Method of and device designed to have effect on the product in a tobacco processing machine

Description of the invention

The subject of the invention is a method of a device for influencing a product in a tobacco processing machine operating at a defined machine clock in relation to the product information previously assigned to the product and a device for influencing a product in a tobacco processing machine operating at a defined machine clock. depending on the product information previously assigned to the product.

Such methods and devices are known in the art. Thus, it is known from the German patent no. DE 19 00 701 B2 of the company applying for storing information about the manufactured product in the cell of the shift register. The information is passed on with the product in the shift register synchronously with the tact and thus enables the actuators which are spaced apart from the respective sensors to be controlled in good time.

From the German application no. DE-OS 21 13 841 of the Industrial Nucleonics Corporation company, a method of tracking and classifying products is known, in which along the production line are provided: a reference point, several measuring stations and a control station. In addition, a counter is provided which, for each product passing over the reference point, increases the indication and the memory having several cells. When the product runs past one of the measurement sites, a signal is generated corresponding to the measurement result and stored in a memory location whose address corresponds to the difference of the current meter reading and the distance between the measurement site and the reference point. At the same time, a memory location is selected, the address of which corresponds to the difference between the current reading of the counter and the distance of the measuring station from the reference point, the corresponding signal representing the information that belongs to the product currently running at the control station. Said information that the respective product is not free from defects activates the control station and the product is removed from the production device.

The object of the invention is to improve a method and a device of the type initially mentioned.

The method of influencing a product in a tobacco processing machine operating at a specific machine clock depending on the product information previously assigned to the product, according to the invention, is that the product information is detected synchronously with the machine clock, the information is associated with the product asynchronously with the tact of the machine, the product is then acted on synchronously with the machine cycle, depending on the information assigned to the product.

Preferably, the product information is detected by a sensor, in particular the detected information is associated with an indication of a counter timed with the clock of the machine determined at the time of detection.

Preferably, the pair consisting of the information and the counter reading are selected asynchronously with the clock of the machine and are allocated to the allocation, and the assignment of the information to the respective product is performed based on the associated counter reading.

Preferably, on the basis of the current speed of the machine, the obtained counter reading, the predetermined detection position and the predetermined action position, the moment of onset of the action is determined.

Preferably, the moment of interaction is determined only if the interaction is deemed necessary depending on the information associated with the product.

The dialing cycle is preferably at least twice as slow as the machine cycle, in particular, in particular, several pairs of information and counter display are simultaneously selected and the assignments are made available.

Preferably, the duration of the action is predetermined and controlled after taking into account the predetermined moment of onset of the action, and the predetermined detection position and the predetermined action position are defined by means of an associated counter indication synchronized with the clock cycle of the machine.

Preferably, the mapping of the counter reading to the position is done by calibration or the mapping to the products is done so that first the counter reading associated with the detection position is subtracted from the detected product-related counter reading and then compared with the integer multiple of the counter corresponding to the interval. two products on the machine, the multiplicity determined in this way corresponds to the product number and when comparing, preferably an asymmetric tolerance is predetermined,

Inside which the multiple as the N number of the product is associated with the information obtained at the time of detection and with the indication of the counter.

The device for influencing the product in a tobacco processing machine operating at a defined machine clock in dependence on the product information previously assigned to the product, according to the invention, is characterized in that it consists of a sensor for detecting product information synchronously with the machine clock, a control device for assigning information to the product asynchronously with the machine cycle and an actuator for influencing the product synchronously with the machine cycle depending on the information assigned to the product.

Preferably, the device comprises a linking device for associating the obtained information with the indication of the synchronous counter with the machine clock obtained at the time of detection.

The device may comprise a bus for selecting the information and counter indication asynchronously with the clock cycle and for making the pair available to the assigning control.

Preferably, the device has a bus that simultaneously selects several pairs of information and counter indications and makes available the assignments.

During the on-machine manufacturing process in the tobacco processing industry, a product, for example a cigarette, undergoes various production phases which may be controlled or controlled by sensors and actuators. In particular, the sensors transmit information about the product. This information can then be used to control the machine. As an example, the function to throw away products of poor quality should be mentioned here. But there are also activities, such as timely delivery of the materials used to make a product, for example, when starting a cigarette making machine, where the filters and the cigarettes should align exactly with each other. Also in a cigarette making machine, the possibility may arise that, in the absence of a filter, the tobacco rods would have to be blow molded together so that the tissue sheets can be attached despite the missing filter.

