Cross-Reference to Related Applications

This Patent Appl ication claims priority from Italian Patent Application No . 102022000009956 filed on May 13 , 2022 the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference .

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a processing plant to process articles , in particular smoking articles .

The present invention finds advantageous application in a plant for the production and packaging of cigarettes , to which the following description will refer without thereby losing generality .

Prior Art

A cigarette production and packaging plant , for example of the type described in patent application EP1587380A1 , comprises a production line made up of a plurality of machines in which an output of a previous machine is connected to an input of a following machine . Normally the production line comprises , from upstream to downstream, a cigarette producing machine (which forms the beginning of the production line and produces filter- less cigarettes ) , a filter- fitting machine (which receives the filter-less cigarettes from the producing machine and fits a filter to each cigarette ) , a packing machine (which receives the cigarettes provided with filter from the filter- fitting machine and packages the same in respective packs ) , a cellophane wrapping machine (which receives the packs of cigarettes from the packing machine and applies a corresponding transparent plastic coating to each pack of cigarettes ) , a carton-packer machine (which receives the packs of cigarettes provided with overwrap from the cellophane wrapping machine and packs them in respective cartons ) , and pos sibly a box-packer machine (which receives the cartons of packs of cigarettes from the carton-packer machine and packs the same in corresponding carboard boxes ) .

Other examples of a plant for the production and packaging of cigarettes are described in the patent applications W003074361A1 , EP1041006A2 , DE3519580C1 , EP1346651A1 , US20080289642A1 , EP0882411A1 , EP2121449A1 , EP1273541A2 , US5209247A1 , EP2004530 , EP0261508A2 and EP0347586A1 .

Various solutions are known for feeding consumer products to the machines .

For example , patent DE3519580C1 describes a plant for the production and packaging o f cigarettes in which a collection area is assigned to each production unit , where the consumer products are fed; from the collection area, the consumer products are fed by means of a robotic arm to the individual machines that request the same .

Patent application EP1273541A2 instead describes a plant for the production and packaging of cigarettes provided with a conveyor which conveys bobbins of wrapping material from a pallet arranged in an intermediate storage unit to the individual machines .

Patent US5209247A1 and the patent application EP2004530A1 describe , furthermore , a plant for the production and packaging of cigarettes provided with a portal robot which trans fers the new bobbins from a storage unit to the unwinding stations of the various machines and trans fers the exhausted bobbins from the unwinding stations to a waste station .

The solutions known in the art do not allow an ef fective and ef ficient distribution of the consumer products to the various machines of the processing plant .

Patent application EP1422145A1 describes a cigarette production line which is at least partially enclosed within a climate-controlled containment element . Patent application DE10234761A1 describes a production line for the production and packaging of cigarettes .

Patent application DE102006017106A1 describes a control method for the materials fed to a plant for the production and packaging of cigarettes .

Description of the Invention

The obj ect of the present invention is to provide a plant to process articles , in particular smoking articles , which allows effective and ef ficient distribution of consumer products to the various machines of the processing plant .

According to the present invention a plant to process articles , in particular smoking articles , is provided according to what is claimed in the attached claims .

The claims describe preferred embodiments of the present invention forming an integral part of the present description .

Brief Description of the Drawings

The present invention will now be described with reference to the attached drawings , which illustrate a nonlimiting embodiment thereof , wherein :

- Figure 1 is a schematic view of a multi-component cigarette contained in a rigid pack of cigarettes ;

- Figures 2 , 3 and 4 are three di f ferent perspective views of a processing plant for the production and packaging of multi-component cigarettes and made according to the present invention;

- Figures 5 , 6 and 7 are a front view, a rear view and a plan view of the processing plant of Figures 2 , 3 and 4 , respectively;

- Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view of the processing plant of Figures 2 , 3 and 4 ;

- Figure 9 is a perspective view of a transport system and of a feeding island of the processing plant of Figures 2 , 3 and 4 ; - Figure 10 is a perspective view of a support structure integrating a protection barrier o f the processing plant of Figures 2 , 3 and 4 ;

- Figure 11 is a front view and with parts removed for clarity of a production line formed by a plurality of machines of the processing plant of Figures 2 , 3 and 4 ; and

- Figure 12 is an enlarged view of a detail of Figure 11 .

Preferred Embodiments of the Invention

In Figure 1 , number 1 denotes as a whole a rigid pack of cigarettes which contains a group of cigarettes 2 .

