Engineer 3D-Prints Cigarette Machine

A packaging machinery engineer has built a cigarette machine relying partly on 3D printing.

According to Hackaday, creating the machine required overcoming several mechanical challenges, including a sticky raw material (tobacco) and fragile paper tubes.

Controlled by an Arduino and driven by an AF Motorshield V1, the device contains solenoid-powered tappers and a stepper-driven revolver mechanism to put the empty papers into just the right place.

According to the designer, who goes by the screenname Fraens, building the machine required extensive testing. “A lot of power is needed to press the tobacco,” Fraens wrote on YouTube. “I achieve this through a knee lever construction. An IGUS steep thread spindle is used to drive the press.”