This invention pertains generally to cigarette-making machines and, more particularly, to self-cleaning tobacco compacting mechanisms for use in cigarette-making machines.
Various types of manual, semi-automatic and automatic cigarette-making machines are known in which loose tobacco is compacted into a rod-like shape and transported into a hollow cigarette tube to prepare a cigarette. In many of these cigarette-making machines loose tobacco is first placed into a compacting apparatus including a compacting chamber in which a reciprocating compacting member engages and compresses the loose tobacco into the rod-like shape and then is withdrawn from the compacting chamber. This compressed tobacco rod-like shape is typically carried on an injection spoon which moves across the compacting chamber to transport the rod-like shape into a hollow cigarette tube positioned outside the cigarette-making machine and adjacent the chamber.
Cigarette tobacco naturally contains sugars and other natural components and may also contain liquid additives all of which are partially released as a gummy mixture when the tobacco is compressed as in a compacting mechanism. Compressing loose tobacco not only releases such gummy mixtures but it also breaks up some of the loose tobacco to produce tobacco fines. The tobacco fines as well as the gummy mixtures released during the compressing operation may present impediments to the efficient operation of the compacting apparatus.
Although problems are not likely to arise in the initial use of cigarette-making machines with compacting apparatuses as described above, after myriad loose tobacco loads are compressed and transported into cigarette tubes, the build-up of tobacco fines and gummy tobacco materials may impede the movement of the reciprocating compacting member. If this impediment to movement could be reduced or eliminated, the operation of cigarette-making machines using compacting apparatuses could be substantially improved.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a structure for controlling the build up of tobacco fines and gummy tobacco materials during the operation of cigarette-making machines using compacting apparatuses.
Embodiments of the invention include a self-cleaning cigarette tobacco compacting mechanism having a compacting chamber for receiving loose tobacco. The compacting chamber is positioned between top an bottom plates and a compacting member is mounted for reciprocal up and down motion between the plates. The compacting member has a bottom face that moves opposite the bottom plate.
A self-cleaning slot extends across the bottom plate and is positioned to engage the bottom face of the compacting member during its reciprocal up and down motion between the plates. This up and down motion of the face of the compacting member against the slot will scrape away tobacco fines and gummy materials that may accumulate in the interstice between the compacting member and the plate.
The scraping action is accomplished most efficiently if the self-cleaning slot includes sharp edges that engage the bottom face of the compacting member. In an alternate embodiment, the edges of the self-cleaning slot may be serrated. Also, the self-cleaning slot may be angled with respect to the horizontal across the bottom plate.
In embodiments of the invention the self-cleaning slot may extend perpendicularly across the bottom plate between its back and front faces. Alternatively, the self-cleaning slot may be angled between the back and front faces of the back plate.
In order to aid in understanding embodiments of the invention, it will now be described in connection with exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like numerical designations will be given to like features:
The embodiments described below are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise structures and operation disclosed. Rather, the described embodiments have been chosen to explain principles of the invention and their application, and the operation and use of embodiments of the invention in order to best enable others skilled in the art to follow its teachings.
Referring now to the figures,
In the illustrated manual, a cigarette-making machine 10, a compacting chamber 18 lies below the access opening. Sidewall 22 of the machine, which lies adjacent one end of the compacting chamber, has a hollow nipple 24 in communication with the compacting chamber. Hollow cigarette tubes (not shown) may be slid onto the nipple and held in place by a spring loaded locking arm 26.
Cigarette-making machine 10 is operated by placing loose tobacco through compacting chamber access opening 14 and into compacting chamber 18. A hollow cigarette tube may be placed onto the nipple either before or after this step.
Side edges 32A and 30B of the compacting chamber are walled off to laterally confine the tobacco in the chamber and to help guide the up and down movement of the compacting member within the chamber. Top edge 32C of the compacting chamber is open to permit reciprocating compacting member 28 to move from its initial rest position adjacent the top of the compacting chamber shown in
The reciprocating up and down movement of the compacting member is controlled by a compacting drive mechanism 34 which is operated by crank handle 16 (
Further details of exemplary manual cigarette-making machines can be seen, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,215,705; 4,005,716; 3,886,952; and 3,202,156, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties. As can be seen in those patents, injection spoons are typically positioned adjacent to the bottom of the compacting chamber. When the compacting member is moved to its bottom-most position, it will compact the loose tobacco in the compacting chamber against the top surface of the injection spoon forming a compressed rod-like tobacco shape. The injection spoon (feature 58 in the embodiment of
In the present embodiment, the lateral movement of the injection spoon is controlled by injection drive mechanism 40. Following the emplacement of the compressed tobacco in the hollow tube, the injection spoon is withdrawn from the now fully-filled cigarette tube and returned to its initial position within the compacting chamber and then the compacting member is retracted from the compacting chamber so that it returns to its initial position depicted in
Turning now to
The function and operation of self-cleaning slot 50 may be best understood from
In the configuration depicted in
As noted earlier, cigarette tobacco naturally contains sugars and other components that are partially released as a gummy mixture when the tobacco is compressed in a compacting mechanism. Compressing the loose tobacco also breaks up portions of the tobacco to produce tobacco fines. Over time the tobacco fines as well as the gummy mixtures released during the compacting operation may accumulate in the interstices 42 and 44 between the outer surfaces 46 and 48 of the compacting member and the inner surfaces of top and bottom plates, particularly where there are variations intolerances between the thickness of the compacting member and the width of the compacting chamber. Self-cleaning slot 50, however, helps control this build-up.
Thus, as the reciprocating compacting member is retracted from the compacting chamber as shown in
As illustrated in
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.
This patent application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/453,671, filed Apr. 23, 2012.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13453671 | Apr 2012 | US |
Child | 13936935 | US |