Process for forming groups of articles of the tobacco processing industry

Abstract

Process for forming article groups in a packing device from a predetermined number of articles of the tobacco industry. The process includes transporting the articles from a production device to the packing device, and detecting at least one feature for each article. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

What is claimed:  
     
         1 . A process for forming article groups in a packing device from a predetermined number of articles of the tobacco industry, said process comprising: 
 transporting the articles from a production device to the packing device; and    detecting at least one feature for each article.    
     
     
         2 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the articles are transported on a conveyor device.  
     
     
         3 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the at least one feature is detected during at least one of production of the article and the transporting.  
     
     
         4 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the at least one feature comprises at least one of geometric measurements, chemical properties, and physical properties of the article.  
     
     
         5 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , further comprising forming a characteristic value for each article group from the at least one feature of the articles.  
     
     
         6 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the characteristic value is formed by a mean value of the at least one features of the articles in the article group.  
     
     
         7 . The process in accordance with  claim 6 , further comprising removing an article group for reasons related to at least one of a totality of the at least one features of the articles and the characteristic value.  
     
     
         8 . The process in accordance with  claim 6 , wherein at least one of a value related to the at least one feature of the articles and to the characteristic value of the article groups is stored.  
     
     
         9 . The process in accordance with  claim 6 , wherein the at least one of the value related to the at least one feature of the articles and the characteristic value of the article groups are managed by a computer processing unit.  
     
     
         10 . The process in accordance with  claim 9 , wherein the computer processing unit comprises a central computer processing unit.  
     
     
         11 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , further comprising, before formation of the article group, removing an article for reasons related to the at least one feature.  
     
     
         12 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , further comprising removing an article group for reasons related to a totality of the at least one features of the articles.  
     
     
         13 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein a value related to the at least one feature of the articles is stored.  
     
     
         14 . The process in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the value related to the at least one feature of the articles is managed by a computer processing unit.  
     
     
         15 . The process in accordance with  claim 14 , wherein the computer processing unit comprises a central computer processing unit.  
     
     
         16 . A process for forming article groups in a packing device from a predetermined number of articles of the tobacco industry, said process comprising: 
 transporting the articles from a production device to the packing device;    counting a predetermined number of articles representative of an article group;    forming an article group with the counted articles; and    detecting at least one feature for each article.    
     
     
         17 . The process in accordance with  claim 16 , wherein, when the at least one feature of a specified article is not within a desired range, the process further comprises rejecting the specified article.  
     
     
         18 . The process in accordance with  claim 17 , wherein the rejected article is not counted as part of the article group.  
     
     
         19 . The process in accordance with  claim 16 , wherein, when a totality of the at least one features of a specified article group is not within a desired range, the process further comprises rejecting the specified article group.  
     
     
         20 . The process in accordance with  claim 16  wherein the at least one feature is detected during at least one of production of the article and the transporting.  
     
     
         21 . The process in accordance with  claim 16 , wherein the at least one feature comprises at least one of geometric measurements, chemical properties, and physical properties of the article.