Assembly substation for assembling a cartridge for a smoking article

• US 10,238,145 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2015
• Issued: 03/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RAI STRATEGIC HOLDINGS, INC. (British American Tobacco PLC)
• Original Assignee: RAI STRATEGIC HOLDINGS, INC. (British American Tobacco PLC)
• Inventors: Guenther, Jr., Quentin Paul, Cagigas, Johnny Keith, Collett, William Robert, Balash, Lawrence P., Brady, Scott Lee, Dover, Ronnie Dean, Gerow, John Scott, Green, Don Edward, Odel, John Matthew, Spencer, Christopher M., Steiner, Vernon L., Thierauf, David James, Wacker, Louis Wade, Williams, Byron Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Donghai D
• Application Number:
  US14/716,112
• Publication Number:
  US 20160338408A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• Field of Search: 29611, 29830, 29831, 29729, 29742, 493 39
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/10 Devices using liquid inhalable precursors
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/42 Cartridges or containers for inhalable precursors
• CPC Class Codes: A24F 40/70 Manufacture
• CPC Class Codes: B23P 19/001 Article feeders for assembling machines screws or nuts being carried by a disposable strip or disc B25B23/045
• CPC Class Codes: B23P 19/002 orientating the articles
• CPC Class Codes: B23P 19/027 using hydraulic or pneumatic means B23P19/033 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B23P 19/10 Aligning parts to be fitted together
• CPC Class Codes: B23P 21/004 the units passing two or more work-stations whilst being composed
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 13/0404 Pick-and-place heads or apparatus, e.g. with jaws
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53191 Means to apply vacuum directly to position or hold work part

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems, apparatuses, and methods for assembling cartridges for aerosol delivery devices. The cartridges may be assembled by coupling a base of the cartridge to a carriage that is transported via a track. The track transports the carriages between various substations at which one or more parts are added to the base. The carriage may be lifted from the track by a lifter mechanism at each substation in order to perform assembly operations on the base. An inspection system may inspect the cartridges at various stages of completion at or between the various substations.

Claims

1. An assembly substation, comprising:

a supply unit configured to provide a plurality of components;

a feeder unit configured to receive the plurality of components from the supply unit; and

a first assembly unit configured to receive a first portion of the components and a second assembly unit configured to receive a second portion of the components, the first assembly unit and the second assembly unit being respectively configured to assemble the first portion of the components and the second portion of components into a plurality of cartridges for an aerosol delivery device;

wherein the feeder unit is arranged to alternate between feeding the first portion of the components to the first assembly unit and the second portion of the components to the second assembly unit.

2. The assembly substation of claim 1, wherein the feeder unit comprises a rotary member configured to swivel between a first delivery position in which the rotary member is configured to deliver the first portion of the components to the first assembly unit and a second delivery position in which the rotary member is configured to deliver the second portion of the components to the second assembly unit.

3. The assembly substation of claim 2, wherein the rotary member comprises a first engagement head and a second engagement head respectively configured to receive one of the components from the supply unit,

the first engagement head being configured to receive one of the components from the supply unit while the second engagement head feeds one of the components to the second assembly unit,

the second engagement head being configured to receive one of the components from the supply unit while the first engagement head feeds one of the components to the first assembly unit.

4. The assembly substation of claim 1, wherein the supply unit comprises a vibratory arrangement defining a pathway configured to arrange the components in a serially-aligned stream and a singulator configured to singulate the components from the serially-aligned stream.

5. The assembly substation of claim 4, wherein the supply unit further comprises an actuator configured to individually remove the components from the serially-aligned stream or realign the components when misaligned in a first direction.

6. The assembly substation of claim 5, wherein the pathway defines a gap configured to remove the components from the serially-aligned stream when the components are misaligned in a second direction.