CIGARETTE-MAKING MACHINE AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING CIGARETTES

Abstract

A method of producing cigarettes in a cigarette machine provides that separated tobacco is sucked to a lower side of an air-permeable conveyor belt. A suction bar is above the conveyor belt, which is connected to an air suction, the tobacco being formed into a tobacco rod at the lower side of the first conveyor belt, by being compressed at the lower side of the conveyor belt by the suction flow. The tobacco rod is transferred from the conveyor belt to a second conveyor belt, on which upper side a cigarette paper band is arranged. The cigarette paper band is glued along the longitudinal direction of the rod and the tobacco rod is cut into cigarettes. A smokable additive substance is metered into the suction stream mixed with tobacco and the tobacco rod is formed from the tobacco and the additive substance at the lower side of the first conveyor belt.

Claims

1. A method of producing cigarettes in a cigarette machine, comprising: separating cut tobacco in a tobacco sifter, collecting the separated tobacco at a bottom of the tobacco sifter, sucking the separated tobacco in a suction stream to a lower side of a first air-permeable conveyor belt by arranging a suction bar above an upper side of the first conveyor belt, which suction bar is connected to an air suction, metering a smokable additional substance, which contains resins which would otherwise contaminate the cigarette machine, into the suction stream and mixing the smokable additional substance with the tobacco, wherein a width of the suction flow is defined by a length of the suction, and wherein air with tobacco and the smokable additional substance is sucked in along the length of the suction beam, forming the tobacco is formed into a tobacco rod at the lower side of the first conveyor belt by being compressed at the lower side of the first conveyor belt by suction stream, the tobacco rod comprising the tobacco and the smokable additional substance, transferring the tobacco rod from the lower side of the first conveyor belt to an upper side of a second conveyor belt, on which upper side a cigarette paper band is arranged, guiding the tobacco rod on the upper side of the second conveyor belt through a narrowed mouthpiece, wrapping the tobacco rod with the cigarette paper band at the mouthpiece, gluing the cigarette paper band along the longitudinal direction of the rod, cutting the tobacco rod into cigarettes.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising metering the smokable additive substance into the suction stream essentially in a middle of the width of the suction stream.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising metering the smokable additive substance into the suction stream by an oscillating conveyor device.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the oscillating conveyor comprises a spiral conveyor with a spiral-shaped spiral pot, which spiral pot is set into oscillation, whereby the additional smokable substance is conveyed in a direction of the suction stream.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising filling the spiral conveyor by a vibrating hopper dependent on a level of the additional smokable substance in the spiral pot.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein a delivery rate of the additional smokable substance metered in by the oscillating conveyor device is dependent on a delivery rate of the tobacco in the suction stream.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the additional smokable substance is more finely cut than the tobacco.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the additional smokable substance comprises finely cut constituents of a hemp plant.

9. The method according to claim 8, the constituents of the hemp plant are chopped for fine cutting.

10. A cigarette machine for producing cigarettes, comprising a tobacco sifter in which cut tobacco is separated, a suction beam connected to an air extraction and with which a suction flow with the separated tobacco can be sucked along a length of the suction beam, a first air-permeable conveyor belt having an upper side and a lower side, the upper side facing the suction beam and the tobacco being formable into a tobacco rod on the lower side of the first conveyor belt. a second conveyor belt, on the upper side of which a cigarette paper band can be arranged and on the upper side of which the tobacco rod can be transferred from the first conveyor belt, and a mouthpiece at which the tobacco rod can be wrapped with cigarette paper tape, a metering device with a feed line, which feed line opens out below the lower side of the first conveyor belt and with which metering device a smokable additional substance can be metered into the suction stream mixed with separated tobacco.

11. The cigarette machine according to claim 10, wherein the feed line is arranged substantially in a middle of a length of the suction bar.

