The present invention relates to a filling unit for feeding two types of loose material, a machine for manufacturing segment filter rods and a method for feeding two types of loose material applicable in tobacco industry machines. BACKGROUND

Tobacco industry products, such as cigarettes, may comprise segment filters with various filtering materials, such as activated charcoal in a form of a loose granulate. A segment with activated charcoal can be formed by placing the charcoal between the neighboring solid segments, which typically have a form of rod-like elements having filtering properties or rod- like elements having non-filtering properties, for example comprising aromatic capsules. Front surfaces of two neighboring segments and a wrapper form a compartment which is filled with the loose material or granulate.

There are known devices for feeding the loose material into the compartments between the segments of a train of segments.

A US patent US3312152 discloses a device comprising a container and a belt with blind pockets for transferring portions of charcoal into compartments between segments.

A US patent US3570557 discloses a device comprising a wheel with pockets for transferring portions of charcoal.

However the drawback of the presented solutions is that they do not provide a complete filling of the compartment between the segments. Manufacturers of filters comprising charcoal or other granulate materials aim for placement, into spaces between consecutive solid segments, of portions of loose materials of different types, wherein the materials may be mixed or located in layers or side by side. The portions may comprise materials of different granularity. It is the aim to fill up the space between the solid segments, with portions of the materials, up to the highest possible degree. Moreover, a filling machine should provide the possibility for feeding different types of loose material alternately into consecutive compartments in the train of segments.

There is a need to provide a device in which the aforementioned disadvantages will be eliminated. SUMMARY

There is disclosed a filling unit (103, 103') for feeding two types of a loose material (102, 102'), suitable for use in a tobacco industry machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods (R), the filling unit (103, 103') comprising: a first container (21) for a first loose material (102); a second container (21 ') for a second loose material (102'), wherein the second loose material (102') is of a different type than the first loose material (102); at least one transferring transporter (24, 24'); a first pocket transporter (22) having first pockets (23) for receiving portions (23 A) of the first loose material (102) from the first container (21) and for transferring the received portions (23 A) of the first loose material (102) to a transferring transporter (24, 24'); a second pocket transporter (22') having second pockets (23') for receiving portions (23Α') of the second loose material (102') from the second container (21 ') and for transferring the received portions (23 A') of the second loose material (102') to the transferring transporter (24, 24'); wherein the transferring transporter (24, 24') comprises multiple transferring ducts (29) for receiving the portions (23A, 23A') of the loose material (102, 102') from the first pocket transporter (22) or from the second pocket transporter (22') and for transferring the portions (23A, 23A') of the loose material (102, 102') to a compartment (37) between rod-like elements (SI, S2) arranged in a linearly moving train (ST1) and wrapped by a wrapper (101) at a side opposite to a side of transferring the loose material (102, 102').

The first pocket transporter (22) and the second pocket transporter (22') may be located next to each other with respect to a direction of movement of the train (ST1) of the rod-like elements (SI, S2).

The first pocket transporter (22) may cooperate with the first transferring transporter (24), and the second pocket transporter (22') cooperates with the second transferring transporter (24').

The first pocket transporter (22) and the second pocket transporter (22') may be arranged side by side.

The first pockets (23) of the first pocket transporter (22) and the second pockets (23') of the second pocket transporter (22') may be arranged side by side adjacently to each other, suitably for feeding the first loose material (102) and the second loose material (102') simultaneously.

The first pockets (23) of the first pocket transporter (22) and the second pockets (23') of the second pocket transporter (22') may be arranged alternately to enable the alternate feeding of the first loose material (102) and the second loose material (102') into consecutive compartments (37) between the segments (SI, S2).

The first pockets (23) and the second pockets (23') may be located on a circumference of a single wheel.

The first pocket transporter (22) and/or the second pocket transporter (22') may have a form of a wheel comprising multiple pockets (23, 23') on its circumference.

The transferring transporter (24, 24') may be a chain transporter.

There is also disclosed a machine for manufacturing segment filter rods (R), the machine comprising: a feeding unit (1) for arranging, in a spaced-apart relationship, rod-like elements (SI, S2) in a train (ST1) on a wrapper (101) placed on a garniture belt (10) of a garniture transporter (5); a filling unit (103, 103') for feeding a loose material (102, 102') into compartments (37) between the rod- like elements (SI, S2); a garniture unit (6) for wrapping the wrapper (101) around the rod- like elements (SI, S2) and the loose material (102, 102') to form a continuous multi-segment rod (CR); a cutting head (8) for cutting a continuous multi- segment rod (CR) into individual multi-segment rods (R); wherein the filling unit (103, 103') for feeding the loose material (102, 102') is the unit as described above.