The cigarettes 2 are of the multi-component type and therefore each cigarette 2 comprises a plurality of pieces 3 and 4 placed side by side ; in particular, a tobacco-based aromatic piece 3 and four filter pieces 4 which are di f ferent from one another ( for example the filter pieces 4 could comprise a PLA filter piece 4 , a cellulose acetate filter piece 4 , an activate carbons filter piece 4 and a tubular filter piece 4 ) are provided . The various pieces 3 and 4 are enclosed and held together by two overlapping wrapping sheets 5 and 6 . According to other embodiments not illustrated, the number, function, and arrangement of the pieces 3 and 4 and of the wrapping sheets 5 and 6 could be di f ferent .

Number 7 in Figure 2 denotes as a whole a processing plant for the production and packaging of the multi-component cigarettes 2 .

As better illustrated in Figure 11 , the processing plant 7 comprising a production line 8 formed by a plurality of machines 9 in which an output of a previous machine 9 is connected to an input of a following machine 9 (possibly with the interpos ition of a compensating storage unit which allows for temporary compensation of di f ferent speed rates between the machines 9 ) .

By way of example , the processing plant 7 comprises , from upstream to downstream, a machine 9a for the production of tobacco-based aromatic pieces 3 (which constitutes the beginning of the production line 8 and produces the aromatic pieces 3 ) , an assembling machine 9b (which receives the aromatic pieces 3 from the producing machine 9a and produces the multi-component cigarettes 2 by assembling the aromatic pieces 3 with the filtering pieces 4 ) , a packing machine 9c (which receives the cigarettes 2 from the assembling machine 9b and packages the same in respective packs 1 of cigarettes ) , a cellophane wrapping machine 9d (which receives the packs 1 of cigarettes from the packing machine 9c and applies a corresponding transparent plastic coating to each pack 1 of cigarettes ) , and a carton-packer machine 9e (which receives the packs 1 of cigarettes provided with overwrap from the cellophane wrapping machine 9c and packages the same in respective cartons ) .

The producing machine 9a is configured to crimp or cut lengthwise a tobacco-based web into strips and then to give , to the crimped or cut tobacco-based web, a cylindrical shape which is stabili zed by wrapping around the tobacco-based web a wrapping sheet . By way of example , the producing machine 9a can be made as described in the patent application EP3473111A1 or in the patent application EP3469923A1 .

The assembling machine 9b is configured to make a group of pieces 3 and 4 formed by an aromatic piece 3 and by the filtering pieces 4 ( to which a non- filtering piece could also be added, according to other embodiments not illustrated) and to wrap the wrapping sheets 5 and 6 around the group of pieces 3 and 4 . By way of example , the assembling machine 9b can be made as described in the patent application WO2014064655A2 .

The various machines 9 making up the production line 8 are preferably "bare" , namely, completely devoid of their own individual protection barrier separate from and independent of the other machines 9 . In other words , at least one machine 9 , preferably each machine 9 , is completely devoid of its own individual protection barrier 14 separate from and independent of the other machines 9 .

The processing plant 7 comprises a support structure 13 in which one single common protection barrier 14 is defined, which delimits , on the inside , a closed space where all machines 9 making up the production line 8 are arranged; namely, the protection barrier 14 (which prevents an operator from approaching the moving parts of the machines 9 while the machines 9 are working ) is not individual for each machine 9 but is common and unique for all the machines 9 .

The protection barrier 14 has a parallelepiped shape and therefore has a vertical front wall 15, a vertical rear wall 16 opposite the front wall 15 , two vertical side walls 17 opposite one another , and a hori zontal upper wall 18 . The protection barrier 14 ( or rather the support structure 13 of the protection barrier 14 ) rests ( directly) on a floor 19 of the processing plant 7 ( illustrated in Figure 8 ) . Basically, the protection barrier 14 is shaped like an inverted box which is independent of the machines 9 and contains , on the inside , the machines 9 .

The front wall 15 of the protection barrier 14 has a plurality of ( at least partially) openable and/or ( at least partially) transparent panels . Similarly, the rear wall 16 of the protection barrier 14 can have a plurality o f openable and/or ( at least partially) transparent panels .

As illustrated in Figure 8 , each machine 9 comprises operating members (which carry out the actual processing of the materials so as to arrive to the final product ) and a base which rests on the floor 19 and supports the operating members . In particular, the base of each machine 9 has a vertical front wall 20 or face and a vertical rear wall 21 or face opposite one another ; the operating members of the machine 9 are mounted on the front wall 20 of the base (namely, on the front wall 20 of the machine 9 ) .

