GB1382839A - Method and apparatus for increasing the volume of tobacco - Google Patents

Abstract

1382839 Puffing tobacco HAUNI-WERKE KORBER & CO KG 27 Jan 1972 [27 Jan 1971] 55990/71 Heading A2C [Also in Divisions B8 and F4] In an apparatus for puffing tobacco, the tobacco is first wetted with a liquid, then subjected to a heat treatment which rapidly dries the tobacco superficially to form a rigid skin, and finally positively cooled. Tobacco is fed into a container of water or an organic liquid at the bottom end of a sloping wetting device, Fig. 4 (not shown), along which it is transported by a worm and discharged onto a conveyer belt 7. The wet tobacco 6 is then optionally subjected to microwaves produced by generator 4 before being fed onto a vibratory conveyer 19 that transports it through a drying device 2 and a cooling device 3 in turn. The drying device 2 comprises three chambers 8, 9, 11 through which hot air is passed in turn, in each of which it passes upwardly through openings 27 (see Fig. 2) in the bottom 28 of the conveyer 19. The hot air passes from chamber 8 through a screen 32 and via a pipe 12 into -the chamber 9 from which it passes in similar manner into chamber 11 where it is finally vented through an outlet 15. The cooling device 3 comprises a single chamber 42 through which air is blown. Using this apparatus, the liquid-expanded tobacco is subjected to shock-like drying on its outer surface which prevents subsequent shrinkage. . In another embodiment, Fig. 3, of the drying and cooling part of the apparatus, the wetted tobacco is fed pneumatically by the drying and cooling air up vertical drying and cooling ducts 157, 171 respectively, with the tobacco entering and leaving the ducts through feed gates 159, 168, 176.