Basically, it can therefore be said that a single product can be provided with criteria or information for the sensors and can be tracked all over the machine so that the product can be influenced at a later point in time. However, this requires that the product traceability through the manufacturing process is very strict and in particular machine timing oriented. In the systems of the prior art, this tracking is performed directly by clocking the software used with the clock of the machine. However, this implies a very disadvantageous time-function requirement on the component parts when considering that the machine cycle of 12,000 cigarettes per minute commonly used today is from about 5 ms to about 10 ms.

By dividing the product tracking according to the invention into: detection and preprocessing synchronous with the machine clock, further processing or intermediate processing or information assignment not synchronous with the machine clock and influencing the product synchronous with the machine clock, the drawbacks mentioned in the prior art can be avoided. For on the basis of the invention only the detection of the product information and the action on the product need to be performed synchronously with the clock of the machine. Intermediate processing or further processing or allocation of information to a particular product may, however, for this reason be separated and may therefore be performed with a slower and therefore cheaper timing. Thus, the actual cost of the transposed processing of the information detected in the tracking of the product on the machine and the assignment of this information to the product are not coupled with the high-speed clock of the machine. In addition to the low timing effort in the processing, it is also free from interference caused by interruptions of the sensor signals that are generated by the sensor in the prior art.

But a particular advantage of the invention is that due to the separation of information detection and processing, the information can be detected with much greater precision and there is no undue burden on the information processing control device. Thus, sensors with a resolution of less than 1 ms can be used. A correspondingly possible precise resolution when actuating the actuators, for example when starting the machine or when controlling a calender for the glue seams of cigarette-making machines, makes it possible to significantly reduce waste.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the detected information is associated with a counter indication determined at the time of detection, synchronous with the machine clock. This indication is also referred to below as the reference position. Moreover, it is advantageous when such a pair

The information and the counter display can be selected asynchronously to the machine clock cycle, for example via a bus, and which is available for assignments, for example as part of an existing central control unit. The assignment of information to the respective product is preferably performed based on an associated counter reading. In order to deal with a large amount of information to be detected, also several pairs can be selected simultaneously and assignments can be made available.

Based on the current speed of the machine, the detected counter reading, the predetermined detection position and the predetermined action position, it is preferable to determine the moment of onset of action. The predetermined detection position and the predetermined action position may also be defined by means of an associated counter indication synchronized with the clock cycle of the machine, i.e. the reference position. This assignment can be done as part of a calibration.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the assignment to a product is carried out such that first the counter reading associated with the detection position is subtracted from the detected counter reading and then compared with the integer multiple of the numerator corresponding to the distance between two products on the machine, determined therein. the way the multiple corresponds to the product number.

It is also advantageous for the assignment if a favorable asymmetric tolerance is predetermined during the comparison, within which the multiple as the product number is associated with the information determined for the numerator indication at the time of detection. In this way, possible detection inaccuracies can be tolerated within a predetermined framework.

Further advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.

The subject of the invention in an exemplary embodiment is shown in the drawing, in which Fig. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of the method according to the invention, and Fig. 2 shows a diagram of the application of tolerances in the assignment of information to a product.

1 is a view of a possible implementation of product tracking 4 according to ejection control as a first embodiment 1 of the invention in a machine (not shown) in the tobacco processing industry. Such a machine could be, for example, a machine produced by the applicant company of the type PROTOS / MAX. The ejection control device 1 and its implementation are described below from the sensor 2 for detecting information about the cigarette with the filter 4 constituting the product up to the valve 6 serving as actuator for the necessary discharge of the product 4.

The shown ejection control device 1 for carrying out the method according to the invention described below has, between the sensor 2 and the actuator 6, a high-speed drive system 8 of a machine with high-speed input 10 and high-speed output 12, a control device programmed in memory 14 connected to the drive system 8 with input 16 and output 18 and an internal shift register 20 with memory cells 20-1 to 20-7. The high-speed input 10 is connected to the sensor 2 via the signaling circuit wire 3 and to the input 16 of the control device 14 via a bus 11 and an interface not shown. This bus 11 also connects the high-speed output 12 with the output 18 of the control device 14, while a second wire of the signaling circuit 7 is provided to connect the high-speed output 12 to the actuator 6. As shown symbolically in the figure with a small plot next to the signaling circuit wire 3, the resolution of the sensor 2 is however less than 1 ms. The bus works with a clock time of 6.4 ms.

