Abstract
A method for manufacturing rod-like articles, comprising a machine for manufacturing the rod-like articles or a feeding device for delivering the rod-like articles, a first measuring unit for measuring at least one quality parameter of the manufactured rod-like articles, a device for dividing a stream of the rod-like articles into a first stream and into a second stream, a first transferring device, which receives the first stream of the rod-like articles and transfers this stream as an output stream of the rod-like articles manufacturing system, a second transferring device which transfers inspected rod-like article to the output stream of the rod-like articles on the first transferring device.
Claims
1. A method of manufacturing rod-like articles, where the rod-like articles are manufactured on a machine for manufacturing the rod-like articles or the rod-like articles are delivered from a feeding device, a measurement is effected with a first measuring accuracy on a first measuring unit for measuring of at least one quality parameter of the manufactured rod-like articles, whereas the said quality parameter has a predefined range of acceptable values of the parameter, the stream of the rod-like articles is divided into a first stream comprising the rod-like articles, for which the said quality parameter falls within the range of the acceptable values of the parameter and a second stream of the rod-like articles, for which the said at least one quality parameter does not fall within the range of the acceptable values of the parameter, the first stream is transferred as an output stream of a system of manufacturing the rod-like articles by means of a first transferring device, wherein the second stream of the rod-like articles is transferred through a repeated quality inspection path on a measuring conveyor and a repeated measurement is effected in a second measuring unit with a second measuring accuracy higher than the first measuring accuracy of the first measuring unit, the inspected rod-like article is transferred by means of a second transferring device to the output stream of the rod-like articles on the first transferring device, if the result of the repeated inspection of the said quality parameter for the individual rod-like article falls within the range of the acceptable values of the said parameter.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the rod-like articles are manufactured by forming an endless rod and cutting the endless rod into individual rod-like articles, whereas at least one quality parameter of the endless rod is measured before cutting, where an appropriate quality parameter is assigned to an individual rod-like article on the basis of the measurements of the endless rod.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the article having the said at least one quality parameter of the value close to the limit value of the range of the acceptable values of the said parameter is directed for the repeated inspection in order to verify the values of the measured parameter.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein, the difference between the measured value of the said parameter and the limit value of the range of the acceptable values of the said parameter is equal to or less than the measuring accuracy.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the article having the said at least one quality parameter which falls within the range of the acceptable values of the said parameter is directed for the repeated inspection in order to verify the measurement correctness.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the stream of the rod-like articles is transferred through at least one drum conveyor.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the measurement by means of the first measuring unit is effected on at least one drum conveyor.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein, the output steam is the mass flow.
9. The method according to claim 2, wherein, the article having the said at least one quality parameter of the value close to the limit value of the range of the acceptable values of the said parameter is directed for the repeated inspection in order to verify the values of the measured parameter.
10. The method according to claim 2, wherein, the article having the said at least one quality parameter which falls within the range of the acceptable values of the said parameter is directed for the repeated inspection in order to verify the measurement correctness.
11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
13. The method according to claim 3, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
14. The method according to claim 4, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
15. The method according to claim 5, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
16. The method according to claim 6, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
17. The method according to claim 7, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
18. The method according to claim 8, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
19. The method according to claim 9, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
20. The method according to claim 10, wherein the repeated measurement of the said at least one quality parameter is effected at a lower article transfer speed than the transfer speed during the first measurement.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0024] The object of the invention has been presented in preferred embodiments in a drawing in which:
[0025] FIG. 1 shows a manufacturing machine view (the system components are not presented at scale),
[0026] FIG. 2 shows a part of the manufacturing machine of FIG. 1 and a part of a receiving device,
[0027] FIG. 3 shows a part of the rod-like articles manufacturing system in its first embodiment,
[0028] FIG. 4 shows a part of the rod-like articles manufacturing system in its second embodiment,
[0029] FIG. 5 shows a mass flow connecting unit,
[0030] FIG. 6 shows a part of the rod-like articles manufacturing system in its third embodiment,
[0031] FIG. 7, 8 show an embodiment of a rod-like articlea rod with capsules,
[0032] FIG. 9, 10 show courses of signals from the sensor for the endless rod with capsules,
[0033] FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of a result of measurement by means of the first measuring unit,
[0034] FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of a result of measurement by means of the second measuring unit,
[0035] FIG. 13 shows courses of signal from the sensor for the endless rod with capsules,
