FEEDING PARTICULATE MATERIAL, ESPECIALLY TOBACCO

摘要

of the Invention Feeding Particulate Material, especially tobacco A cigarette making machine has a hopper including a carded drum 20 which partly defines a space 16 into which tobacco is arranged to be fed and from which the drum feeds tobacco at a controlled rate, the drum having pins of different height so arranged that there is at least one helically-extending row 34 of relatively high pins set amongst relatively low pins. Rows of high pins may alternate with rows of low pins; alternatively, the drum may have a number of helically extending bands (40 or 42, 44) each comprising a number of adjacent rows of high pins, the remaining pins between the bands being low pins.