12. The cigarette machine according to claim 1, wherein the metering device is a vibrating conveyor.

13. The cigarette machine according to claim 12, wherein the vibrating conveyor comprises a spiral conveyor having a spiral pot, which spiral pot is caused to oscillate, whereby the smokable additional substance is conveyable in a direction of the suction stream.

14. The cigarette machine according to claim 12, wherein the vibrating conveyor comprises a vibrating hopper with which the spiral hopper can be filled as a function of a filling level of the smokable additional substance in the spiral hopper.

15. The cigarette machine according to claim 13, wherein the vibrating conveyor comprises a laser with which a level in the spiral pot can be measured.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0030] Further advantages and features result from the following description of an embodiment example of the invention with reference to the schematic illustrations. It n non-scale representation:

[0031] FIG. 1: shows a principle sketch of a cigarette machine to explain the method for producing cigarettes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0032] FIG. 1 shows a cigarette machine, which is designated in its entirety by the reference numeral 11. The cigarette machine may also be referred to as a cigarette rod machine. The method makes it possible to produce cigarettes in a simple manner, which contain a smokable additive substance 13 in addition to tobacco. Also, the new method makes it possible to increase the manufactured number of cigarettes with additional substance 13 per minute by a factor of 10 compared to prior art methods.

[0033] The cigarette machine 11 includes a tobacco sifter 14, which separates cut tobacco 16 and is also referred to as a “hopper”. The cut tobacco 16 is guided over a rotating roller 18 or “spreader” for its separation. The roller 18 pulls the cut tobacco 16 evenly apart and the tobacco falls from the bottom of the roller 18 onto the bottom 20 of the tobacco sifter 14.

[0034] A suction bar 22 having a length 24 is arranged in the tobacco sifter 14. The suction beam 22 is connected to an air suction unit 26. This creates a suction flow 28 which pulls or sucks the separated tobacco 16 against the force of gravity in the direction of the suction

[0035] beam 24. The suction stream 28 has a width 30 which is defined by the length 24 of the suction beam 22 along which air is sucked.

[0036] A first conveyor belt 34 having an upper side 36 and a lower side 38 is arranged below the suction beam 22. The first conveyor belt 34 is air-permeable, but largely prevents the passage of tobacco 16 toward the suction beam. The first conveyor belt 34 is a fabric belt which is permeable to air and impermeable to tobacco. The sucked tobacco 16 is retained at the bottom 38 and is formed into a tobacco rod 40 at the bottom 38 by compressing the tobacco rod 40 at the bottom 38 by the suction flow 28.

[0037] After the tobacco rod 40 is formed on the lower side 38 of the first conveyor belt, it is transferred to an upper side 44 of a second conveyor belt 42. Before the tobacco rod 40 is transferred to the second conveyor belt 42, a cigarette paper belt 46 is arranged or unrolled on the upper side 44 of the second conveyor belt 42, which moves along with the second conveyor belt 42 on the upper side 44. The tobacco rod 40 therefore comes to rest on the cigarette paper belt 46.

[0038] The tobacco rod 40 is guided through a mouthpiece 48. The mouthpiece 48 automatically wraps the tobacco rod 40 with the cigarette paper band 46 with a forming shoulder when the tobacco rod 40 and the cigarette paper band 46 are pulled or guided through the mouthpiece. At the same time, the cigarette paper band 46 is glued along its longitudinal sides.

[0039] The smokable additive substance 13 is metered into the suction flow 28 mixed with tobacco 16, and the tobacco rod 40 is formed from the tobacco 16 and the additive substance 13 at the lower side 38 of the first conveyor belt 34. The additive substance 13 comprises fine-cut plant parts of the hemp plant. For example, this may be the flowers of the hemp plant. The degree of fine cutting of the additional substance 13 is greater than the degree of fine cutting of the tobacco 16. Thus, the additional substance 13 is more finely cut than the tobacco 16.

