Method and device for separating cigarettes from a continuous line

Claim 1

Device for longitudinally separating cigarettes in a continuous line of cigarettes pushing one another in end to end relationship at the exit end of a continuous cigarette-making machine, in which all the cigarettes of the line are engaged by turns to an accelerator member which, when engaging a cigarette, has a peripheral speed equal to the feed speed of the cigarette, this peripheral speed of said accelerator member increasing gradually up to a maximum predetermined value, whereafter said accelerator member ceases to engage the cigarette before engaging the next cigarette in the line, wherein the accelerator member consists of two similar frustoconical rollers, each of them being secured to a shaft forming with the veRtical an angle equal to one-half of the vertex angle of the frustum of said roller, said shaft being rigid with a plate formed with a radial groove and rotatably driven from a crankpin engaging said groove, said crankpin being carried by a plate rigid in turn with a driving shaft parallel, and eccentric in relation, to said roller shaft, these two similar frustoconical rollers being mounted symmetrically in relation to a vertical plane containing the axis of the line of cigarettes to be separated longitudinally, each of said rollers including an operative sector and an inoperative sector, said inoperative sector being of a smaller radius than said operative sector, support means for movably mounting said rollers, said support means being movable along a first axis at right angles to said vertical plane and along a second axis, parallel to said vertical plane, and means for locking said rollers in any adjusted position.