Tobacco – Cigar or cigarette making – Including perforating
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-05
2004-01-13
Griffin, Steven P. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Cigar or cigarette making
Including perforating
C219S074000, C219S076170, C219S078010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06675811
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
The present application claims the priorities of commonly owned German patent applications Serial Nos. 100 04 906.04 and 100 04 908.7 both filed Feb. 4, 2000. The disclosures of the above-referenced German patent applications, as well as that of each U.S. and foreign patent and patent application identified in the specification of the present application, is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to improvements in the making and processing of rod-shaped articles. Examples of articles which can be mass-produced and processed in accordance with the method and in the apparatus of the present invention are filter cigarettes and analogous rod-shaped smokers' products wherein coaxial rod-shaped components are held together by convoluted bands or strips of adhesive-coated paper, artificial cork or the like.
Filter cigarettes are mass produced in so-called tipping machines which are designed to connect one or more plain cigarettes of unit length or multiple unit length with one or more filter mouthpieces of unit length or multiple unit length. Connections are established by adhesive-coated uniting bands which are rolled in a channel around the locations where the ends of the mouthpieces are adjacent to and normally abut the ends of the plain cigarettes. This results in the conversion of uniting bands into tubular sleeves or collars which, as a rule or in many instances, completely surround the filter mouthpieces and further surround the adjacent end portions of plain cigarettes.
Prior to entry into the channel, each uniting band extends, e.g., tangentially, from the respective group of coaxial rod-shaped constituents (one or more filter mouthpieces and one or more plain cigarettes); such tangentially extending uniting bands are converted into the aforementioned tubular sleeves in response to rolling of the respective groups in the channel which is bounded by two surfaces at least one of which moves relative to the other. Reference may be had, for example, to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,882 granted May 2, 1989 to Werner Hinz for “APPARATUS FOR ROLLING UNITING BANDS AROUND GROUPS OF ROD-SHAPED ARTICLES”. A presently preferred apparatus for making filter cigarettes (normally filter cigarettes of double unit length) is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,008 granted Aug. 4, 1992 to Erwin Oesterling et al. for “METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING FILTER CIGARETTES”.
It is customary to provide the tubular envelopes of filter cigarettes and analogous rod-shaped smokers' products with perforations, i.e., to increase the permeability of the envelopes. At the present time, such perforations are formed by directing pulsating beams of coherent corpuscular radiation against selected portions of wrapping material for plain cigarettes or filter mouthpieces, against the wrapping material which is thereupon converted into discrete uniting bands, or against the tubular wrappers of finished plain or filter cigarettes or the like. The purpose of perforations in the tubular wrappers of rod-shaped smokers' products (such as the wrappers of mouthpieces forming part of filter cigarettes) is to admit cool atmospheric air into the column of tobacco smoke flowing from the lighted end of a filter cigarette into the mouth of the smoker. Such atmospheric air is believed to exert a desirable influence upon the nicotine and condensate in tobacco smoke. U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,670 (granted Aug. 4, 1981 to Uwe Heitmann et al. for “APPARATUS FOR INCREASING THE PERMEABILITY OF WRAPPING MATERIAL FOR ROD-SHAPED SMOKERS' PRODUCTS”) discloses certain presently preferred apparatus which employ laser beams and can be utilized to make holes in the wrappers of plain cigarettes, filter rod sections, filter cigarettes and other rod-shaped smokers' products.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of altering or selecting (particularly increasing) the permeabilities of the wrappers of rod-shaped products, such as plain or filter cigarettes or like or analogous rod-shaped products, especially smokers' products, which is less likely to entail damage to the products than heretofore known methods.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of shortening the intervals which are required to make and to further process, particularly perforate, filter cigarettes and the like.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved method of assembling and processing, especially changing the permeability of the wrappers of, rod-shaped smokers' products in a time- and space-saving manner.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a method of the above outlined character which can be practiced by resorting to relatively simple, compact and reasonably priced apparatus.
Still another object of the instant invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for the practice of the above outlined method.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved machine for the making of filter cigarettes and analogous rod-shaped smokers' products.
Another object of the invention is to provide a combined filter tipping and wrapper perforating machine, especially for the mass production of plain or filter cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos and analogous rod-shaped smokers' products.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for rolling rod-shaped articles in a filter tipping machine preparatory to and in the course of changing the permeabilities of the wrappers of such products.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved perforating unit for use in a filter tipping machine or another machine for the making of rod-shaped smokers' products.
A further object of the present invention is to provide novel and improved devices for accelerating and decelerating rolling movements of rod-shaped articles in the perforating unit of a tipping machine for cigarettes or the like.
Another object of the invention is to provide high-quality rod-shaped commodities, especially high-quality plain or filter cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars and the like.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a filter tipping machine wherein the mechanism or mechanisms which assembles or assemble plain cigarettes with filter mouthpieces and the mechanism or unit which changes the permeabilities of tubular wrappers of the constituents of filter cigarettes or analogous smokers' products cooperate with each other in a novel and improved way.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved mode of installing laser-operated perforating devices or units for the tubular wrappers of rod-shaped commodities in a machine wherein such commodities must be rolled for a number of different reasons.
A further object of the instant invention is to provide a filter tipping machine wherein rod-shaped articles can be rolled at optimum speeds for each of a plurality of different purposes such as the application of adhesive-coated uniting bands which bond plain cigarettes to filter mouthpieces and the making of perforations in the tubular wrapper or wrappers for one or more constituents of a filter cigarette or the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One feature of the present invention resides in the provision of a method of changing the permeabilities of tubular wrappers of rod-shaped products, for example, filter cigaretes and analogous rod-shaped products of the tobacco processing industry. The method comprises the step of simultaneously changing the permeabilities of wrappers of a plurality of products, for example, of successive pairs of neighboring products of a short or long series of products.
The permeability changing step can include perforating the wrappers of n≧2 products (n is a natural number).
In accordance with one presently preferred embodiment of the improved method, the perforating step includes establishing a source of n at least su
Anderson Chad C.
Griffin Steven P.
Hauni Maschinenbau AG
Kinberg Robert
Lopez Carlos
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