Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi – Control means energized in response to activator stimulated... – Cigarette filter making
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-27
2001-07-24
Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)
Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi
Control means energized in response to activator stimulated...
Cigarette filter making
C493S022000, C250S559040, C250S559390
Reexamination Certificate
active
06264591
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
The present invention pertains to a system and method for monitoring the characteristics of rods comprising multiple segments. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for monitoring the characteristics of cigarette filter rods having multiple segments and for ensuring that the rods are cut at desired locations along their lengths.
A typical cigarette comprises a wrapped tobacco column that optionally is tipped with a filter rod. The filter rod, in turn, may comprise plural segments. For instance, the filter rod may include a cellulose acetate (CA) segment adjacent to a cellulose acetate (CA) charcoal impregnated segment. Other known filter rods include an “air gap” disposed in the filter rod. As the name suggests, an air gap is a column of air disposed between filter segments.
The filter rods may be produced separately from the tobacco column, and later joined to the tobacco column in a tipping machine. More specifically, it is known to produce composite filter rods containing multiple filter rods, each filter rod constituting a separate filter rod which is subsequently combined with a tobacco column. For instance,
FIG. 1
shows a composite rod made of alternating segments of cellulose acetate (i.e., segments
102
,
106
) and segments containing charcoal (i.e., segments
100
,
104
,
108
). A total of four filter rods can be produced by cutting this composite rod into four equal length filter rods. Another known type of composite rod is shown in FIG.
2
. This composite filter rod includes cellulose acetate segments (
202
,
206
,
210
,
214
) and charcoal segments (
200
,
208
and
216
). This composite filter rod also includes air gaps (
204
,
212
) interposed between cellulose acetate segments (i.e., between segments
202
and
206
, and between segments
210
and
214
, respectively). This composite filter rod also produces four individual filter rods.
In the following discussion, the term “filter rod” is used to designate either a composite rod having multiple individual filter rods or to designate individual filter rods (depending on the context in which this term is used). The term “segment” is used to denote sections which are disposed within (or which will be disposed within) a filter rod. A segment of cellulose acetate (CA) which is impregnated with carbon is referred to alternatively as a “charcoal segment” for brevity.
FIG. 3
shows a machine
300
capable of producing the type of filter rod configuration shown in
FIG. 2
, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,994 to Koch (which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference). The machine
300
comprises two magazines or hoppers
302
and
304
. Magazine
302
can hold rods made of acetate material and magazine
304
can hold charcoal impregnated CA rods. Rods from these two hoppers are transported by a series of conveyers
306
in a known manner to a combining conveyer
308
. Before reaching conveyer
308
, the rods may be cut into segments by rotary disk-shaped knives. At the combining conveyer
308
, the segments are arranged into groups (e.g., group
310
) comprising, for instance, the grouping pattern shown in FIG.
2
. The spacing between adjacent groups forms the gaps in the filter rod.
Combining conveyer
308
transfers the groups of segments to the upper side of a running web
312
. The web
312
contains an adhesive applied to its upper side by paster
314
. The adhesive ensures that the segments in the groups maintain their axial relationship with respect to each other as they advance along the web
312
from the combining conveyer
308
. The draping mechanism
316
next drapes the web
312
around the groups so that the web
312
is converted into a tubular envelope or wrapper. A seam on the web
312
is heated or cohered by a sealer
318
. Thereafter, the web
312
is severed at regular intervals by a cutting mechanism
320
to yield filter rods of multiple unit length. The filter rods can then be transported to a filter tipping machine (not shown) via belt conveyor
324
.
The length of the segments and the spacing between the segments should satisfy predetermined criteria. To this end, the machine
300
employs an optical detector
326
. The optical detector
326
is positioned “upstream” from the cutting mechanism
320
. The detector
326
transmits a beam of light through the advancing filter rod and detects the light after it passes through the rod. Light more readily passes through the gap segments than the cellulose acetate segments and the charcoal segments. Further, light more readily passes through the cellulose acetate segments than the charcoal segments. Hence, the output of the detector
326
can be used to determine the transition from one segment to another by noting changes in the output of the detector
326
.
The machine
300
also employs an electrical encoder (not shown) associated with the cutting mechanism
320
. The encoder outputs a pulse when the cutting mechanism severs a rod, and also outputs a series of pulses between each cut. The frequency of the pulses output by the encoder reflects the operating speed of the cutting mechanism
320
and also the speed at which the rods are advanced through the cutting mechanism
320
. This encoder information is fed to circuit
327
, along with the output of the detector
326
. Together, the output of the detector
326
and the output of the encoder allow the circuit
327
to calculate the length of segments within the filter rod and also to determine whether the rods are being cut at desired locations. This information can also be used to reject faulty rods and to adjust the operation of the machine. More specifically, circuit
327
feeds control signals to a servomotor
328
which changes the speed of the transmission
330
. These adjustments alter the location at which the cut is made.
Koch also discusses one type of logic circuit which can serve as the above-discussed circuit
327
. Koch's circuit includes a plurality of counters which count pulses received from the encoder of the cutting mechanism
320
. The counters begin counting when the detector detects a transition from one segment to an adjacent segment as the rod passes the detector
326
. The length of the segments (and the location of the cut) can be gauged from the counts stored by the counters.
The above-described technique may have a number of shortcomings. It may not always be possible to uniformly detect the transition between filter rod segments. For instance, the output of the detector
326
may have a certain amount of noise. Further, the filter rod itself can have a number of anomalies, such as small unintended air gaps between filter segments (referred to as “air rings”). Factors such as these can complicate the detection of the transition between adjacent segments, thus potentially producing inaccurate length measurements when the segment transitions are detected by simply passing a stream of data points through a threshold detector in the real-time manner described in the Koch patent.
Further, as described above, different cigarettes may use a different sequence of filter segments. Koch's logic circuit comprises a combination of discrete logic units which may not be suitable for inspecting different types of filter rods without significant re-engineering of the circuit design.
SUMMARY
It is accordingly one general objective of the present invention to provide an inspection system and method for examining the data received from a rod detector in a more “intelligent” and flexible manner than conventional systems.
This and other exemplary objectives are achieved according to the present invention using an inspection system comprising a plug combiner machine coupled to an Inspection Unit and a Human-Machine Interface Unit. The Inspection Unit maintains a sensor data array which stores data received from a sensor installed in the plug combiner machine. This data reflects the composition of the filter rods. The Inspection Unit also maintains a cut array which stores cut pulse data received from an enco
Belcastro Marc
Cramer Lee
Glass Gilbert D.
Keen Bruce W.
Struckhoff Andrew
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Kim Eugene
Philip Morris Incorporated
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