Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
  • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
  • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
  • A24C5/005—Treatment of cigarette paper
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
  • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
  • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
  • A24C5/002—Feeding arrangements for individual paper wrappers
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
  • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
  • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
  • A24C5/46—Making paper tubes for cigarettes
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
  • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
  • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
  • A24C5/47—Attaching filters or mouthpieces to cigars or cigarettes, e.g. inserting filters into cigarettes or their mouthpieces
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A24—TOBACCO; CIGARS; CIGARETTES; SIMULATED SMOKING DEVICES; SMOKERS' REQUISITES
  • A24C—MACHINES FOR MAKING CIGARS OR CIGARETTES
  • A24C5/00—Making cigarettes; Making tipping materials for, or attaching filters or mouthpieces to, cigars or cigarettes
  • A24C5/52—Incorporating filters or mouthpieces into a cigarette rod or a tobacco rod

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus with an in-line wrapping paper processing assembly as well as a method for manufacturing tobacco products, for examples smoking articles such as cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars, or heat-not-burn products (HNB).
• smoking articles such as cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars, or heat-not-burn products (HNB).
• HNB heat-not-burn products
• Tobacco products such as cigarettes or heated tobacco products (HTP) are usually manufactured using multi-staged manufacturing machines that perform subsequent manufacturing steps within a single system or apparatus.
• the whole manufacturing process from the initial compounds to the readily-made tobacco products is an automated process that does not have a break between different systems.
• the documents DE 10 2010 063 466 A1 and WO 2009/141217 A1 disclose in-line assemblies that are used to emboss and/or imprint tipping paper before supplying it to a cigarette manufacturing machine.
• the document US 9,220,297 B2 discloses a paper flavouring station in a cigarette manufacturing apparatus.
• some objects of the invention are to find solutions for a simplified and more efficient way of using processed wrapping paper in tobacco product manufacturing, in particular for use in a filter tipping assembly of a tobacco product manufacturing machine.
• a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus comprises a tobacco product rod maker, a filter tipping assembly downstream of the tobacco product rod maker and an in-line wrapping paper processing assembly as part of the filter tipping assembly and coupled to the filter processing sub-assembly.
• the filter tipping assembly comprises a filter processing sub-assembly that is configured to receive single-length or double-length tobacco rods from the tobacco product rod maker, to attach a tobacco product filter to the tobacco rods and to wrap wrapping paper around the tobacco rods with the attached tobacco product filter.
• the wrapping paper processing assembly includes a supply bobbin configured to hold a continuous web of wrapping paper, a wrapping paper processing unit configured to receive the continuous web of wrapping paper from the supply bobbin and to treat the supplied paper in order to apply flavouring to the continuous web of wrapping paper and a wrapping paper feeder coupled to the filter processing sub-assembly and configured to feed the treated wrapping paper to the filter processing sub-assembly.
• a method for manufacturing tobacco products involves unwinding a continuous web of wrapping paper from a supply bobbin of a wrapping paper processing assembly of a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus, treating the wrapping paper in the wrapping paper processing assembly, and feeding the treated wrapping paper to a filter processing sub-assembly of the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus.
• the wrapping paper comprises tipping paper.
• the in-line wrapping paper processing assembly includes an in-line tipping paper processing assembly.
• the wrapping paper processing unit includes a tipping paper flavouring unit.
• the wrapping paper feeder includes a tipping paper feeder.
• the in-line tipping paper processing assembly further comprises a tipping paper printing unit configured to imprint the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin with graphical print marks.
• the in-line tipping paper processing assembly further comprises a tipping paper embossing unit configured to emboss the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin.
• the in-line tipping paper processing assembly further comprises a tipping paper splicing unit coupled upstream to the tipping paper flavouring unit and adapted to cut the continuous web of tipping paper in half.
• the in-line tipping paper processing assembly further comprises a tipping paper gluing unit coupled downstream to the tipping paper flavouring unit and configured to apply adhesive to the flavoured tipping paper.