In summary, the protection barrier 14 rests ( directly) on the floor 19 and is separate and spaced apart from the machines 9 making up the production line 8 which also rest ( directly) on the floor 19 ; therefore , advantageously, the assembly of the production line 8 made up of the machines 9 ( devoid of individual protection barriers ) is completely independent of the assembly of the protection barrier 14 above and around the machines 9 .

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached figures , all the machines 9 are arranged along a straight line and in particular all the front walls 20 of the machines 9 are flat and are substantially coplanar with one another ; as a consequence , also the assembling machine 9b has a " special" configuration being arranged parallel and not perpendicular to the producing machine 9a .

In this context , the orienting device 12 comprises a drum which receives from the cutting head 11 the cigarettes 2 in longitudinal advancement ( that is , on the plane of Figure 12 in the direction of their longitudinal axis ) and releases the cigarettes 2 in transversal advancement ( that is , in the direction orthogonal to their axis and to the plane of Figure 12 ) .

The aforementioned drum releases the cigarettes 2 to a conical drum with a surface inclined by 45 ° relative to its rotation axis , which, in turn, releases the cigarettes 2 to a cascade ( succes sion) of drums (not illustrated) that rotate around corresponding hori zontal rotation axes . In this way, the cigarettes 2 , which downstream of the cutting head 11 advance on the plane of Figure 12 in the direction of their longitudinal axis ( to the left , for the viewer, of Figure 12 ) , downstream of the orienting device 12 and along the cascade of drums advance on the plane of Figure 12 in the transversal direction to their longitudinal axis (upwards , for the viewer, of Figure 12 ) .

Alternatively, by way of example , the connection between the producing machine 9a and the assembling machine 9b could be achieved with an orienting device 12 of the type described in the patent application IT201800011002 , again followed by the cascade of drums .

The front wall 15 of the protection barrier 14 is parallel and facing the front walls 20 of the machines 9 and is also spaced apart from the front walls 20 of the machines 9 so as to define , between the front wall 15 of the protection barrier 14 and the front walls 20 of the machines 9 , an inspection corridor 22 that is free and accessible (namely, a human or automatic operator can travel along the inspection corridor 22 by advancing, walking, on the floor 19 ) . Preferably, the inspection corridor 22 has a constant width along its entire extension since all the front walls 20 of the machines 9 are coplanar ( aligned) with one another . Said width is preferably ranging from 1 metre to 3 metres .

Similarly, the rear wall 16 of the protection barrier 14 is parallel and facing the rear walls 21 of the machines 9 and is also spaced apart from the rear walls 21 of the machines 9 to define , between the rear wall 16 of the protection barrier 14 and the rear walls 21 of the machines 9 , an inspection corridor 23 that is free and accessible (namely, a human or automatic operator can travel along the inspection corridor 23 by advancing, walking, on the floor 19 ) . The inspection corridor 23 is parallel and opposite to the inspection corridor 22 and may not have a constant width along its entire extension : since the front walls 20 of the machines 9 are coplanar ( aligned) with one another, the rear walls 21 of the machines 9 are not always coplanar ( aligned) with one another since the various machines 9 may have di f ferent dimensions ( in particular depths ) . However, the width of the corridor 23 is also preferably ranging from 1 metre to 3 metres .

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached figures , the upper hori zontal wall 18 of the protection barrier 14 is walkable , namely it defines a load- bearing floor ; for said purpose stairs connecting the floor 19 to the upper wall 18 are provided and the upper wall 18 is delimited by protective railings . In other words , the protection barrier 14 has two levels ( divided from one another by the hori zontal upper wall 18 ) : a ground ( lower ) level \completely closed on six sides in which the machines 9 are housed and an open overhead (upper ) level . In other words , the support structure 13 ( in which the protection barrier 14 is defined) is provided with the walkable upper wall 18 which is designed both for allowing the presence of people and for housing equipment ; namely, the support structure 13 ( in which the protection barrier 14 is defined) defines an overhead (upper ) level which is arranged above the machines 9 making up the production line 8 .

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached figures , the upper wall 18 of the protection barrier 14 supports accessory devices of the machines 9 . In particular, on the upper wall 18 the electrical switchboards

24 are arranged at least in part , namely, at least in part the electrical and electronic control units of the machines 9 . Furthermore , consumer product feeding devices 25 of the machines 9 are arranged on the upper wall 18 . Each feeding device 25 is configured to receive an amount of consumer products and to trans fer, in a split manner, the amount of material to a corresponding machine 9 located under the feeding device 25 (namely, in the area of the feeding device

25 and vertically aligned with the feeding device 25 ) . In other words , each feeding device 25 has the task of splitting the consumer product , namely, each feeding device 25 receives an aggregate element ( a bobbin of a strip of wrapping material or a bundle of blanks ) of a large amount o f consumer products and must divide said aggregate element to feed the consumer product , in a split and directly workable manner, to the corresponding machine 9 ( a strip of wrapping material unwound from a bobbin or a blank taken from a bundle ) . For example , a feeding device 25 can comprise a bobbin unwinding station : the feeding device 25 receives a bobbin of a strip of wrapping material and unwinds the same so as to feed the corresponding machine 9 with the strip of wrapping material .

