Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system having auxiliary section for storing items...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-08
2002-11-12
Bidwell, James R. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system having auxiliary section for storing items...
C198S347400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06478137
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
This application claims the priority of the corresponding German patent application Ser. No. 199 59 061.3 filed Dec. 8, 1999. The disclosure of the aforesaid priority application, as well as the disclosure of each and every US and/or foreign patent and/or patent application identified in the specification of the present application, is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to improvements in methods of and apparatus for manipulating containers, and more particularly to improvements in methods of and in apparatus for manipulating containers of the type known as trays and often utilized for temporary storage of arrays or groups of rod-shaped articles such as plain or filter cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, filter rod sections and other rod-shaped products of the tobacco processing industry.
Examples of rod-shaped articles which can be confined in containers (hereinafter called trays for short) of the type to which the present invention pertains are filter rod sections or filter mouthpieces which can be united with plain cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars or analogous rod-shaped tobacco-containing products to form therewith filter cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars or the like. Many types of filter mouthpieces contain a rod-like filler of acetate fibers and hardened droplets of a plasticizer which bonds portions of neighboring fibers to each other to thus establish a maze of paths for the flow of tobacco smoke from the lighted end, through the tobacco-containing part, through the filter mouthpiece and into the mouth of a smoker.
Heretofore known and presently utilized plasticizers (such as triacetin) for acetate fibers or the like require a certain period of time to set and to thus establish reliable bonds between neighboring portions of fibers in the mouthpiece of a filter cigarette or the like. Therefore, it is desirable to ensure that filter mouthpieces of unit length or multiple unit length which issue from a filter rod making machine remain unattached to plain cigarettes for certain intervals of time which are required by the plasticizer to set, i.e., which are needed to ensure that the appearance and/or other desirable characteristics of filter-tipped smokers' products are not affected during transport of filter mouthpieces into and/or during their treatment in a so-called tipping machine wherein plain cigarettes and filter mouthpieces of unit length or multiple-unit length are connected to each other by so-called uniting bands (e.g., webs of cigarette paper, imitation cork or the like) to form therewith filter cigarettes or analogous rod-shaped smokers' products.
Filter rod making machines which are of the type utilized for the making of continuous filter rods ready to be subdivided into filter rod sections of unit or multiple unit length are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,007 (granted Aug. 10, 1976 to Greve for “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FILTER ROD SECTIONS OR THE LIKE”) and in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,505 (granted Nov. 1, 1983 to Haüsler et al. for “APPARATUS FOR APPLYING ATOMIZED LIQUID TO A RUNNING LAYER OF FILAMENTARY MATERIAL OR THE LIKE”).
Filter tipping machines which can be utilized to unite filter rod sections with plain cigarettes are known under the name MAX-S (distributed by the assignee of the present application). Reference may also be had to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,008 granted Aug. 4, 1992 to Oesterling et al. for “METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING FILTER CIGARETTES”.
The apparatus of the present invention can be utilized to transport filter rod sections between a filter rod making machine (such as that disclosed by Greve or by Häusler et al.) and a filter tipping machine (such as that disclosed by Oesterling et al.). Certain presently known transporting apparatus of such character are disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,798 granted January 23, 1992 to Glössmann et al. for “APPARATUS FOR MANIPULATING TRAYS FOR CIGARETTES AND
THE LIKE”. One presently utilized embodiment of the patented apparatus is designed to manipulate cigarettes, and more specifically to accept the surplus of cigarettes advancing in the form of a mass flow from a cigarette maker to a processing machine (such as a tipping machine of the type disclosed in the patent to Oesterling et al.) and to admit cigarettes into the mass flow when the requirements of the processing machine exceed the output of the maker. Such apparatus employs trays which are filled with cigarettes when the output of the maker exceeds the requirements of the processing machine and which are emptied into the mass flow when the need arises. The just described apparatus employs storage facilities for filled trays at one or more first levels and storage facilities for empty or emptied trays at one or more second levels. A transfer unit is provided to transport trays between various levels and, when necessary, to change the orientation of the trays.
It is also known to employ pneumatic conveyor systems as a means for transporting filter rod sections from a filter rod maker to a filter tipping machine (such as the aforementioned MAX-S machine). As a. rule, a pneumatic conveyor employs a receiving station with magazines which contain supplies of filter rod sections and cooperate with pneumatic senders which propel filter rod sections to the magazine of a filter tipping machine. Such apparatus are rather complex, bulky and expensive because they must be provided with special feeders for admission of filter rod sections into the senders and with special transfer units which advance filter rod sections from the senders into the magazine(s) of one or more tipping machines. On their way from the maker to the magazine of a filter tipping machine, the filter rod sections are subjected to repeated mechanical stressing which is bound or apt to affect their quality if it takes place prematurely, i.e., before the various constituents and/or ingredients of the filter rod sections are ready to withstand such stressing.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved method of manipulating filled and empty receptacles (such as the aforediscussed trays) for groups of rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry in such a way that filled trays remain intact for periods of time which are required to optimize the quality of their contents prior to admission into the next processing station.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method which can be resorted to with particular advantage in connection with the manipulation of trays for rod-shaped products of the type that require a certain minimum interval of time to “ripen” or “age” starting with the instant of issuance from a maker and ending with the instant of admission into a processing machine or with the instant of undergoing mechanical stresses.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of manipulating filter mouthpieces for tobacco smoke between a filter rod making machine and a tipping machine wherein filter rod sections are united with plain cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos or the like to form therewith filter cigarettes, cigars or cigarillos of unit length or multiple unit length.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a method which renders it possible to optimally reconcile the need for adequate setting of certain hardenable substances in rod-shaped smokers' products and the requirements of modern high-speed processing machines or production lines wherein the rod-shaped products undergo further treatment or treatments such as uniting with other types of rod-shaped commodities, packing in containers (such as so-called soft packs and hinged-lid packs for plain or filter cigarettes) and/or others.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus for the practice of the above outlined method.
A further object of the invention is to provide a compact and relatively simple but highly versatile apparatus for the ma
Hebels Albert-Berend
Horn Matthias
Jobmann Matthias
Bidwell James R.
Hauni Maschinenbau AG
Kinberg Robert
Smith Stuart I.
Venable
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