Cigarette filter rods have been processed in pairs in the so-called “two-up” filter rod configuration. According to this configuration, one solid filter plug is in the middle of a tube so that an empty space is created on either end of the filter tube. Each end is filled with a sequence of granular material, such as carbon and the like, and solid material, such as cellulose acetate fibers or fibers with flavorant. Upon completion a tobacco rod may be joined to each end of the filter tube, and the central solid filter may then be cut in half to form two cigarettes.
A separate assembly wheel may be arranged to fill each side of the tube. One end of the tube is filled on one assembly wheel by vertically depositing and/or inserting filter materials into the upwardly facing opening. The product is then transferred through a drum system or similar device to flip the tube along its longitudinal axis. The flipped tube, which has the filled end facing downward and the open end facing upward, is then placed on a second assembly wheel so that filter materials could be inserted or deposited into the open end.
U.S. application Ser. No. 11/268,291, which is incorporated herein by reference, teaches a method of filling the open ends of the filter tube, including filling one end of the tube, inverting the tube and filling the other end. The application describes a method which utilizes a rotating tube flute plate, a rotating bin of granular material, a plurality of vertically orientated fill tubes and second fill tubes, a rotating filter segment plate and second filter segment plate, and a plurality of rotating plungers, all of which collectively comprise an upper wheel assembly rotating about a central vertical axis. A substantially identical lower wheel assembly also rotates about the same central vertical axis. A first end of each filter tube is filled with solid and/or granular material on the upper wheel assembly. A conveyor system removes half-filled filter tubes from the upper wheel assembly, inverts the tubes and places them on the rotating tube flute plate of the lower wheel assembly. The other ends of the filter tubes are then filled with solid and/or granular material on the lower wheel assembly. It would be advantageous, however, if both sides of the fill tube could be filled using only one wheel assembly.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to develop a method that uses a single wheel assembly, as described herein below, to assemble components into both ends of a hollow tube having a solid center.
In accordance with the present invention a preformed tube of paper with hollow ends and a solid center of cellulose acetate or similar material is formed into two cigarette filters. Specifically, the process of producing compound cigarette filters according to the present invention comprises the steps of placing a filter tube with hollow ends and a solid filter center in a substantially vertical position. A tube is placed in every other flute of a feed wheel, which feeds the tubes to an assembly wheel. A predetermined amount of material is deposited into an upper open end of the filter tube directly against the solid center. The tube is then transferred to a flipping wheel where the tube is flipped about its vertical axis. The flipped tube is then returned to one of the vacant positions between unfilled tubes on the feed wheel where it is then transferred back to the assembly wheel. After both ends of the filter have been filled, the filled tube, or rod, is transferred to and unloaded from a take-off wheel. The solid central filter can be further processed by joining a tobacco rod to each end of the filter and cutting the filter in half to form two cigarettes, for example.
By using a single assembly wheel, the floor space required for this machine is considerably reduced. Also, since one wheel is used to fill both ends of the tube, a separate assembly wheel is not required for each end of the tube. This decreases setup time, machine cost, and machine complexity.
Novel features and advantages of the present invention in addition to those noted above will become apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a reading of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein similar reference characters refer to similar parts and in which:
Referring with more particularity to the drawings,
Tubes 10 are first introduced to a feed wheel 18 at the flute 11 in position 18A in a conventional manner. The flutes 11 are the generally semi-circular tubular shaped openings along the perimeter of the wheel. For purposes of illustration, certain positions will be designated with letters representing a point during the process. As the wheel advances by spinning on its axis, flutes 11 will change from one process position to the next. Thus, each tube 10 will be loaded at position 18A. After it is loaded, the wheel will rotate and the tube 10 will move to processing position 18B, and so forth.
Tubes 10 are held within the flutes of the various wheels by vacuum or other suitable means. Tubes 10 are initially loaded in every other flute on the feed wheel 18 for reasons that will be made more apparent below. As the newly introduced tubes 10 travel in a counterclockwise direction along wheel 18, they are not affected by the flutes on the flipping wheel 24, which is traveling in a clockwise direction, because of a notch 26 between adjacent flutes on flipping wheel 24. This can be observed in
As each tube 10 reaches position 20M on assembly wheel 20, the exposed hollow end has been filled according to conventional filling techniques to form a half-filled tube 10′. To discern between tubes at various stages of the process, it is useful at this point to introduce the designation system shown in
Turning back to
To describe the take-off wheel 22, it is useful to designate flutes 1-4, which will move from one processing position to the next. Thus, as shown in
With both ends of the filter tube 10′″ filled with granular material and solid filter segments, a two-up dual filter has been formed, which when combined with wrapped tobacco rods at each end thereof ultimately produces two complete cigarettes (not shown). The dual filter can be cut through the middle of the central solid filter to separate the two cigarettes. After separation, the cigarette filter may have a length of approximately 30 mm, but can be shorter or longer, if desired.
It should be understood that the above detailed description while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention are given by way of illustration only since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the detailed description.
For example, it should be noted that the number of flutes illustrated on each wheel is limited for simplicity. Obviously, many more flutes could be evenly spaced along the entire outer diameter of the particular wheel to increase the number of tubes that could be processed for each full turn of the wheel. Each flute shown in
The present application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60/809,633, filed May 31, 2006, for all useful purposes, and the specification and drawings thereof are included herein by reference.
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4577644 | Grieben | Mar 1986 | A |
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Number | Date | Country |
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WO 2004002246 | Jan 2004 | WO |
2006048767 | May 2006 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20080006283 A1 | Jan 2008 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60809633 | May 2006 | US |