RF Cigarette Detection Sensor for Subsurface Defect Segregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for detecting faulty cigarettes, such as electromechanical and optical/infrared methods, are inaccurate and prone to mechanical damage, and fail to identify defects like conical tobacco holes or moisture fluctuations, leading to poor quality products.
Innovation Solution
The use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields and microwave resonators to evaluate changes in electromagnetic fields as cigarettes pass, allowing for non-contact detection of defects both on and beneath the surface, independent of moisture and color fluctuations, using capacitance measurements and resonant frequency shifts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If electromechanical methods with stamps are used to detect faulty cigarettes, then the measurement device can detect tobacco density, but the cigarette must be stopped exactly at the position of the stamp which reduces production speed and the method is highly sensitive to mechanical destruction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the electromechanical stamp-based detection system with a non-contacting radio-frequency electromagnetic field measurement system. The sensor applies RF fields to the cigarette end surface without mechanical contact, eliminating the need to stop the cigarette for positioning and avoiding mechanical destruction of the product while maintaining detection accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces radio-frequency electromagnetic fields as an intermediary between the detection system and the cigarette. The RF fields penetrate the cigarette end surface to detect tobacco density and defects without requiring direct mechanical contact or precise positioning, enabling continuous movement at high production speeds.
2Productivity
If optical or infrared measurement methods are used to detect faulty cigarettes, then the cigarettes can move through the measurement zone without stopping, but the measurement effect is a pure surface effect that cannot detect defects beneath the surface
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the measurement parameter from optical/infrared wavelengths that only penetrate the surface to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields with longer wavelengths that can penetrate deeper into the cigarette material. This allows detection of subsurface defects like conical tobacco holes and cavities while maintaining non-contacting measurement for high production speeds.
3Measurement precision
If optical measurement methods are used to detect faulty cigarettes, then non-contacting measurement is achieved, but color fluctuations in the tobacco blend or moisture fluctuations result in measurement uncertainty
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes optical measurement methods with radio-frequency electromagnetic field measurement. The RF fields are not affected by color fluctuations in the tobacco blend or moisture variations, providing consistent and reliable measurements of tobacco density and defects regardless of these varying conditions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables more reliable and efficient detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes, reducing waste and improving product quality by identifying defects regardless of their position or moisture content, and can be used for both individual and grouped cigarette detection.
Implementation Method 1
a sensor past whose end surface the ends of the cigarettes are passed and which applies the radio frequency electromagnetic fields to the end surface of the sensor
Implementation Method 2
The radio-frequency electromagnetic fields penetrate into the cigarette at the end of the cigarette... whose size corresponds approximately to the size of the end surface of the cigarettes
Implementation Method 3
a generator and evaluation circuits are provided for radio-frequency electromagnetic fields... whose size corresponds approximately to the size of the end surface of the cigarettes, with the changes in the electromagnetic fields as a cigarette passes being evaluated
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus and method for detection and segregation of faulty cigarettes in a production/packaging installation for cigarettes having an apparatus by means of which faulty cigarettes are segregated from the conveyed sequence of cigarettes, wherein the apparatus and method use a generator and evaluation circuits for radio-frequency electromagnetic fields and use a sensor past whose end surface the ends of the cigarettes are passed and which applies the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to the end surface of the sensor, whose size corresponds approximately to the size of the end surface of the cigarettes, with the changes in the electromagnetic fields as a cigarette passes being evaluated.