Cigarette making apparatus

Abstract

A cigarette making apparatus comprises a filter-plug attachment mechanism arranged to butt a filter plug coaxially against a cigarette and then wrap tip paper around the cigarette and filter plug to cover a joint where the cigarette and the filter plug meet, a laser hole-forming device arranged to form air holes in the tip paper by projecting laser light onto the side of the tip paper intended to contact the cigarette and filter plug (back side), while the tip paper is being supplied to the filter-plug attachment mechanism, and an air-permeability measurement device arranged to measure the air permeability of the tip paper with the air holes formed, wherein the air-flow resistance Vf of a filter-tipped cigarette is adjusted by feedback-controlling the laser hole-forming device on the basis of the air permeability measured.

1 . A cigarette making apparatus, comprising: 
 a filter-plug attachment mechanism arranged to butt a filter plug against a cigarette, and then join the cigarette and the filter plug by wrapping tip paper around the cigarette and filter plug to cover a joint where the cigarette and the filter plug meet,    a laser hole-forming device provided in a path along which the tip paper is supplied to the filter-plug attachment mechanism, and arranged to form air holes in the tip paper by projecting laser light onto the side of the tip paper intended to contact the cigarette and filter plug, and    an air-permeability measurement device provided forward of the laser hole-forming device and arranged to measure the air permeability of the tip paper with the air holes formed.    
   
   
       2 . The cigarette making apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the laser hole-forming device includes an acoustooptic modulator arranged to modulate only part of laser light emitted from a laser generation device into pulses and emit the pulses.  
   
   
       3 . The cigarette making apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the laser hole-forming device is arranged such that the output power of the laser light and/or the laser light projection period is feedback-controlled on the basis of output of the air-permeability measurement device.  
   
   
       4 . The cigarette making apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a traveling position sensor provided forward of the laser hole-forming device and arranged to detect the widthwise position of the tip paper traveling, and    a meandering correction mechanism provided backward of the laser hole-forming device and arranged to correct the widthwise position of the tip paper traveling, on the basis of the result of detection by the traveling position sensor.    
   
   
       5 . The cigarette making apparatus according to  claim 4 , wherein the meandering correction mechanism includes a turn bar arranged to be oblique relative to the width of the tip paper to change the direction of traveling of the tip paper, and a slide mechanism arranged to slide the turn bar along the width of the tip paper on the basis of the result of detection by the traveling position sensor.