GB827011A - Improved method and apparatus for treating tobacco - Google Patents

Abstract

827,011. Treating tobacco. IMPERIAL TOBACCO CO. (OF GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND) Ltd. Dec. 20, 1957 [Dec. 21, 1956 (2); Aug. 23, 1957], Nos. 38990/56, 38991/56 and 26674/57. Class 130. [Also in Groups II and XXX] Normal and/or puffed tobacco passed through a tumbling drum 20, Fig. 1, from a weighing conveyer 233 to a conveyer 22, has applied thereto, as a discontinuous and naturally adhering coating, treatment tobacco which has been reduced to a powder of the order of 1 to 76 microns particle size by subjecting it in fragmented form to air jets 8 directed somewhat tangentially of a swirl chamber 6 and fed by pipes 9 from a ring duct 10. The chamber 6 is fed via a hopper 5 and screw conveyer 18 from a mill 4 having a rotary cutter fragmenting tobacco supplied by a weighing conveyer 1 via a rotary drum 2 which mixes the tobacco and dries it to a 5% moisture content. The chamber 6 has a filtered exit 13 for air and a valve 16 controlling delivery of tobacco to a conveyer 17 transferring it to the drum 20, through which it is drawn by a fan 25 having an exit filter 26. In a modification the conveyer 17 is replaced by a powder blower. The first Provisional Specification refers to the chamber 6 being replaced by a muller which grinds the treatment tobacco to particles of between 1 and 500 microns which pass via a cyclone separator and a conveyer to a separator (see Group II) which feeds only the lighter particles to the drum 20. Reference is made to applying treatment tobacco to finished cigars whilst they are rotated about their longitudinal axes. In Fig. 4, prepared treatment tobacco is delivered from a hopper 33 to tobacco on a jigging conveyer 30 feeding tobacco cutting machines 36 . . . 38 successively via a tumbling drum 32, hopper 35, pinned refuser roller 39, conveyers 40, 41, 44 and vaned drums 42, 45 which rotate counter-clockwise until their respective machine hopper is full and then clockwise to pass tobacco to the next machine. A jigging conveyer 54 fed by the machines 36 . . . 38 delivers tobacco for storage and then cigarette manufacture. Reference is made to alternative delivery of the treatment tobacco to the drum 32, hopper 35 or conveyer 41. The treatment tobacco may be scrap or blending tobacco, normal or puffed, and in leaf or cut form, and the tobacco to which it is applied is preferably moistened prior to treatment and may be compressed, dried and/or cooled after treatment. The particles of treatment tobacco adhere on application largely due to the natural gumminess of tobacco, and the first Provisional Specification refers to the use of additional similar gummy material, to the moistening to specified percentages of the tobacco to which the application is to be made, and to batch instead of continuous treatment. Specification 817,832 is referred to.