| 摘要 |
<p>Tobacco trimmed from a filler rod (14) is recycled and used in the control of the rod-forming operation. A reservoir vessel (28) is divided into physically-separate chambers, (30, 32) a narrow one (32) of which receives the recycled trimmed tobacco and a wider one (30) of which receives cut tobacco. Tobacco is simultaneously fed from both chambers by a common feeding device (56) to form a metered flow from which the filler rod is ultimately formed. The level of tobacco in the narrow chamber is sensed and the operation of the common feeding device is controlled in response to sensed levels outside a predetermined range. If the sensed level is too high, then the tobacco is being fed too fast to the rod formation and the common feeding device then is slowed down, thereby slowing the tobacco feed rate, while, if the sensed level is too low, then the tobacco is being fed too slowly to the rod formation and the common feeding device then is speeded up, thereby speeding up the tobacco feed rate.</p> |