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the accompanying figures , a common transport system 26 is provided which is coupled to all the feeding devices 25 (namely, passes through all the feeding devices 25 ) and is configured to trans fer a corresponding amount of consumer product to each feeding device 25 . In particular, the transport system 26 comprises at least one elevated railway 27 and a plurality of shuttles 28 , which are independent of one another and autonomously move along the elevated railway 27 ; namely, each shuttle 28 has its own motor which generates movement along the elevated railway 27 and receives electrical power from the elevated railway 27 .

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached figures , a feeding island 29 is provided which is arranged outside the protection barrier 14 and is coupled to the transport system 26 , namely, it is designed to trans fer the consumer products to the shuttles 28 of the transport system 26 . The feeding island 29 can be arranged next to the protection barrier 14 ( as illustrated in the attached figures ) or it can be arranged at a given distance from the protection barrier 14 . Furthermore , the feeding island 29 can be dedicated exclusively to a single processing plant 7 or it can be shared between two or more processing plants 7 . Generally, the feeding island 29 comprises one or more depalleti zing robots , namely, robots configured to pick up the consumer products from pallets and then deposit the consumer products in the shuttles 28 of the transport system 26 . Generally, the consumer products fed to the machines 9 are formed (preferably) by bobbins of strips of wrapping material or bundles of blanks .

The transport system 26 could comprise ( at least ) an elevator mechanism which trans fers the shuttles 28 between di f ferent levels ( typically from the feeding island 29 which is arranged on the " ground l evel" to the feeding devices 25 which are arranged on the " overhead l evel" ) .

Alternatively or in addition to the shuttles 28 , according to a non-illustrated alternative , one or more collaborative robotic arms could be provided which slide hanging from a railway placed under the load-bearing floor preferably parallel to the base of the line . Said robotic arms carry out operations on the line autonomously during operation or collaborate with the operator or maintenance technician during, maintenance or restoration operations . Said arms could carry a video camera that frames areas of the machine selected by the operator or automatically ( for example areas with faults , areas with frequent rej ects , areas with j ams ) .

The production l ine 8 further comprises compensating storage units 30 ( one of which is schematically illustrated in Figure 16 ) which are interposed between an output of a previous machine 9 and an input of a following machine 9 and have the function of " decoupling" the two machines 9 , namely, allowing the two machines 9 to operate ( obviously for relatively short periods of time ) at di f ferent operating speeds ( as number of products processed in the unit of time ) . The compensating storage units 30 are arranged on the upper wall 18 of the support structure 13 , namely, they are arranged on the overhead level and therefore are arranged above the machines 9 .

In particular, as illustrated in Figure 12 , a compensating storage unit 30 is provided interposed between the output of the producing machine 9a and the input of the assembling machine 9b . The compensating storage unit 30 is connected to the output of the producing machine 9a by means of an ascending vertical conveyor 31 and is connected to the input of the assembling machine 9b by means of a descending vertical conveyor 32 ; in particular, the assembling machine 9b comprises a hopper 33 which is configured to contain a mass of aromatic pieces 3 and receives the aromatic pieces 3 from the producing machine 9a and therefore the descending vertical conveyor 32 ends in the hopper 33 of the assembling machine 9b .

According to an alternative not illustrated, the producing machine 9a is connected directly to the assembling machine 9b without any compensating storage unit 30 and the assembling machine 9b has no hopper 33 . In this case the cascade of drums described above can directly and continuously feed the entering cascade of drums to the assembling machine 9b .

Obviously, in addition to the compensating storage unit 30 interposed between the output of the producing machine 9a and the input of the assembling machine 9b, other compensating storage units 30 (not illustrated) can be provided .

In other words , a trans fer conveyor is provided which originates from an output of the producing machine 9a and ends in an input of the assembling machine 9b and has : an ascending vertical branch (which comprises the ascending vertical conveyor 31 ) connected to the output of the producing machine 9a, a vertical descending branch (which comprises the descending vertical conveyor 32 ) connected to the input of the assembling machine 9b, and a hori zontal branch which is interposed between the two vertical branches , is arranged above the machines 9 and further comprises the compensating storage unit 30 . According to a preferred embodiment , ( at least ) an initial section of the ascending vertical conveyor 31 is formed by the cascade ( succession) of drums which rotate around corresponding hori zontal rotation axes (namely, they are arranged vertically) .