The method according to the invention corresponding to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is as follows.

Dual Length Filter Cigarette 4 - For better discrimination, the dual length filter cigarettes 4 are designated in Figure 1 by reference numerals 4-1 to 4-7, detected by sensor 2 by one of its quality features. The quality feature may be, for example, the density of the tobacco. In the simplest case, the sensor 2 can only be a light barrier that detects the presence of a cigarette 4. The information detected by the sensor 2 is transmitted via the signaling circuit wire 3 to the fast input 10 of the drive system 8. The sensor 2 transmits signals at a clock speed of a machine not shown, i.e. every five milliseconds.

The sensor signals 2 forwarded to the drive system 8 are there received via the high-speed input 10. As an alternative to the machine drive system, other components are also possible which can fulfill a comparable function. The drive system 8 has the ability to receive the signal of the sensor 2 and associate it with an indication synchronized with the clock speed of the machine

A numerator (not shown) determined at the time of detection. The drive system 8 has a so-called reference position which is valid and identical for the entire machine. This reference position is retained or marked using the positive edge of the sensor signal and forwarded via the bus 11 to the mixing control device 14. Since this waveform can take place very quickly compared to the normal waveforms of the machine, no further action in the system is required to detect the signal, because the marked reference position at which the signal from sensor 2 has been recognized can be used to infer the product 4 at any time. -2. Due to the very precise sensor 2 (accuracy <1 ms, see above), an advantageously high position resolution for the product 4 is achieved according to the invention.

The production process requires a specific processing speed of the signals generated by sensor 2. With 12,000 cigarettes per minute, sensor 2 transmits a signal every 5 ms. Ejection control 1 must be able to detect all values ​​without losing even one. It follows that a value from the drive system must be marked every 5 ms, so a new value appears on the bus interface every 5 ms. Since, however, the bus cycle in the present embodiment is only 6.4 msec, it could happen that the previous value is not seen by the interface. Therefore, the data could be swapped. In the illustrated embodiment, this problem is solved in that the parallel transmission of several values ​​is made possible. Three values ​​are defined in the interface between fast input 10 and control device 14. The interface is operated from high speed input 10 in multiplex mode.

This parallel transmission of the signals is also carried out with the transmission of the signals from the control device 14 to the high-speed output 12. In addition, the functioning of the high-speed output 12 is further explained in the following text.

The control system 14 thus receives information about at which reference position the sensor 2 has recognized the product 4. This information can theoretically be arbitrarily old, i.e. there are no requirements as to the speed of passage and the speed of processing the reference position. In detecting the information, the control device 14 then calculates from the reference position the assignment of the detected information to the specific cigarette 4 and enters the criterion of the sensor 2 in the shift register 20 in the correct position, i.e. in the correct memory location 20-2 of the shift register 20. The exact input procedure is described below. with reference to fig. 2. Furthermore, the assignment must take place so quickly that each sensor information can be assigned to a single product, but no computing power is directed for this purpose anymore in order to synchronize the assignment with the clock cycle of the machine, which in the prior art involves considerable expenditure.

The shift register 20 is a product related memory which carries the criteria of the individual sensors 2, but also other product related information, such as information generated in the method (first cigarette, unwrinkled zone on the paper). The shift register 20 reflects the physical structure of the machine and therefore the manufacturing process. Register 20 can be split into several modules, just as several shift registers 20 can be combined at specific nodes of the machine. In this way, it is possible to follow the course of the filter and to follow the tobacco rod. Thus, in the filter-embedding machine, two shift registers 20 are connected to each other, which is equivalent to the fact that in the actual production process, a cigarette 4 is produced by joining a filter and a tobacco rod.

The shift register 20 is mounted in the control device 14. It constitutes a kind of matrix in which each product entry into the cell is assigned in one column certain properties that have been detected by the sensor 2. In the course of the process, such matrix is ​​filled slowly and shows the state of the individual products. 4-1 to 4-7. The number of entries in the shift register 20 here corresponds to the possible number of products 4 in the process.

The timing of the shift register 20 is performed by means of the reference position, i.e. by means of information coming from the drive system 8, of how far, for example product 4-2, has recently moved. Due to this timing, a proper shifting of the shift register 20 is thus realized, the reference position thereby indicating how far it is to be shifted. From a technical point of view, the data is not moved to the individual memory cells 20-1 to 20-7, as this requires too high expenditure on technical devices. Actually, accesses to the individual memory locations 20-1 to 20-7 are provided using an offset.

