Multi-Segment Rod Quality Control and Buffer Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The tobacco industry faces interruptions and machine contamination due to the lack of solutions to manage unused wrapping material sections during the manufacturing of rod-like articles with filter tips, leading to inefficiencies in the production process.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that involve feeding and assembling rod-like segments into a continuous multi-segment rod, changing the conveying direction, and using a measuring unit to check quality before fixing the end segments, with a compensation unit to handle defective rods and ensure continuous feeding to an end segment fixing apparatus.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a filter tipping machine continuously feeds wrapping material sections to each groove of a drum conveyor, then the production process can proceed without interruption, but unused wrapping material sections will uncontrollably fall from the drum conveyor causing machine contamination
Solution Approach 1:
A receiving device is introduced as an intermediary component between the drum conveyor and the wrapping material supply. This device captures unused wrapping material sections before they can fall uncontrollably, preventing machine contamination while allowing continuous feeding of wrapping material to the drum conveyor grooves.
Solution Approach 2:
The harmful element (unused wrapping material sections) is extracted from the harmful context (uncontrolled falling causing contamination) by directing them into a dedicated receiving device. This separates the waste material handling from the main production flow, eliminating contamination while maintaining productivity.
2Manufacturing precision
If defective multi-segment rods are rejected at the measuring unit, then quality control is improved, but the end segment fixing apparatus experiences interruptions due to lack of continuous supply
Solution Approach 1:
A buffer device is positioned between the measuring unit and the end segment fixing apparatus to perform preliminary storage of multi-segment rods. This allows the buffer to accumulate rods in advance, so when defective rods are rejected at the measuring unit, the buffer can continue supplying rods to the end segment fixing apparatus without interruption, maintaining both quality control and production continuity.
3Ease of manufacture
If the conveying direction of multi-segment rods is changed from longitudinal to transverse before end segment fixing, then proper alignment for end segment attachment is achieved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conveying system is made dynamic by introducing a direction-changing mechanism that can switch the conveying direction of multi-segment rods from longitudinal to transverse. This dynamic adjustment allows proper alignment for end segment fixing while integrating smoothly into the existing production flow, managing complexity through functional flexibility rather than multiple fixed systems.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3
Figure 4a~4b
AI summary
Method for manufacturing of multi-segment rod-like articles (25, 25', 25'') of the tobacco industry in an apparatus (2) for manufacturing multi-segment rods (6) or segment rods (6', 6'') comprising the steps of: feeding rod-like segments of at least one kind (A, B, C, E, F) constituting a multi-segment rod-like article (25, 25', 25''); putting together rod-like segments (A, B, C, E, F) in a segments train (ST) on a wrapping material (7); manufacturing a continuous segment rod (CR', CR'') or multi-segment rod (CR) containing rod-like segments (A, B, C, E, F) wrapped by the wrapping material (7), whereas the segments are pushed together or cavities are left between the segments; and cutting the continuous segment rod (CR', CR'') or multi-segment rod (CR) into multi-segment rods (6) or segment rods (6', 6'') containing any combination of rod-like segments (A, B, C, E, F), double rod-like segments (A, B, C, E, F) and halves of rod-like segments (A, B, C, E, F), whereas at the time of cutting of the continuous multi-segment rod (CR) the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'') move in a longitudinal direction (T1); then changing conveying direction of the multi-segment rod (6) or the segment rod (6', 6'') from the longitudinal direction (T1) to a transverse direction (T2), and fixing the end segments (D) to the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6''), conveyed in the transverse direction (T2) in an end segment fixing apparatus (3) adapted to manufacture multi-segment rod-like articles (25, 25', 25''). The method is characterised in that after the change of the conveying direction of the multi-segment rod (6) or the segment rod (6', 6'') from the longitudinal direction (T1) to the transverse direction (T2), and before fixing the end segment (D), a step of checking quality the manufactured multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'') is performed at a measuring unit (9) and defective multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'') are rejected, next feeding the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'') to a compensation unit (13) for storing the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'') and for compensating the rejection of the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6''), and then feeding the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'') from the compensation unit (13) to the end segment fixing apparatus (3) so that the end segment fixing apparatus (3) is continuously fed with the multi-segment rods (6) or the segment rods (6', 6'').