[0036] FIG. 14 shows a multi-segment endless rod.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0037] The manufacturing machine 1 shown in FIG. 1 is used for manufacturing rod-like articles in the form of filter rods of filtering material 2, whereas capsules with an aromatic substance are placed in the rod. The machine 1 included in the articles manufacturing system comprises a feeding unit 1A which feeds the filtering material, for example acetate, part 1B in which the capsules are placed in the filtering material 2, forming unit 1C where an endless rod 3 is formed and part 1D where individual filter rods 7 are cut off. The forming of the endless rod 3 is performed in the forming unit 4. The formed rod 3 is transferred through a first measuring unit 5. The measuring unit 5 effects the measurements of quality parameters of the endless rod 3. The measuring unit 5 can be equipped with various types of sensors, for instance optical, microwave, ultrasound, x-ray and other sensors. The measuring unit 5 is the first measuring unit and effects measurement of at least one parameter with a predefined measurement accuracy. The signals from particular sensors or output signals from the measuring unit 5 are transmitted to a control system 13, to each rod element there are assigned the measured quality parameters, which are temporarily stored in the measuring unit or a control system memory. The endless rod 3 is transferred lengthwise and it is cut by means of a cutting head 6, a cutting device in general, into individual rods 7. At the same time, the control system stores temporarily in the memory unit the values of at least one quality parameter, assigned to individual rods 7 on the basis of the measurements previously conducted by the measuring unit 5. Usually, it is a set of quality parameters describing the manufactured rods. Each rod 7 which is cut is accelerated by an acceleration unit 8 and it is transferred to a first receiving device 10, and in this case it is placed in a flute 9 of a drum conveyor 12 (FIG. 1, FIG. 2). The drum conveyor 12 cooperates with a drum conveyor 18 shown in the FIG. 3, onto which the rods 7 are transferred. On the drum conveyor 18 the rods 7 are transported in the flutes 19. The drum conveyor 18 cooperates with a band conveyor 20, alongside which the rods 7 are transferred to form a mass flow M1 on a conveyor 22. The rods 7 are transferred on the conveyor 22 to a successive production stage. The mass flow M1 constitutes a first stream of the manufactured rods, whereas the first stream comprises the rods 7, for which the said at least one measured quality parameter falls within the range of the acceptable values of the parameter. The first stream constitutes the rod-like articles manufacturing system output stream, which is transferred from the system by means of the first transferring device, which is conducted by means of the conveyor 22 in this embodiment. The second rods stream is formed by separating the rods for which the said at least one measured quality parameter does not fall within the range of the acceptable values of the parameter. The drum conveyor 12 is equipped with not shown compressed air nozzles adapted for rejecting appropriate rods 7 indicated by the control system 13 from the flutes 9 during the transfer on the drum conveyor 12. The rejection can be performed on another cooperating drum conveyor, by means of which the rods 7 are transferred within the machine. The rods 7 which have been qualified as defective as a result of the measurement, can be thrown through a channel 14 to a container 15 (FIG. 3). The rods 7, which are supposed to undergo a repeated quality inspection, are directed as a second stream to the repeated quality inspection path. For this purpose the rods 7 are thrown through the channel 16 onto a measuring conveyor 17, which belongs to the repeated quality inspection path 11. On the repeated quality inspection path, on the measuring conveyor 17, there is effected the repeated inspection of the quality parameters of the manufactured rod-like articlesrods 7 by means of the second measuring unit 24. The defective articles, good articles and the articles for which the quality parameter value is close to the limit value of the range of the acceptable values of the parameter may undergo the repeated inspection. The rod-like articles 7 placed on the conveyor 17 are transferred through the second measuring unit 24, which effects the parameter measurement with the second measuring accuracy higher than the first measuring accuracy of the first measuring unit. The quality parameters of the article 7 may be inspected at a lower speed than the speed in the case of the first measuring unit 5 and the measurements may be effected by means of the same sensors or the sensors working on the same principle or by means of other sensors than the ones applied in the first measuring unit 5. The quality parameters may be inspected by means of the sensors of higher accuracy. The measuring signals from the second measuring unit 24 are transferred to the control system 13. Depending on the signals received from the second measuring unit, the control system 13 may allow transferring of the inspected rods 7, which fulfil the quality requirements, onto the conveyor 25, on which the rods are transferred as a second stream in a form of mass flow M2. At the same time the conveyor 25 is the second transferring device for transferring the second stream in the form of the mass flow M2, after the repeated inspection to the output stream of the rods manufacturing system on the first transferring device in the form of the conveyor 22. The control system has the possibility of rejecting the inspected rod 7 from the second stream. If, as a result of the measurement performed by the second measuring unit, the inspected article 7 appears to be defective, it is thrown from the conveyor 17 by means of a rejector, for example, in a form of the compressed air nozzle 23, if the inspected article appears to be good, it remains on the conveyor 17 and joins the mass flow M2. The mass flow M2 can be connected to the mass flow M1 in any way known to the specialist of the art. The defective rods 7 can be thrown into the container 15, whereas the rods having at least one quality parameter of a value close to the limit value of the range of the acceptable parameter values, are directed to the repeated quality inspection path, whereas it is possible to direct all the rods which have the quality parameter which does not fall within the range of the parameter values, to the second stream transferred through the repeated quality inspection path. Then, the defective articles will be directed through the channel 16 onto the measuring conveyor 17, their quality parameters will be measured, and then they will be thrown away from the measuring transporter 17. The manufacturing system of the present invention ensures the repeated quality inspection of defective or potentially defective articles, as well as the possibility of the occasional inspection of the articles, the quality parameters of which have been defined by the first measuring unit as correct. They are directed onto the measuring conveyor and after conducting and registering measurements, they are joined to the mass flow M2, and then to the mass flow M1 of the output stream of the rod-like articles manufacturing system.
