Patent Application
20150013691
Embodiments relate to conveniently handled and carried machines for manually forming loose tobacco into improved uniform size and tightness manually made cigarettes.
Portable machines for manually making cigarettes that employ a belt running over a plurality of rollers are well known. The belt in these cigarette rollers has always been made of a rectangular sheet in which two corresponding shorter ends are attached by appropriate means to form a continuous belt. In these prior machines, the attachment of the sheet ends has always produced material protruding from the surface of the belt along the attachment area.
Although this protruding material interferes with the smooth operation of the device and ultimately with the uniformity, tightness and quality of the final cigarette product, it did not previously strike those of ordinary skill in the art that the problem could be overcome. The present inventor has overcome this problem by eliminating the protruding belt material to produce an “endless” belt, thereby insuring smooth and even operation of embodiments of the machine of the present invention.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a machine for manually making cigarettes having an endless belt operable over rollers carried by a portable frame.
In order to aid in understanding embodiments of the invention, it will now be described in connection with exemplary embodiments thereof illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which like numbers will be given to like feature and in which:
Turning now to the figures, a cigarette-making machine 10 having a substantially U-shaped frame 11 is shown, with generally parallel rollers 12 and 14 rotatably mounted to side portions 16 and 18 of the frame. Roller 12 includes a pair of pins 20 positioned along the axis of the roller and protruding from the opposite ends of the roller. These pins are rotatably mounted in bores 22 in side portions 16 and 18 of frame 11. Thus, in the illustrated embodiment, roller 12 may rotate in place and will not move along the frame side portions.
Roller 14, however, is mounted in slots 24 in frame side portions 16 and 18 by way of a pair of pins 26 located along the axis of roller 14 and protruding from the opposite ends of the roller which extend into slots 24.
Slots 24 include a bottom end 27, an angularly disposed transition portion 28 and an arcuate top end 30 which includes a hook portion 32. Pins 26 of roller 14 are mounted in slots 24 to permit the pins to both rotate within and slide along the slots. Thus,
A uniform surface endless belt 40 is shown trained over and loosely mounted to rollers 12 and 14 in
Cigarette-making machine 10 may be operated as follows:
1. Open the machine as shown in
2. Grasp frame 10 between forefingers and thumbs so that the thumbs are opposite roller 14 and push roller 14 upwardly as shown in
3. Roll roller 14 forward preferably a full turn to help shape the loose tobacco into a uniform column, as shown in
4. Insert a cigarette paper 52 with a gummed edge 54 vertically into the pinch line 56 between the belt-covered rollers with the gummed edge at the top and facing forward and rotate roller 14 with the thumbs until the paper enters the tobacco receiving area as shown in
5. After rolling the paper all the way into the machine, retract roller 14 back to its resting position as shown in
6. Cigarettes produced in this way will be superior to those obtained in prior machines because of the smooth, continuous rolling operation made possible by the embodiments of the present invention.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in the context of describing embodiments of the invention (especially in the context of the following claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and the plural, unless otherwise indicated herein or clearly contradicted by context. It should be understood that the illustrated embodiments are exemplary only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.
