Design and Application of Loading and Collating Mechanism in Filter Rod Case Filling Machine

In order to simplify the operation and improve the metering accuracy of filter rod case filling machine, a new filter rod loading and collating mechanism was developed based on precise servo drive technology, wherein lateral plates and a movable bottom plate defined a filter rod chamber for accommodating the filter rods for a whole case, two servo motors moved the bottom plate and its bracket downward to receive input filter rods helped by the knockers on the lateral plates, the rods were collated and orderly arranged in the chamber. Finally, the whole stack of filter rods was pushed into and filled an empty case all at once. HCF80 case filling machine was retrofitted with the new loading and collating mechanism, the testing results showed that the mechanism could accurately control the action of collator and the rods were arranged orderly. At the original throughput of the machine, the number of filter rod per case ranged between 4 000±5 rods, which was better than that of YJ36 filter rod case filling machine and met the requirements of industrial production standards. The efficiency of automatic filter rod logistic system is effectively promoted.