[0038] FIG. 4 shows a fragment of the second embodiment of the rod-like articles manufacturing system. The system includes the manufacturing machine such as in the first embodiment. The corresponding rods 7 are fed to the flutes 9 of the drum conveyor 12. The rods having the quality parameters which fulfil the required quality requirements are transferred as the first stream (output stream) on the conveyor 22. The defective rods 7 can be thrown through the channel 14 into the container 15. The rods which are directed to the repeated quality inspection path are thrown through channel 16 onto the inlet 26 of the conveyor 27. It is possible to direct all the rods, for which at least one quality parameter does not fall within the range of the acceptable parameter values, in the form of a second stream through the channel 16. The conveyor 27 is built in a form of a curve or a circle conveyor and transfers the rods 7 over the drum conveyor 12. From the outlet 28 the rods 7 are fed to the repeated inspection path 11. Similarly to the first embodiment, the measuring unit 24 effects the repeated measurement of quality parameters. The rods having the quality parameters which are compatible with the expectations, i.e. fall within the acceptable range of the parameters values, are directed to the mass flow M2 on the conveyor 25, where the mass flow M2 is joined with the mass flow M1 on the conveyor 22, on which the rods 7 fulfilling the quality conditions, are delivered by means of the drum conveyor 18 and the band conveyor 20. FIG. 5 shows the embodiment of the unit joining the second rod stream in the form of the mass flow M2 to the first rod stream in the form of the mass flow M1. Depending on the actual positions of particular transferring units of the manufacturing system, the unit joining the mass flow M2 to M1 may take any form, it may be equipped with sensors monitoring the flow and with buffer reservoirs.
[0039] FIG. 6 shows the third embodiment of the rod-like articles manufacturing system. The shown feeding unit 31 constitutes a part of the machine 30 manufacturing rods 7. The feeding unit 31 is equipped with vacuum grippers 32 which perform a movement along an elliptical path and transfer the rods 7 into the flutes 9 of the drum conveyor 33. The rods are transferred through the successive drum conveyors 34, 35, 36, 37, on which various operations may be performed, in the flutes 9 additional rods may be placed, the rods may be cut, and the rods may be wrapped in a wrapper. Manufacturing machines may include more drum conveyors adapted for various processes effected on the rod-like articles. The manufactured rod-like articles are divided into two streams. The first stream transfers articles having quality parameters which fulfil the imposed requirements and which are received by the receiving device 38, the output stream is created in the form of mass flow M1. The system's embodiment is equipped with the measuring unit 39 for measurements of the rod-like articles 7 quality parameters. In case of detection of a defective article, which does not fulfil the quality requirements, such article is rejected from the drum 34 through the channel 14 into the container 15. The repeated inspection of the rod-like articles is performed similarly as in the first and second embodiment. The articles 7 are fed onto the repeated quality inspection path 11 through the receiving device in the form of a conveyor 40. The formed second stream is connected to the output stream similarly as in the case of the aforementioned embodiments.