There is also disclosed a method for feeding two types of a loose material (102, 102') in a tobacco industry machines for manufacturing segment filter rods (R) comprising rod-like elements (SI, S2), the method comprising the steps of: arranging, in a spaced-apart relationship, the rod- like elements (SI, S2) in a train (ST1) on a wrapper (101) placed on a garniture belt (10) of a garniture transporter (5); feeding portions (23 A) of a first loose material (102) from a first container (21) into consecutive pockets (23) on a first pocket transporter (22); feeding portions of a second loose material (102') from a second container (21 ') into consecutive pockets (23') on a second pocket transporter (22'), wherein the second loose material (102') is of a different type than the first loose material (102) ; feeding portions (23 A) of the first loose material (102) from the pockets (23) of the first pocket transporter (22) into transferring ducts (29) of a transferring transporter (24, 24'); feeding portions (23 A') of the second loose material (102') from the pockets (23') of the second pocket transporter (22') into the transferring ducts (29) of the transferring transporter (24, 24'); feeding consecutive portions (23 A) of the first loose material (102) from the transferring ducts (29) of the transferring transporter (24, 24') into compartments (37) between the rod-like elements (SI , S2) in the train (ST1) of the rod- like elements (SI , S2); and feeding consecutive portions (23 A') of the second loose material (102') from the transferring ducts (29) of the transferring transporter (24, 24') into the compartments (37) between the rod-like elements (SI, S2) in the train (ST1) of the rod- like elements (SI, S2).

The portions (23 A, 23 A') of the first loose material (102) and the second loose material (102') may be fed alternately into consecutive compartments (37) between the rodlike elements (SI, S2).

The portions (23A, 23A') of the first loose material (102) and the second loose material (102') may be fed to the same compartments (37) between the rod-like elements (SI, S2).

The device according to the present invention enables to increase the level of filling of the compartments with the loose material, by which the quality of the manufactured rods is increased in terms of the efficiency of filtering of cigarette smoke. The better filtering effect and better filtering properties are achieved when different materials are located and mixed in a single compartment, or when materials having different granularity are located in the single compartment.

Owing to the alternate placing of different loose filtering materials in consecutive compartments during a single forming process, the manufacturing time of segment rods, comprising multiple segments separated by different loose materials, is shortened. In prior art solutions, it was necessary to fill spaces between segments with the first loose material and subsequently again the rods with the first loose material were cut into fragments, between which a second loose material was filled in a similar process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

The object of the invention is presented in details by means of preferable embodiments on a drawing, wherein:

Figs. 1 and 2 show fragments of examples of continuous multi-segment rods;

Fig. 3 shows an example of a multi-segment rod;

Fig. 4 shows schematically a fragment of a machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods;

Fig. 5 shows a filling unit for feeding loose material;

Fig. 6 shows schematically a fragment of the machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods in a first embodiment;

Fig. 7 shows schematically a fragment of the machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods in a second embodiment; Fig. 8 shows schematically a fragment of the machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods in a third embodiment;

Figs. 9a, 9b show a cross-sections of pocket wheels;

Fig. 10 shows schematically a fragment of the machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods in a fourth embodiment;

Fig. 11 shows a cross-section of the pocket wheels.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally, in the present description each portion of a rod comprising other material or made of another material is denoted as a segment, whereas the rod comprising different segments is denoted as a multi-segment rod. The present description relates to two types of loose materials, where the first loose material is different from the second loose material.

Figs. 1 and 2 show fragments of examples of continuous multi-segment rods CRl and CR2 formed from trains of rod-like elements (segments) SI, S2 respectively and comprising segments SC, SC prepared during production, formed by the unit according to the invention, wherein the segments are wrapped in a wrapper 101. The continuous multi-segment rods are cut into individual multi-segment rods. The segments SI and S2 have a solid shape, typically cylindrical, whereas the segments SC and SC are formed from loose materials 102, 102' of different types, respectively, wherein the loose materials are located between proper segments SI and SI or between the segments SI and S2, namely between front surfaces of these segments. The continuous rod CRl (fig. 1) comprises multiple segments SI, wherein between consecutive segments SI there are alternately located portions of the loose materials 102, 102' being filtering materials. As the filtering material the activated carbon granulate may be used. The loose materials 102, 102' may absorb contaminations from cigarette smoke up to different degree or may absorb different kinds of contaminations. The loose materials 102, 102' may have different granularity. The loose materials 102, 102' may have different colors, which will be visible for the smoker in case when a transparent wrapper is used. The exemplary continuous rod CR2, shown in fig. 2, comprises the alternately placed segments SI and S2 and compartments filled with the loose materials 102, 102'. The continuous multi- segment rod may comprise a greater number of different segments in arbitrary configuration. The compartments between the segments may be filled with the mixed loose materials 102 and 102'. Fig. 3 shows an exemplary multi-segment rod R, comprising segments SC having the first loose material 102 and the segments SC" having the first loose material 102 mixed with the second loose material 102'. Materials having significantly different granularity may be mixed together. The loose material which is finer, i.e. has greater degree of granularity fills spaces between greater particles of the material having lower degree of granularity, for example the granulate material. The mixture of two materials of significant difference of granularity usually results in better filtering properties than in case of utilization of two materials one next to the other, because the cigarette smoke flows through many narrow channels between the particles of the two materials, owing to which the contact of the smoke with the filtering substances is increased.

