Manufacture of mouthpiece cigarettes

Claim 1

Apparatus for making mouthpiece cigarettes by uniting a length of mouthpiece material to each cigarette in abutting relationship thereto by means of an encircling uniting band, comprising a rotatable drum, means to apply molten hot melt adhesive to a continuous web of uniting band material, means to deliver the web onto the drum at a temperature slightly below the melting point of the adhesive and at a speed less than the peripheral speed of the drum, severing means to sequentially cut off the successive foremost ends of the web on the drum to form a succession of uniting bands spaced apart by a gap, heating means to apply sufficient heat to the drum to re-activate the adhesive on the uniting bands, a rolling member having a concave part-cylindrical surface spaced from the drum to define a rolling passage therebetween, and conveyor means to directly deliver cigarette assemblages each with an aligned and abutted mouthpiece portion to said passage in timed relationship with the leading end of a re-activated uniting band so that said re-activated band is rolled in said passage around the preceding assemblage, the temperature of the rolling member being low enough to cool the adhesive to cause it to set.