[0040] FIG. 7 shows an exemplary rod-like article in the form of a filter rod, in which there are four capsules positioned in the filtering material. Such a rod will be cut in further production stage into four equal parts, which will be attached to tobacco rods in order to manufacture filter cigarettes. Parts of such a rod may also be used for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods, which will be then cut into parts, which will be attached to tobacco rods in order to manufacture multi-segment filter cigarettes. During the manufacturing process, a number of rods quality parameters is inspected. The quality parameter may be the rod diameter, rod length or the position of capsules along and transversely to the axis of the rod. The quality parameter may be the distance Y from the centre of a first capsule to the rod end. FIG. 7 presents the minimum acceptable distance Y-Y and maximum acceptable distance Y+Y from the centre of a capsule to the end of the rod, whereas the doubled value of the range Y constitutes the tolerance zone for the distance from a capsule to the end of the rod. Similarly FIG. 8 shows a parameter being the distance X between the neighbouring capsules in the rod. The minimum acceptable value for this parameter amounts to XX, whereas the maximum acceptable value of this parameter amounts to X+X. The quality parameter may also be the rod length. FIG. 9 shows the course of signal from a microwave sensor adjusted for checking capsules presence, quality, filling and position of capsules in an endless rod, whereas it is a presentation of a situation where the capsules are distributed in nominal places along the rod, they are spherical and they are not damaged. FIG. 10 shows an endless rod in which the capsule 50 is not spherical, is of elongated, round shape and it is not placed in a proper place. The signal obtained from the microwave sensor for this capsule is of a different course than for the remaining capsules. The distances read by the measuring unit are as follows: the distance between the capsule 50 and the capsule 51 neighbouring to the left amounts to X2, whereas the distance between the capsule 50 and the capsule 52 to the right amounts to X3. It may happen that the distance X2 is close to the acceptable value X+X and lower than such limit value and the additional measurement by means of the optical sensor will show that the distance X2 exceeds the acceptable value X+X of the parameter. Then the rod in which the capsules distributed in such a way are placed has to undergo a repeated measurement in order to verify the measurements. Even if the microwave sensor and the optical sensor provide the same result close to the limit parameter value, the rod in which the capsules distributed in such a way are placed has to undergo a repeated inspection, because the signal pattern itself may suggest that the capsule is either a little bit deformed or it has been damaged and the aromatic substance has leaked, which should be clearly stated and the rod should be either rejected or allowed for further production stages. The repeated measurement is effected with higher measuring accuracy, for instance by means of the same sensors but at lower speed of transferring rods, which eliminates errors caused by accidental interruptions arising at high speed of transferring rod during the measurement. Alternatively, the repeated measurement may be effected by means of sensors having higher measuring accuracy. FIGS. 11 and 12 show the additional capsule 54 placed at the distance Xa from the neighbouring capsule 55. The limit minimum and maximum distance of the centre of capsule 54 to the centre of capsule 55 is defined by the values XX and X+X respectively, whereas in one of the embodiments it is possible to assume the limit ranges asymmetrically, which, in such a case, would amount to XX and X+X respectively. FIG. 11 refers to the measurement performed by the first measuring unit with first measuring accuracy, whereas FIG. 12 refers to the measurement performed by the second measuring unit with the second measuring accuracy, whereas the second measuring accuracy is higher than the first accuracy. The field P1 shows possible dispersion of the value of measured distance Xa during the measurement by the first measuring unit. For the distance Xa the actual value may fall outside the tolerance range for the particular accuracy of measurement of the first measuring unit for the performed measurement, i.e. in the said embodiment the value may be below the minimum acceptable value XX. The distance Xa measured by the second measuring unit may be of different value than in the case of the measurement performed by the first measuring unit. The field P2 shows possible dispersion of the measured distance Xa during the measurement by the second measuring unit. The second measuring unit measures with higher accuracy, the field P2 is smaller than the field P1. In the embodiment the actual distance Xa measured by the second measuring unit falls within the tolerance range of X. Favourably, the difference between the measured value of the said parameter and the limit value of the range of values of the said parameter is equal to or less than the measurement accuracy.
[0041] FIG. 13 shows a signal course of a microwave sensor applied to the manufacturing filter rods with capsules. The signal course outline includes the information on filling the capsules with the aromatic substance, in general, the information about the capsules quality and the peak signal pattern points should fall within the acceptable range between the lower value Zmin and the upper value Zmax. Apparently, for the capsule 56 the value of the signal assumes the lower limit acceptable value Zmin. It should be also noted, that the registered signal pattern is prepared with a certain accuracy, which means that the actual value of the signal peak for the capsule 56 may fall within as well as be outside the acceptable range. In order to ensure the quality, the rod in which the aforementioned capsule is placed, should undergo a repeated measurement with higher accuracy.
[0042] FIG. 14 shows an endless multi-segment rod, in which all the segments should adjoin each other, i.e. lack of a gap between the segments or presence of a gap not higher than the gap resulting from deformations of the face surfaces of segments. In the case the gap W occurs, the measuring unit 5 will generate a signal indicating the presence of the gap. If the measured gap is of the width close to the acceptable limit value, then the rod in which the segments being spaced apart from each other are present, should undergo a repeated quality inspection.