Fig. 4 shows schematically a fragment of a machine for manufacturing multi-segment filter rods. The machine comprises a feeding unit 1 which is configured to arrange the rod-like elements SI and S2 as a train ST1, wherein the rod- like elements SI and S2 are transported in a substantially preset spaced-apart relationship. The rod- like elements SI and S2 are fed onto a garniture transporter 5. A wrapper 101, such as a wrapping paper, is fed on a garniture belt 10 of the garniture transporter 5 and the elements SI and S2 are placed by the feeding unit 1 on the wrapper 101. Above the moving train ST1 there is located a first filling unit 103 and a second filling unit 103' for supplying the first loose material 102 and the second loose material 102' respectively, into the compartments between the neighboring segments SI, S2 in order to form the segments SC, SC. The compartments between the neighboring segments are limited by the wrapper 101 and the front surfaces of the elements SI, S2. The train ST2 of the elements SI, S2, SC, SC that moves on the garniture belt 10 of the garniture transporter 5 is wrapped in the wrapper 101 by a garniture unit 6. The garniture unit 6 comprises elements for folding the edges of the wrapper and a glue head. After gluing the wrapper 101 in the garniture unit 6 and final forming, the continuous rod CR is moved further and is cut into individual multi-segment rods R by means of a cutting head 8.

The first filling unit 103, shown in fig. 5, comprises a container 21 for the loose material

102, below which is located a pocket transporter 22 having a form of a pocket wheel. The wheel of the pocket transporter 22, at its circumference 22A, comprises pockets 23 adapted for receiving a specified portion 23 A of the loose material 102 from the container 21 during the movement in the vicinity of the container 21, i.e. along an opened bottom side 21 A of the container 21. The volume of the portion 23 A of the loose material 102, which is located inside the pocket 23 may correspond to the volume of a compartment 37 between the elements SI and S2. In the drawing the wheel of the pocket transporter 22 is rotating clockwise with a velocity col and the accumulated portions 23 A of the loose material 102 are feed into the compartments 37 through transferring ducts 29 in a transferring transporter 24. At the circumference 22A of the wheel of the pocket transporter 22, between the lower edge of the container 21 and the upper edge of the transferring transporter 24 there is located a guide 27 with a surface substantially adjacent to the circumference 22A of the wheel of the pocket transporter 22, securing the loose material 102 against falling out of the pockets 23.

In case of feeding loose materials having different granularity, the filling units may have different construction due to the need of their adaption to the degree of granularity of the fed loose material. In the further part of the description it is assumed that the second filling unit 103' has an equivalent construction to the first filling unit 103 described above. The transferring transporter 24 has a form of a chain transporter comprising links 25 and links 26 connected by pins 28, wherein the transferring ducts 29 are made in the links 26. The transferring transporter 24 moves with a velocity vl synchronized with the velocity col of the pocket transporter 22. The transferring transporter 24 is an endless transporter and an exemplary path of the transporter is depicted as a dashed line 24A. The transferring duct 29 may be formed in an arbitrary manner in one link of the chain or may be formed by the neighboring links. An inlet 35 of the transferring duct 29 is adapted for receiving the loose material 102, 102' from the pocket 23 of the pocket transporter 22. The transferring transporter 24 may also have a form of a plastic belt with transferring ducts formed similarly as in case of the chain transporter. The aforementioned belt may be driven by gearwheels.

