Packaging machine

Claim 1

In apparatus for packaging cigarettes, the apparatus including means for forming individual cigarettes into blocks, the improvement comprising: wrapping turntable means, said wrapping turntable means including a turntable having an axis and a plurality of tubular mandrels supported on the turntable and extending generally parallel to said axis of the turntable, each of said mandrels having an insertion end which defines a plane and a cross-sectional size and shape commensurate with a cigarette block to be packaged; means for imparting rotary stepwise motion to said wrapping turntable means, said motion imparting means causing the rotary position of said turntable means to be incremented in steps equal to the spacing between said mandrels; a plurality of slide members, one of said slide members extending into each of said wrapping turntable means mandrels from the end opposite to the insertion end thereof, said slide members having a rest position which defines an interior mandrel length substantially equal to the length of the cigarettes being packaged, said slide members being individually axially movable with respect to said mandrels for unloading said mandrels; means for feeding packaging material to said wrapping turntable means; means for feeding cigarette blocks into said mandrels through said insertion ends thereof and into contact with said slide members whereby the cigarettes in a mandrel extend from the slide member to the mandrel insertion end and first ends of the cigarettes will lie generally in said plane of said mandrel insertion end; means for folding packaging material over the insertion ends of and around individual of said mandrels whereby the folded packaging material will be juxtapositioned to said cigarette first ends; guide means for determining said rest position of said slide members in and adjacent the ends of said mandrels disposed opposite to said insertion ends during the feeding of cigarette blocks into said mandrels and for maintaining this positioning during the motion of said turntable means between a loading position and an unloading position, said guide means comprising a fixed circular ring which prevents axial movement of said slide members with respect to their respective mandrels, said ring being interrupted at the unloading position of said turntable means; means for engaging said slide members at the unloading position of said turntable means as determined by the interruption in said guide means ring, said engaging means comprising a reciprocal actuator for imparting axial motion to said slide members to eject the cigarette blocks and the packaging material which has been folded about the mandrels from said turntable means as units, the cigarettes being ejected through said mandrel insertion ends; and top closing means for closing the tops of the units, said units being transferred to said top closing means by said slide members at the unloading position of said turntable.