Tobacco – Cigar or cigarette making – Including perforating
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-02
2004-03-23
Griffin, Steven P. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Cigar or cigarette making
Including perforating
C131S027100, C131S028000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06708694
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
The present application claims the priority of commonly owned German patent application Serial No. 100 04 906.0 filed Feb. 4, 2000. The disclosure of the above-referenced German patent application, 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. 4,1825,882 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.
A drawback of presently known methods of and apparatus for making and processing rod-shaped products, especially rod-shaped commodities of the tobacco processing industry, is that such products are likely to be damaged (such as smudged, deformed, provided with cracks in the wrappers, provided with open seams, provided with leaks between the tobacco-containing sections and the filter mouthpieces of filter cigarettes and the like and/or otherwise affected) for a number of reasons, especially because the draping of uniting bands around the filter mouthpieces of filter cigarettes and the making of perforations in the wrappers of finished filter cigarettes or the like necessitate the transport of cigarettes through discrete rolling stations. For example, repeated rolling can or is likely or bound to cause a filter cigarette to exhibit an open seam or a soft end portion due to the escape of tobacco particles from the exposed tobacco-containing end of such smokers' product. Such tendency to undergo damage is attributable to the mechanical stresses due to repeated rolling of filter cigarettes and the like as well as to repeated acceleration and deceleration of the rolling movement caused by frictional engagement between the external surface of the tubular wrapper of a filter cigarette (or a constituent of a filter cigarette) and the surfaces bounding the rolling channels. At least one of these surfaces must move relative to the other surface or surfaces if the filter cigarette or a rod-shaped constituent of such article is to roll in its channel.
An additional drawback of the aforedescribed conventional methods and apparatus is that the apparatus occupy a substantial amount of space in a production line which, if designed to turn out and process filter cigarettes at the presently expected rate, normally comprises a filter cigarette maker, a filter rod maker, a tipping machine which assembles plain cigarettes with filter mouthpieces, a packing machine for arrays of filter cigarettes, a cellophaning machine which provides cigarette packs with transparent outer envelopes, a carton filling machine and a carton boxing machine.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of making perforated 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, such as perforate, filter cigaretes and the like.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of assembling and processing, especially changing the permeability of, rod-shaped smokers' products in a time- and space-saving manner.
An additional object of the instant 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 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 perforating machine, especially for the mass production of filter cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos and analogous filter-tipped 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.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved perforating unit for use in a filter tipping machine.
A further object of the instant invention is to provide novel and improved devices for accelerating and decelerating rolling movements of rod-shaped articles in a tipping machine or the like.
Another object of the invention is to provide high-quality rod-shaped commodities, especially high-quality filter cigarettes and the like.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a filter tipping machine wherein the mech
Anderson Chad C.
Griffin Steven P.
Hauni Maschinenbau AG
Lopez Carlos
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