A method and a device for monitoring the external integrity of cigarettes

摘要

The external integrity of cigarettes is verified by a method that involves directing single cigarettes (2), carried on a conveyor (3), along a route of which one section affords a monitoring path (8) equipped with a line scan camera (11); the advancing cigarette (2) can be made selectively to rotate about its longitudinal axis whilst the camera (11), a solid state type using CCD arrays, makes a succession of scans on respective closely ordered parallel lines (10), which are pulsed at a programmed frequency and synchronously with the movement of the cigarette (2) in such a way that each successive scan line will fall on one and the same generator (2a) of the cylindrical surface. Repeated scanning of the same limited surface area eliminates quality control errors attributable to the presence of particulates in the space between the cigarettes (2) and the camera (11). <IMAGE>