• the wrapping paper comprises tipping paper and the wrapping paper processing assembly includes an in-line tipping paper processing assembly of the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus.
• graphically marks are printed on the continuous web of tipping paper and can be printed by a tipping paper printing unit configured to imprint the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin.
• the continuous web of tipping paper is embossed by a tipping paper embossing unit configured to emboss the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin.
• the step of splicing the continuous web of tipping paper to cut the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin in half is carried out by a tipping paper splicing unit coupled upstream to the tipping paper flavouring unit.
• the method further comprises a step of applying an adhesive to the flavoured tipping paper before attachment of a tobacco rod with a tobacco product filter.
• Fig. 1 shows a schematic illustrating functional blocks of a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
• Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram which schematically represents a method for manufacturing tobacco products according to a further embodiment of the invention.
• the term "heated tobacco product” or “heat-not-burn product” includes all tobacco products that produce aerosols containing nicotine and other chemicals to be inhaled by users. Heated tobacco products mimic the behaviour of smoking conventional cigarettes.
• heated tobacco products specifically designed electric heating systems are used to contain a specimen of a heated tobacco product therein for heating and forming an aerosol.
• the heating systems heat the tobacco contained in the heated tobacco product to a temperature lower than an ignition temperature of the tobacco mixture so that compounds of the tobacco mixture are vaporized and transported within the heating system towards a user inhaling the vapor/aerosol.
• tobacco product may include any “heated tobacco product” or “heat-not-burn product” as detailed above.
• tobacco product may also include any readily-made combustible tobacco product that is designed to be smoked by combustion of the tobacco material contained in the product, including cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, little cigars, blunts and beedis.
• Fig. 1 of the drawings shows a schematic illustrating functional blocks of a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10.
• the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10 may in particular include a tobacco product rod maker 1.
• a rod maker 1 produces rods of shredded tobacco material wrapped by wrapping paper.
• the tobacco product rods produced by the rod maker 1 are transferred automatically to a filter processing sub-assembly 2a of a filter tipping assembly 2 downstream of the tobacco product rod maker 1, for example using a suitable transfer apparatus.
• the rod maker 1 may produce single length or double length tobacco product rods as semi-finished product in the manufacturing process.
• the single or double length rods are transferred to the filter processing sub-assembly 2a as a whole.
• double length tobacco product rods may optionally be split at their centre.
• the split double length tobacco product rods may be provided with a double length filter which is inserted in between the two resulting single length rods.
• a tobacco product filter may be attached to one end of the single length tobacco product rods.
• the filter processing sub-assembly 2a is further designed to wrap wrapping paper around the single length or split double length tobacco rods with the attached tobacco product filter(s).
• the wrapping paper used in the filter processing sub-assembly 2a is also referred to as "tipping paper” as it covers both the wrapping paper wrapped around the raw tobacco rods as well as any plug wrap wrapped around the filter element.
• the double length filter is then cut at its mid-point to produce two completed tobacco products, such as cigarettes or heat-not-burn sticks with a filter attached.
• the separated readily manufactured tobacco products may then be aligned in their orientation and may be passed on to a downstream packaging assembly 3 of the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10.
• Different paper types are used in manufacturing tobacco products, such as plug wrap paper, rod wrapping paper or tipping paper.
• the tipping paper may be used for wrapping a filter and a tobacco rod integrally.
• the length of the wrapping paper is selected to be slightly longer than the circumference of the rod-like semi-finished product.
• the two opposing end portions of the length of wrapping paper will be superimposed on top of each other at a segment of the rod-like semi-finished product.
• this segment also called a "wrap portion" - the two end portions may be glued to each other.
• An adhesive may already be applied to one end portion of the wrapping paper of any type.
• the filter tipping assembly 2 further includes an in-line wrapping paper processing sub-assembly 4 that is installed in the filter tipping assembly 2 and coupled to the filter processing sub-assembly 2a.