According to a preferred (but not binding) embodiment , the producing machine 9a is aligned with the assembling machine 9b to form, together, a straight line ; namely, the set of the two machines 9a and 9b has , in plan, a rectilinear shape devoid of corners .

According to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the attached figures , the protection barrier 14 is formed by a plurality of modules which are identical to one another and are arranged side by side ; the two side walls 17 are added ( connected) to the two terminal modules (namely, to the two end modules ) . In this way, the length of the protection barrier 14 is easily adaptable to di f ferent production lines 8 (whereas the width of the protection barrier 14 is fixed and is chosen so as to contain the wider production line 8 inside the same ) .

The protection barrier 14 can comprise an air conditioning device which regulates the climate inside the protection barrier 14 .

According to a possible embodiment illustrated in Figure 9 , the processing plant 7 comprises ( at least ) an autonomous vehicle 35 which is arranged within the closed space delimited by the protection barrier 14 beside the machines 9 , is designed to move in the closed space along the inspection corridor 22 or along the inspection corridor 23 , and supports at least one robotised tool configured to act upon at least one machine 9 . The autonomous vehicle 35 can move on wheels or can use a railway that runs parallel to the line of the bases of the machines 9. It is important to observe that the autonomous vehicle 35 (not being a human person) can intervene ( for example to carry out a cleaning operation or to remove a j ammed consumer product ) even when all the machines 9 are operating .

When the machines 9 are operating (namely, when at least one machine 9 is operating) , the openable panels of the protection barrier 14 must remain strictly closed and the opening thereof causes the automatic stop of the machines 9 . Presence sensors can be provided, which detect the presence of people inside the space delimited by the protection barrier 14 (namely, along the inspection corridors 22 and 23) and therefore prevents the starting of the machines 9 (or stops the machines 9) even if all the panels of the protection barrier 14 are closed. Presence sensors can comprise video cameras (also thermographic types) .

The safety function along the corridors 22 and 23 can also be active in sectors along their longitudinal development .

According to a preferred embodiment, the support structure 13 and the barrier 14 have sound-absorbing characteristics or in any case such as to form a noise barrier .

According to a further preferred embodiment, the plant 7 is formed by several levels, one above the other, with the same characteristics.

The processing plant 7 described above is configured for the production and packaging of cigarettes; according to other embodiments, the processing plant 7 is configured to carry out any type of processing (production, assembly, packaging...) on any type of smoking articles, or articles of the tobacco industry (for example cigars, electronic cigarettes of the liquid vaporization type, etc.) . Alternatively, the processing plant 7 is configured to perform any type of processing (production, assembly, packaging...) on any type of non-tobacco processing industry articles (e.g., food articles, beverages, hygiene articles, sanitary articles, medicines...) .

The embodiments described herein can be combined with one another without departing from the scope of the present invention .

The processing plant 7 described above has numerous advantages .

In the first place, the processing plant 7 described above allows the assembly or maintenance interventions to be performed faster and more ef ficiently ( even automated, namely, without the intervention of a human operator ) .

Furthermore , since at least one machine 9 , preferably each machine 9 , lacks an individual protection barrier 14 of its own which is separate from and independent of the other machines 9 , the processing plant 7 described above is simple and inexpensive to implement as on the whole , making one single common protection barrier 14 of the modular type costs less than making a corresponding individual and personali zed protection barrier for each machine 9 .

The particular arrangement of the producing machine 9a and of the assembling machine 9b allows to increase the production ef ficiency and, at the same time , allows to signi ficantly reduce the overall dimensions .

Finally, the processing plant 7 described above is particularly compact since instead of developing in width it develops in height .

List of Reference Numbers of the Figures

1 pack of cigarettes

2 cigarettes

3 aromatic piece

4 filter piece

5 wrapping sheet

6 wrapping sheet

7 processing plant

8 production line

9 machines

10 forming beam

11 cutting head

12 orienting device

13 support structure

14 protection barrier

15 front wall

16 rear wall

17 side walls 18 upper wall

19 floor

20 front wall

21 rear wall 22 inspection corridor

23 inspection corridor

24 switchboards

25 feeding devices

26 transport system 27 elevated railway

28 shuttles

29 feeding island

30 compensating storage unit

31 ascending vertical conveyor 32 descending vertical conveyor

33 hopper

35 autonomous vehicle