Method of and apparatus for measuring the diameters of rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry

US5715843A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• HAUNI MASCHINENBAU GMBH · DE

Inventors

• Siegfried Hapke · Geesthacht, DE
• Gunter Jurgens · Waiblingen, DE
• Dierk Schröder · Ahlhorn, DE
• Uwe Westphal · Lauenburg/Elbe, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 11, 1996
• Grant date: Feb 10, 1998
• Expiry date: Jun 11, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01B11/105
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

The diameters of successive rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry are ascertained while the articles advance sideways at the periphery of a rotary drum-shaped conveyor and are rotated about their longitudinal axes as a result of frictional engagement with a rolling member which is adjacent the periphery of the conveyor. Successive articles which are being rotated by the rolling member are caused to interrupt a beam of radiation issuing from a laser, either once or more than once, and the amounts of intercepted radiation are indicative of the diameters of the respective articles. Such amounts of intercepted radiation are monitored by a video camera which generates electric signals, and the electric signals are processed into second signals denoting the diameters of discrete successively tested articles and/or the average diameters of series of two or more successively tested articles.