[0040] The metering of the additional substance 13 into the suction stream 28 leads to some surprising advantages: The additional substance 13 distributes evenly in the formed tobacco rod 40 and no spots with concentrated additional substance 13 are formed in the tobacco rod 40. If the production speed or the conveyor belt speed is increased, the metering speed of the additional substance 13 does not form a limiting variable. The metering speed into the suction stream 28 can therefore be increased as required. Also, by metering the additive substance 13 into the suction flow 28, contact of the additive substance with machine parts is minimized or is not present at all. This is particularly important if the additional substance 13, such as hemp, contains resin, because the inventive method prevents machine parts from becoming resinous and having to be constantly greased or cleaned.

[0041] Contrary to the expectation that the additional substance 13, which is more finely cut than the tobacco, accumulates at the upper side 36 and is therefore inhomogeneously distributed, the additional substance 13 distributes evenly in the tobacco rod 40. In particular, if additional substance is metered to the suction stream 28 substantially in the middle of the width 30 of the suction stream 28, a particularly homogeneous distribution of the additional substance 13 in the tobacco rod 40 can be achieved.

[0042] The additional substance 13 is metered into the suction stream 28 by a vibratory feeder, which vibratory feeder is designated in its entirety by the reference numeral 50. The vibratory feeder 50 comprises a spiral feeder 52, a vibratory hopper 54 and a feed line in the form of a feed trough 56.

[0043] The spiral conveyor 52 is equipped with a spiral-shaped spiral pot 58, which is vibrated by a first oscillating drive 60. In the spiral pot 58, the additional substance 13 is conveyed in a spiral from the inside and bottom to the top and outside. Typically, the spiral conveyor 52 is used to align and separate individual parts so that they can be held fast by a gripper at the exit of the spiral pot 58. Surprisingly, it was found that the spiral conveyor 52 conveys the additional substance 13 as rapidly and uniformly as desired. As a result, the spiral conveyor 52 enables no bottleneck of added substance 13 to occur, even if the conveyor belt speed of the cigarette machine 11 is between 5 m/s and 7 m/s, for example. Furthermore, the dosing amount of the spiral conveyor 52 is very accurate. The vibrating spiral pot 58 has a fixed connection to the conveyor chute 56, whereby the conveyor chute 56 also vibrates and the additive substance 13 is transported to the open end of the conveyor chute 56 and is fed directly into the suction stream 28.

[0044] The vibratory hopper 54 is vibrated by a second vibratory drive 62. The additional substance 13 is stored in the vibrating hopper 54 and is conveyed to the center of the spiral pot 58. The delivery rate of the additional substance 13 can be adjusted to the delivery rate of the tobacco 16 or the delivery speed of the tobacco rod 40 by the first and second vibratory drives 60, 62. As a result, an amount ratio between the tobacco 16 and the additive substance 13 can be precisely adjusted. The oscillating drives 60, 62 may also be related to the delivery rate of the tobacco 16 so that the quantity ratios between the tobacco 16 and the additive substance 13 remain constant when the delivery rate of the tobacco in the cigarette machine 11 is changed.

[0045] The level 63 of the additional substance 13 in the spiral pot 58 can be measured with a distance meter 64, which may be a laser. Depending on the measured level 63, the vibrating hopper 54 is activated until the level 63 has reached a predefined value.

[0046] The tobacco rod 40 wrapped with the cigarette paper band 46 is cut into cigarettes 68 by a knife 66.

[0047] The method described has the advantage that a sufficient quantity of the additive 13 can be metered very accurately into the tobacco 16, even if the conveying speed of the tobacco rod 40 is high or the number of cigarettes 68 produced per minute corresponds to the quantities of cigarette machines which produce cigarettes without a metered additive 13.

[0048] Another advantage is that the method makes it possible to produce cigarettes to which an additive substance 13 has been added, while at the same time greatly reducing contamination of the cigarette machine 11 with the additive substance 13. As a result, additive substances containing resin, for example fine-cut constituents of the hemp plant, can also be used without the resin gumming up the cigarette machine 11.