects are produced quite often.
2. Description of Related Art
To get round these problems, automated cigarette fillers have been proposed, as are known for example from DE 33 43 500 C2, and which automate do-it-yourself production as far as possible. Such automated cigarette fillers are known from DE 33 47 966 C2, DE 33 47 967 C2, DE 33 47 968 C2 as well as from DE 32 47 370 A1 and EP 0 144 060 B1.
As regards metering the tobacco, the above-cited prior art in each case uses a funnel, below which a size-reduction or conveying means is arranged. These size-reduction or conveying means comprise, for example, singled or paired knife or pin shafts which, disadvantageously, heavily load and shred the long-fiber filling tobacco. Known from DE 425 478 is a cigarette filler comprising several spike-toothed rollers, the first of which is arranged directly below a totally enclosed funnel mount.
As regards tube feeding, the cited prior art regularly proposes either allowing the tubes to drop from an inclined plane into a receptacle, from which they are then transported axially to a receiving cone, or to use a picker to take the tubes out of a tube hopper, which is swiveled to thereby pass on the empty tube. Since empty tubes are easily deformed and cannot always be arranged singly in parallel in a tube hopper arranged inclined, disadvantageously, in both of the tube conveyors cited in prior art, it cannot always be assured that only a non-deformed tube is passed on. Singling the tubes in the non-deformed condition, and thus a frictionless operation, can thus not be assured since even the slightest disorientation or jamming resulting from tube deformation will result in the empty tube section being trapped, and forced downtime occurring. In addition, the tubes must always be conveyed axially in order to be placed with their open face ends on a conical means. This may result in damage to the tube. DE 241 698 proposes to swivel the hopper bottom, hinged on one side upwards, in order to lift a cigarette tube from a tube hopper; this requiring particularly complicated means to be arranged for singling the tubes.
In order to insert a pre-shaped tobacco rod into an empty tube, tappets in accordance with the prior art are used which, as proposed, for example, in EP 0 144 060, comprise at their front end an insertion aid (shingled scoop). Disadvantageously, the scoop in accordance with the cited European patent is arranged rigidly at the front end of the tappet, with the result that it obstructs the expansion of the tobacco as long as it is located in the tube together with the tobacco rod When operating entirely without any insertion aid, it is difficult to insert a tobacco rod with axial homogenous packing density into the tube, since a relatively random compression materializes lengthwise during this operation. Known from German laid-open patent publication 22 09 862 is a manual cigarette filler comprising a pusher and a plunger, which pushes a plug of tobacco and a filter in a predetermined sequence. German patent 93 17 497 U1 describes a do-it-yourself cigarette maker, comprising a bore with a co-axially arranged guide rod for receiving a cigarette tube.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to improve a do-it-yourself cigarette maker or the component assemblies thereof so that the above-cited disadvantages of the prior art are obviated as far as possible.
In this connection, at least part of the object of the present invention is to provide a tube or cigarette conveyor for such a do-it-yourself cigarette maker, which reliably singles the tubes and supplies them, as non-deformed as possible, to the filling procedure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tobacco rod shaping device which permits gentle treatment of the long-fiber filling tobacco.
It is furthermore an object of the present invention to provide a tobacco rod conveyor for a do-it-yourself cigarette maker which does not obstruct expansion of the tobacco in the cigarette tube after insertion and ensures that cigarettes materialize with a homogenous package density.
The invention is furthermore intended to provide a tube-aligning device or straightener with which deformed cigarette tubes can be simply and reliably restored into a condition suitable for further processing.
Finally, the present invention is further intended to provide a do-it-yourself cigarette maker which overcomes the cited disadvantages of the prior art.
The cited objects of the present invention are achieved by the subject matters of the independent claims, the sub-claims describe advantageous embodiments of the invention.
A tube or cigarette conveyor for a do-it-yourself cigarette maker in accordance with the invention comprises the following elements:
a tube hopper for receiving a supply of empty cigarette tubes,
a discharge device for a tube to be filled with a tobacco material,
a holder mechanism for holding the tube during the filling operation, and
a cigarette hopper for receiving the filled cigarettes.
In this arrangement, the discharge device in accordance with the present invention is a lifting device which raises a tube from below out of the tube hopper, the lifting device comprising a pusher, the top edge of which has a longitudinal recess [a lower forming member or lower format].
The advantage of this tube or cigarette conveyor is, more particularly, that by lifting the tube from a hopper in which the tubes are normally located loosely stacked, no strain materializes which could result in deformations obstructing production. The other tubes, located above the tube being lifted out from the tube hopper, simply slide down from the tube to be lifted out and are unable to create any permanent deformations due to their own light weight.
The pusher in the tube hopper is preferably arranged so that the longitudinal recess in the lowered condition forms part of the bottom at the lowest point of the tube hopper. In this point of the tube hopper, usually only one cigarette tube is located for “dropping into” the longitudinal recess in the lowered condition. The longitudinal recess surrounds the tube from underneath without exerting any deforming forces. This ensures that, when the pusher is raised, the tube comes upwards without being damaged, and more particularly that only one tube is arranged in the longitudinal recess. In particular, when relatively few tubes are located in the tube hopper, this arrangement ensures that, subsequent to raising of the tube, this as the sole non-distorted tube, is transported to and held positively at the position where it is to be filled with tobacco.
Preferably, the pusher can be arranged at a straight wall of the tube hopper, along which it is raised, deflectors being arranged at the upper part of the wall which are capable of returning all raised tubes back into the tube hopper with the exception of the one located in the recess of the pusher.
The advantage of this embodiment is particularly evident when a large number of tubes are present in the tube hopper. When the pusher is raised, the straight wall of the tube hopper forms a stable support for the tube located on the longitudinal recess. Any other tubes which may be located t
Burghart Kurt
Trinkies Wolfgang
British-American Tobacco (Germany) GmbH
Cole James E.
Griffin Steven P.
Lopez Carlos
Middleton and Reutlinger
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