An improved machine for stripping tobacco leaves, or removing 'flags' and other adhering leaf from the stalks of tobacco leaves

摘要

301,239. Phillips, M. G. P. Jan. 27, 1928. Tobacco. - For stripping leaves or removing flags " and other leaf fragments, the leaves or incompletely stripped stalks are passed between feed rollers 26, 26a preceded and followed by one or more pairs of rotary brushes, the speeds of the preceding and following brushes being respectively lower and higher than that of the feed rolls. As shown in Fig. 3, the brushes 5, 5a are of wire, the rolls 26, 26a are rubbercovered and the brushes 21, 21a are non- metallic, and their speeds are in the proportions of 1:3: 15. Combs 33 are provided for each of the brushes 5, 5a and guide bars 39, 40 in advance of the central rollers. Motion is transmitted to the brushes and rollers by toothed and belt gearing from an electric motor 10 mounted in the lower part of the frame. The feeding table 30 may consist of a belt driven from the spindle 6 of the adjacent brush 5a. From the final brushes the leaves and stalks pass through an inclined shoot 43 having a partition 41 which has the effect of separating the stalks from the leaf-fragments; the latter fall through the opening 46 while the former are carried over the partition 41 to the exit 45. In a modification the partition 41 consists of a series of inclined blades on to which a current of air is directed. Trays 32, 47 for the leaf and stalks are placed beneath the apparatus.