Machine for making rods of smokable material and cooling apparatus therefor

Abstract

A machine for making one or more cigarette rods or analogous smokers' products is provided with a cooling apparatus for one or more cooling elements, one for each rod. Each such element has a finger which frictionally contacts and is thus heated by the respective advancing rod preferably immediately downstream of a station where one or more tobacco streams is or are converted into one or more rod-like fillers, and a guide wall which carries the finger and frictionally contacts and is thus heated by the advancing filler at a wrapping station for the rod. The cooling apparatus has at least one part which is cooled by a circulating fluid coolant and is movable into and from surface-to-surface contact with the finger(s) and the guide wall(s).

1 . Apparatus for cooling a guide wall for at least one rod-like filler which is being turned out by a machine for making smokers' products, comprising a cooling element arranged to indirectly cool said guide wall.  
   
   
       2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising conduit means for conveying a fresh coolant to and for conveying spent coolant from said cooling element.  
   
   
       3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said guide wall has at least one surface and said cooling element has at least one contact surface arranged to abut said at least one surface of said guide wall.  
   
   
       4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein at least a portion of said at least one contact surface is at least substantially complementary to at least one portion of said at least one surface of said guide wall.  
   
   
       5 . The apparatus of  claim 3  for cooling a guide wall having a cover-shaped part and at least one finger-shaped part on said cover-shaped part, wherein said at least one contact surface is arranged to abut a surface on at least one of said parts.  
   
   
       6 . The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein said at least one contact surface includes a plurality of portions one of which abuts a surface of said cover-shaped part and another of which abuts a surface of said finger-shaped part.  
   
   
       7 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein said portions of said at least one contact surface are at least substantially normal to each other.  
   
   
       8 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein said one portion of said at least one contact surface is at least substantially parallel to and is arranged to exchange heat with said surface of said cover, said surface of said cover facing away from the filler being turned out by the machine.  
   
   
       9 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein said surface of said finger-shaped part is a lateral surface of such part and said other portion of said at least one contact surface is at least substantially parallel to and is arranged to exchange heat with said lateral surface of said finger-shaped part.  
   
   
       10 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein said lateral surface of said finger-shaped part has several sections and said at least one contact surface has several sections, one for each section of said lateral surface, said several sections of said at least one contact surface being at least substantially parallel to each other and being arranged to exchange heat with the respective sections of the lateral surface of said finger-shaped part.  
   
   
       11 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein said cooling element includes a plurality of at least substantially parallel rods having free ends and diverging from each other in directions toward said free ends, said sections of said at least one contact surface being provided on said rods.  
   
   
       12 . The apparatus of  claim 6 , wherein at least two of said portions of said at least one contact surface include conical portions.  
   
   
       13 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , further comprising means for biasing said at least one contact surface and said at least one surface of said guide wall against each other.  
   
   
       14 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , further comprising means for mounting said cooling element for pivotal movement about a predetermined axis.  
   
   
       15 . The apparatus of  claim 14 , wherein said axis is at least substantially parallel to the rod-like filler being turned out by said machine.  
   
   
       16 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said cooling element is arranged to maintain said guide wall within a temperature range of substantially between room temperature and about 100° C.  
   
   
       17 . A cooling element for at least one guide wall for at least one rod-like filler containing a smokable material and being turned out by a machine for making smokers' products, said cooling element being arranged to indirectly cool said guide wall and having means for conveying a flowable coolant therethrough.  
   
   
       18 . A machine for making at least one moving rod and for subdividing the rod into a plurality of rod-shaped smokers' products, comprising at least one rod guiding wall which is heated as a result of contact with the moving rod; and a cooling element arranged to indirectly cool said guiding wall.  
   
   
       19 . A machine for simultaneously making a plurality of moving rods and for subdividing the moving rods into pluralities of rod-shaped smokers' products, comprising a cooling apparatus including a cooling element for each of the rods, each of said cooling elements having a first rod contacting surface and including a finger having a second rod contacting surface, each of said elements being arranged to cool a different one of the moving rods and said apparatus further having means for indirectly cooling said elements.  
   
   
       20 . The machine of  claim 19 , further comprising means for movably mounting said cooling apparatus on a housing of said machine for movement between first and second positions in which said cooling elements are respectively in contact with and spaced apart from said means for indirectly cooling said elements.