The motion of the pocket transporter 22 is synchronized with the motion of the transferring transporter 24 such that the pocket 23 in its lowest position is in front of the inlet 35 of the transferring duct 29. While the motion of the transferring transporter 24 is synchronized with the motion of the garniture belt 10 and with the train of segments ST1 transported on the belt 10. Owing to such synchronization the portions 23A of the loose material 102, 102' are fed into consecutive compartments 37. In the lowest position of the pocket 23, the portion 23 A of the loose material 102, 102' is transferred from the pocket 23 through the transferring duct 29 to the compartment 37. The transferring (pouring) of the loose material 102, 102' to the compartment 37 may be supported by a negative pressure supplied to a negative pressure chamber 39 located under the air permeable garniture belt 10 of the garniture transporter 5. The negative pressure supplied to the negative pressure chamber 39 acts such that it accelerates transferring of the loose material and prevents the loose material from bouncing off from the wrapper.

The first filling unit 103 and the second filling unit 103 ' may feed the loose material 102, 102' into the compartment 37 between the segments by means of one common transferring transporter 24 as shown in the first embodiment in fig. 6. The first filling unit 103 and the second filling unit 103' are located one next to the other (i.e. in series) in a direction of movement of the train of segments STl . The first pocket transporter 22 of the first filling unit 103 is synchronized with the transferring transporter 24 and fills by means of the pocket transporter 22 every second compartment 37 between the segments SI and S2, the second pocket transporter 22' of the second filling unit 103' is also synchronized with the transferring transporter 24 and fills by means of the pocket transporter 22' the remaining compartments 37 between the segments SI, S2. Wherein the spacing of the compartments 37 in the train STl may be irregular, yet the transferring transporter is equipped with the transferring ducts 29 which are spaced apart as the spacing of the compartments 37 in the train STl . In the other embodiment shown in fig. 7, each filling unit 103, 103 ' feeds the loose material 102, 102' by means of the pocket transporters 22, 22' from the container 21, 21 ' by means of the separate transferring transporter 24, 24'. The transferring transporter 24 is synchronized with the movement of the train of segments STl and the transferring transporter 24' is synchronized with the movement of the train of segments STl, wherein the transferring transporter 24 and the transferring transporter 24' may have independent drives or a common drive.

Fig. 8 shows a third embodiment, in which the filling units 103, 103' are located side by side (i.e. in parallel) in such a way that the pocket transporters 22, 22' transfer the loose material 102, 102' from the pockets 23, 23' supplied from the containers 21, 21 ', alternately into consecutive compartments 37 between the segments SI, S2 in the train of segments STl . The loose material is transferred through the transferring ducts 29 in one transferring transporter 24. The volume of the portion 23A, 23A' of each loose material corresponds to the volume of the compartment 37. Fig. 9a shows a cross-section A-A through wheel of the pocket transporter 22, 22', where the loose material 102' is fed from the pocket 23 to the compartment 37. The consecutive compartment 37 in the train STl will be filled with the material 102' from the pocket 23' of the pocket transporter 22' as shown in fig. 9b. The pocket transporters 22, 22' may be mounted on a single axis and may have a common drive. The pockets 23, 23' may be made on the circumference of a single wheel instead of the two wheels described above. The pocket transporters 22, 22' may have different diameters and may have independent drives.

Fig. 10 shows a fourth embodiment in which the filling units 103, 103' are located side by side such that the pocket transporters 22, 22' feed the loose material 102, 102', from the pockets 23, 23' supplied from the containers 21, 21 ', simultaneously into the single compartment 37 between the segments SI, S2 in the train of segments STl . The loose material is fed through the transferring ducts 29 in the single transferring transporter 24. The volume of the pocket 23 and the volume of the pocket 23' together correspond to the volume of the compartment 37. Fig. 11 shows a cross-section B-B of the pocket transporters 22, 22', where the loose material 102, 102' is fed from the pockets 23, 23' to the compartment 37. The consecutive compartment 37 in the train ST1 will be also filled with the loose materials 102, 102' fed simultaneously from the consecutive pockets 23, 23' of the pocket transporters 22, 22'. The pocket transporters 22, 22' may be mounted on a single axis and may have a common drive. The pockets 23, 23' may be made on the circumference of a single wheel instead of the two wheels described above. During feeding the loose materials 102, 102' mix with each other. In case of the materials having significant difference in granularity it is possible to fill the compartment 37 in a greater degree than in case of the compartment 37 filled with only one type of the loose material. The portions 23 A, 23A' of the loose materials 102, 102' may together have a greater volume than the volume of the compartment 37, because after mixing the particles of the material of higher degree of granulation fill the spaces between particles of the material having a lower degree of granulation. When the train ST1 is moving with a low velocity, the loose materials 102, 102' are mixed only to a low extend or are not mixed at all. Then in order to fill the compartment up to a high level it is important that the materials are fed simultaneously from two compartments, because in a short time a double amount of material is fed.

In the manner as described above, it is possible to make a machine comprising three or more filling units 103. For each configuration of the pocket transporters, one type of the loose material may be fed.