• the wrapping paper processing assembly 4 may in particular be a tipping paper processing assembly, configured to pre-process tipping paper in-line with the production of the remaining semi-finished tobacco products, i.e. the tipping paper is processed essentially simultaneously and just-in- time in parallel to the processing of the semi-finished tobacco products.
• the wrapping paper processing sub-assembly 4 may be possible to process any type of wrapping paper for tobacco products in-line.
• the wrapping paper processing sub-assembly 4 may include various subassemblies that can apply embossing patterns, flavourings and/or print marks and graphical patterns to the wrapping paper.
• the built-in solution of the wrapping paper processing sub- assembly 4 may advantageously substitute for any stand-alone equipment where wrapping paper of any type needs to be pre-processed before it is fed to a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus.
• the wrapping paper processing assembly 4 including a supply bobbin 6 configured to hold a continuous web of wrapping paper.
• a wrapping paper processing unit 7 Downstream of the supply bobbin 6, a wrapping paper processing unit 7 is arranged and configured to receive the continuous web of wrapping paper from the supply bobbin.
• the wrapping paper processing unit 7 may be used to treat the wrapping paper in order to apply embossing, printing and/or flavouring to the continuous web of wrapping paper.
• the correspondingly treated web of wrapping paper may be transferred to a wrapping paper feeder 5 that is installed in the filter tipping assembly 2.
• the embossed, printed and/or flavoured web of wrapping paper can be fed to the filter processing sub-assembly 2a for further processing.
• the wrapping paper comprises tipping paper, specifically when the in-line wrapping paper processing sub-assembly 4 is an in-line tipping paper processing assembly.
• the wrapping paper processing unit 7 may in such cases be a tipping paper flavouring unit and the wrapping paper feeder 5 may be a tipping paper feeder.
• a tipping paper printing unit 8 may further be included in the in-line wrapping paper processing assembly 4. The tipping paper printing unit 8 may be configured to imprint the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin 6 with graphical print marks.
• a tipping paper embossing unit 9 may further be included in the in-line wrapping paper processing assembly 4.
• the tipping paper embossing unit 9 may be configured to emboss the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin 6.
• the in-line tipping paper processing assembly 4 may further comprise a tipping paper splicing unit 6a that is coupled upstream to the tipping paper flavouring unit 7.
• the tipping paper splicing unit 6a may cut the continuous web of tipping paper from the supply bobbin in half so that two separate webs of tipping paper of desired length and/or width may be simultaneously flavoured in the tipping paper flavouring unit 7.
• a tipping paper gluing unit 7a may be provided downstream to the tipping paper flavouring unit 7.
• the tipping paper gluing unit 7a may be used to apply adhesive to the flavoured tipping paper, specifically in the wrap portions of the flavoured web of tipping paper.
• Fig. 2 schematically illustrates a flowchart of stages of a method M for manufacturing a tobacco product, for example a cigarette or a heat-not-burn product.
• the method M includes as a first stage M1 an unwinding of a continuous web of wrapping paper from a supply bobbin 6 of a wrapping paper processing sub-assembly 4 of a filter tipping assembly 2.
• the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus used in conjunction with the method M may for example be a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10 as described and illustrated with reference to Fig. 1.
• the wrapping paper is treated, i.e. flavoured, embossed and/or printed, in the wrapping paper processing assembly 4.
• the treated wrapping paper is then fed in a third stage M3 to a filter tipping assembly 2 of the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10.
• the wrapping paper may in particular comprise tipping paper and the wrapping paper processing assembly 4 may in particular include an in-line tipping paper processing assembly of the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10.
• the method M of Fig. 2 may advantageously allow for an in-line processing of tipping paper in a tobacco product manufacturing apparatus, such as the tobacco product manufacturing apparatus 10 of Fig. 1.

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• Manufacturing Of Cigar And Cigarette Tobacco (AREA)
• Cigarettes, Filters, And Manufacturing Of Filters (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=67777182

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

Family Cites Families (11)

• 2020
  • 2020-08-25 EP EP20761571.7A patent/EP4021215A1/en active Pending
  • 2020-08-25 WO PCT/EP2020/073713 patent/WO2021037833A1/en unknown
  • 2020-08-25 KR KR1020227005235A patent/KR20220050893A/ko unknown
  • 2020-08-25 JP JP2021575041A patent/JP2022545996A/ja active Pending
  • 2020-08-25 CN CN202080060938.6A patent/CN114727648A/zh active Pending

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