PL 205 015 B1

The information from the shift register 20 leads at specific points in the machine to actions that directly affect the manufacturing process on the machine. This could be, for example, throwing away defective products 4 or deliberately removing products 4 using certain criteria. The presence of the product 4 in a particular production position could control other processes, for example switching on and off the supply of material, e.g. tobacco. If the valve 6 serving as actuator is to be controlled, the control device 14, taking into account the current speed of the machine, calculates the reference position at which the drive system 8 is to have the output 12 adjusted. This information, when the valve is to be controlled, can be found in an interface (not shown). quick entry bus 12 of drive system 8. If this information means that the corresponding cigarette 4, e.g. cigarette 4-2 is of poor quality, then this cigarette 4-2 has to be sorted by the ejection control device 1. This is done in such a way that when the cigarette 4-2 enters the area of ​​the valve 6 serving as actuator, i.e. using this information, the corresponding reference position is obtained, the output 12 is activated and the valve 6 is actuated via the line 7 and the 4-2 cigarette is ejected or transferred to a take-up drum or a take-up device to a control center.

The controller 14 for controlling the valve 6 also calculates the necessary idle time compensation. In addition, the reference position in which the valve is to be closed again is also calculated. In order to control the valve according to the product and in phase, it is important that the necessary information, i.e. the timing reference positions of the valve 6, is communicated by the control device 14 of the drive system 8 or the high-speed output 12.

In the embodiment 1 shown in FIG. 1, the actuator valve 6 is a blow-off valve. Alternatively, however, actuators with other functions can also be controlled by the control device 1, such as for example the functions "to deflect the tissue breaker or" to blow the tobacco rods out of the tobacco in the case of a missing filter.

As indicated above, with reference to FIG. 2, the function of assigning the sensor signal to a specific product, i.e. to a specific cigarette 4, is to be described in the control device 14. In this assignment, the inaccuracy of the sensor 2 due to the generation of the signal must be taken into account. This is done in the form of a window technique which is explained below. This window technique does not mean anything other than that there is a tolerance for the reference position associated with the detected signal, within which the reference position signal theoretically calculated for the specific product is compared.

For clarity, a partial section of a shift register 20 for one product N is shown in Fig. 2. Product N in the control device 14 is assigned a window area 22. Window 22 is described by three criteria: average value, window width, and offset for introducing the product. compared to the mean value. In the illustrated embodiment, the offset is 0 because the sensor mean is within the conceivable position of the shift register. The position of the window 22 is determined by machine calibration, while the window size is fixed using physical conditions. The reference number 24 denotes the reference position of sensor 2.

Window 22 has an upper border of window 25 at a distance of 26 from the sensor position and a lower border of window 27 at a distance 28 from the sensor position. The gaps 26 and 28 are of different sizes so that an unsymmetrical window 22 is formed. However, it is also possible that the gaps 26 and 28 are of the same size.

If the sensor signal 30 is detected by the controller 14 in window 22, then the product N is assigned a corresponding sensor criterion. Sensor signals that arrive outside the window, i.e. to the brighter areas 32, are either ejected by the controller 14 or trigger corresponding error messages. Always such signals do not result in inputs to shift register 20. Alternatively, however, it is possible for the windows 22 to adjoin one another without gaps.

Reference number 34 indicates a window belonging to product N-1.

As an example, to explain the operation of the control system 14, when assigning the signal to the product N, it has been assumed that the products N-1, N, N + 1 pass through the machine at a distance of the reference positions of 100,000. reference 1,741,538. It was previously determined as a result of calibration. The upper boundary of the window 25 is positioned at a pattern position distance 26 of 70,000 and the lower boundary of the window 27 is positioned at a pattern position distance 28 of 15,000 relative to the sensor 2 position.

PL 205 015 B1

The window offset determined by the calibration is - as mentioned - 0. As an example, it is now assumed that the sensor 2 as the reference position at which the sensor criterion was detected has the value 2,535,784. For the assignment in the control device 14, the position of the sensor is first subtracted from this value, so that an intermediate value of 794,246 is obtained. This intermediate value is less than 15,000 below eight times the product spacing of 100,000, however it lies more than 70,000 over seven times the product spacing of 100,000. Thus, it is assigned eight times the product spacing, i.e., a product N = 8.