Apparatus for accumulating arrays of cigarettes or the like

US4503967A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Hauni-Werke Korber & Co. K.G. · DE

Inventors

• Otto Erdmann · Hamburg, DE
• Reinhard Deutsch · Geesthacht, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 16, 1983
• Grant date: Mar 12, 1985
• Expiry date: Mar 16, 2003

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B65B19/10
• WIPO field: Handling
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

Apparatus for accumulating arrays of superimposed layers of parallel cigarettes has a magazine with three layer-accumulating sections having outlets at different levels and a set of pushers which expel layers of cigarettes from the sections during the intervals of dwell of an intermittently driven conveyor for a set of receptacles each of which accumulates an array by accepting one layer from each of the sections. The top and side walls of the receptacles have aligned slots for stationary and movable portions of retaining devices which prevent the cigarettes forming layers of incomplete arrays from moving relative to each other during abrupt acceleration and deceleration of the conveyor to move the receptacles from section to section. The undersides of movable portions of the retaining devices can be raised above or lowered into alignment with the undersides of the adjacent stationary portions through distances approximating the thickness of a layer. The movable portions are disposed in pairs at the second and third sections, and the stationary portions extend along the first section as well as between successive sections. The first movable portions of the two pairs are connected t…