Tobacco – Cigar or cigarette making – Including arranging – collecting – or delivering
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-02
2001-07-24
Colaianni, Michael P. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Cigar or cigarette making
Including arranging, collecting, or delivering
C131S084300, C198S367000, C198S442000, C406S002000, C406S050000, C406S086000, C406S096000, C406S117000, C406S183000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263883
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to an interchange for a pneumatic conveying system. The interchange has two branch tubes that join together at an acute angle in an interchange chamber to form a main tube as well as a flap that is positioned between the two branch tubes at the end of the interchange chamber facing said branch tubes and that can be swiveled between two positions, whereby it is the case that a connection is always established between only one of the branch tubes and the main tube.
Such interchanges are used, for example, in pneumatic tube conveying systems. In order to swivel the flap, there are switch-over mechanisms connected to power and control lines.
The invention is based on the objective of simplifying the installation and operation of such an interchange.
According to the invention, this objective is achieved in that the flap is held in either one of the two positions with a defined force.
The filter feed interchange can be an active interchange, in which case the main tube is the inlet tube and the two branch tubes are the outlet tubes for the product stream. In order to effectuate the switch-over of the flaps, there are pneumatic cylinders on both sides at the end of the flap facing the main or inlet tube, and said cylinders switch over the flap, over-coming the holding force.
In the embodiment as a passive interchange, the two branch tubes are the inlet tubes and the main tube is the outlet tube. In this case, there are no means to effectuate a forced switch-over of the flap and the holding force has to be dimensioned in such a way that the flap is switched over by the air pressure generated in the branch tube that is in the process of conveying the products at a given time and by the incoming product stream itself. Due to this passive control of the flap, there is no longer a need to lay power and control lines to where the interchange has been installed.
The defined holding force is preferably generated by holding magnets that act upon the flap at its two end positions.
The interchange according to the invention is especially suitable for a conveying system through which cigarette filter plugs from one of several filter plug makers are conveyed to one of several filter assemblers. Via one or more consecutively arranged active interchanges according to the invention, the filter plugs from one filter plug maker can be conveyed to a specific machine among a number of filter assemblers and conversely, via one or more consecutively arranged passive interchanges according to the invention, the filter plugs from any desired number of filter plug makers can be fed to one specific filter assembler.
In the case of passive interchanges, in order to prevent a pressure drop via the branch tube that is not in use at a given time, there are shut-off valves, preferably in the conveying segments leading from the filter plug makers to the interchange. These shut-off valves prevent a product stream from unintentionally coming from the branch tube that is not in use at a given time. Simultaneous product streams from both branch tubes would inevitably cause obstruction of the interchange and block it.
The shut-off valves are installed separately from the interchanges. Their configuration can be selected in such a way that the distances that the auxiliary power and control lines have to cover are kept as short as possible. Therefore, the shut-off valves are preferably installed in the immediate vicinity of the filter plug makers.
Shut-off valves can also be installed in the branch tubes in order to prevent pressure losses.
For technical reasons, the production of filter cigarettes can be set up in such a way that the filters are made in a different place from the cigarette production. The cigarette filters are pneumatically conveyed in the form of filter plugs having a length of four to six cigarette filters through feed tubes to the filter assemblers that are part of the cigarette production installation. Large-scale cigarette production installations can have 50 or more such feed tubes. Depending on the production capacity of a cigarette machine, it is supplied with filter plugs from several feed tubes. The filter plugs produced by a filter plug maker are conveyed by means of special filter feed devices having several, for example, up to 10 feed tubes. If one of the filter plug makers or filter feed devices fails, then the connected cigarette machine does not receive enough filters. Conversely, if a cigarette machine fails, then the filter plug maker supplying said cigarette machine would have to be switched off. In order to avoid such production gaps in the cigarette machine as well as the inevitable switching off of the filter plug maker, the feed tubes pass through an interchange segment in which the link between the filter plug maker and the cigarette machine can be changed by manually switching over the feed tubes. However, the manual switching over of the feed tube is not only time-consuming, but is also easily leads to mix-ups.
The active and passive interchanges according to the invention are especially suitable for use in the device employed to flexibly supply several cigarette machines with filter plugs according to the simultaneously filed German utility model application (our reference 30588—designation: “Device for flexibly supplying several cigarette machines with filter plugs”).
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patent: 3139932 (1964-07-01), Johnson
patent: 3789744 (1974-02-01), Wahle
patent: 3860031 (1975-01-01), Grilli
patent: 5441142 (1995-08-01), Schneider
patent: 470307 (1929-01-01), None
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patent: WO 99/22611 (1999-05-01), None
patent: 2085337 (1971-12-01), None
patent: 2094269 (1972-02-01), None
patent: 96/04742 (1997-02-01), None
patent: WO 97/16365 (1997-05-01), None
EP 95 11 7242, Search Report.
Colditz Olaf
Furmanski Horst
Lüneburg Jörg
Colaianni Michael P.
Glenn Charles E. B.
Hallman, Jr. Clinton H.
Osborne Kevin B.
Philip Morris Incorporated
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