A pneumatic tobacco feed system to cigarette making machines operates on a call-dump-fill and thereafter hold cycle. The system includes a discharger over each hopper of a making machine. The discharger is designed to contain a charge of tobacco while awaiting a low tobacco level call signal from the associated maker to dump this tobacco into the hopper. A pneumatically actuated air cylinder assembly operates to maintain the discharger door in a closed position until this signal is received. The cylinder rod is not permanently attached to the discharger door thereby eliminating any requirement of critical adjustment of the cylinder assembly mounting position. The extension of the rod during the door closing is at reduced speed to minimize the possibility of damage to the discharger door.
Tobacco feeder (10) consists of a conveyor belt (12), vibrating collecting pan (26), and control flaps (22a-b, 24a-b). Metering tube (16) delivers tobacco to conveyor belt (12), the speed of which varies depending on the number of cigarette making machines in operation. Conveyor belt (12) deposits tobacco on vibrating collecting pan (26) which has an inclined portion (28) to cause the tobacco flow to increase in velocity, thereby decreasing in density, as tobacco moves down the inclined portion (28). Control flaps (22a, 22b, 24a, 24b) direct the flow of tobacco to vacuum tubes (18a, 18b, 18c, 18d) depending on which cigarette makers are in operation.
A feed chute arrangement for textile machines, such as carding machines includes a feed chute having a plurality of walls one of which is gas-permeable to let gaseous medium to escape from the interior of the feed chute into a neighboring gas output chamber that is bounded by a plurality of additional walls different from the gas permeable wall. One of these additional walls is provided with an opening at which there is pivotally mounted a plate-shaped blocking flap selectively movable between its closed position and a plurality of open positions in which it offers various amounts of resistance to the flow of the gaseous medium from the gas output chamber through the opening into a connecting conduit and eventually into a discharge passage. Fiber material entrained in the gaseous medium and travelling therewith in a transporting duct enters the interior of the feed chute through an open upper end and deposits in the form of a fiber body at the lower end of the interior of the feed chute to be fed therefrom by a pair of feeding rollers. The gaseous transportation medium leaves the interior of the feed chute through the gas-permeable wall and then flows through the gas output chamber and through the opening. An operating device may be employed to move the blocking flap at least toward and into its closed position. A weight may be movably mounted on a bar extending transversely of the blocking flap to select the torque acting on the latter. The operating device may be controlled by the density of the fiber material passing between the feeding rollers.
