METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BALANCED AUTOMATIC TRANSPORT OF CIGARETTE TRAYS OR THE LIKE ALONG AN ENDLESS PATH

摘要

An endless conveyor has equidistant carriers which are transported past several cigarette making machines and past several cigarette packing machines. Each machine is associated with an automatic transfer unit which is activatable to transport cages with trays for cigarettes between the adjacent carrier and the respective machine so that the output of the cigarette making machines is transported to the cigarette packing machines and the cages with empty trays are returned to the cigarette making machines. A computer responds to signals from transfer units which are in need of cages with filled or empty trays and scans the conveyor for concentrations of unoccupied carriers, carriers transporting cages with filled trays, and carriers supporting cages with empty trays in order to activate the transfer unit in a manner to avoid excessive concentrations and excessive scarcity of unoccupied carriers or carriers transporting cages with filled and empty trays in various portions of the conveyor.