JP3531765B2 - Tobacco filter - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tobacco filter which is excellent in disintegration property when wet and has good filtration performance and taste of harmful tobacco components.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A filter plug formed by molding a fiber bundle of cellulose acetate using a plasticizer such as triacetin is widely used as a filter for cigarette smoke which is excellent in taste by removing tars from cigarette smoke. But,
Since fibers of the filter plug are partially fused with each other by a plasticizer, if they are discarded after use, it takes a long time for the shape to collapse in the environment, which causes environmental pollution.

On the other hand, a paper cigarette filter made from a crepe-shaped wood pulp sheet and a cigarette smoke filter made of a regenerated cellulose fiber bundle are also known. These filters have a slightly higher disintegration property when wet than a filter plug made of a cellulose acetate fiber bundle, and can reduce environmental pollution to some extent. However, the taste of tobacco is inferior and the selective removal property of phenols required as a filter is extremely lower than that of cellulose acetate.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application No. 6-145578 discloses a tobacco filter having excellent taste and filtration performance and excellent disintegration property when wet, which has a papermaking structure composed of cellulose ester and wood pulp. A tobacco filter manufactured from a sheet material having good disintegration is disclosed. According to this method, it is possible to obtain a tobacco filter having a good disintegrating property when wet, but it has the following problems. That is, since it is formed into a sheet by a conventional wet papermaking method without using a special binder, cellulose ester or wood pulp is easily dropped from the sheet during winding, and when the content of cellulose ester is increased, the sheet strength is increased. Are subject to manufacturing restrictions such as a decrease in In addition, the sheet obtained by wet papermaking usually has a high density and thus has low air permeability. As a result, it is usually necessary to perform crepe treatment under limited conditions before winding in order to obtain a filter that is uniformly filled and has no "su", and that hardness and ventilation resistance satisfy the requirements. There are restrictions on the properties and winding conditions.

Further, as an example of using a non-woven fabric for a tobacco filter, Japanese Patent Publication No. 45-2079 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 52-132.
122 and the like. Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 45-2079 has a pulp fiber layer formed by using vinyl acetate resin or the like. This is the same as the above-mentioned cigarette filter made of paper, since the pulp fiber is the main component and the taste is inferior. In JP-A-52-132122, pulp, cellulose acetate, etc. are evenly distributed in all three-dimensional directions, and are molded with an adhesive used for ordinary nonwoven fabric molding. However, the degradability of the filter is not considered in any of these publications relating to the nonwoven fabric.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a tobacco filter which is excellent in disintegration property when wet and which can reduce environmental pollution without impairing the taste of tobacco and the filtering performance of harmful components. It is in. Further, the present invention provides a cigarette having such a tobacco filter and having excellent disintegration properties when wet.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a material for a tobacco filter, which can prevent fibers from falling off and can endure high-speed winding in manufacturing such a tobacco filter.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems As a result of intensive studies for achieving the above-mentioned object, the present inventors have found that in a conventional method for producing a non-woven fabric, a cellulose ester composition is the main component and a specific water dispersibility It was found that when a tobacco filter obtained by winding the obtained non-woven fabric into a rod shape is immersed in water by using a good binder, it is easily disintegrated, and the present invention has been completed. When the non-woven fabric of the present invention is wound using a conventional paper filter winding machine,
It was also found that the fibers are less likely to fall off from the non-woven fabric and have excellent sheet strength, and thus have good winding suitability.

That is, the present invention is to provide a tobacco filter obtained by winding a non-woven fabric comprising a cellulose ester composition and a binder having good dispersibility in water into a rod shape.

The present invention will be described in detail below.

Examples of the cellulose ester used in the present invention include organic acid esters such as cellulose acetate, cellulose butyrate and cellulose propionate,
Inorganic acid esters such as cellulose nitrate, cellulose sulfate, and cellulose phosphate, mixed esters such as cellulose acetate propionate, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose acetate phthalate, and cellulose nitrate acetate, and cellulose ester derivatives such as polycaprolactone-grafted cellulose acetate. Are exemplified. These cellulose esters can be used alone or in combination of two or more. Further, it may be a mixture with another substance containing these cellulose esters, and in this case, the content of the cellulose ester is preferably 50% or more.

The average degree of substitution of the cellulose ester is, for example, about 1 to 3 in many cases, but the average degree of substitution is 1 to 2.15, preferably about 1.1 to 2.0. And, biodegradability is enhanced, which is useful in reducing environmental pollution. When the cellulose is esterified while maintaining the fiber shape, the average degree of substitution is preferably 0.1 or more and 3.0 or less.

The preferred cellulose ester includes an organic acid ester (for example, an ester with an organic acid having about 2 to 4 carbon atoms), particularly cellulose acetate. The degree of substitution of cellulose acetate is preferably 1.5 to 3, but as described above, the esterified product with the fiber shape of cellulose remaining has a substantially high degree of substitution on the adsorption surface even at a much lower degree of substitution. The preferable average substitution degree is 0.1 or more and 3.0 or less.

However, in the case of fibrous esterified cellulose fibers whose surface is efficiently coated with cellulose ester or fibers coated with cellulose ester, even if the degree of substitution as a whole fiber is much lower than the above range, It can show excellent taste and filtration performance.

Although the form of the cellulose ester is not particularly limited, cellulose ester powder, a fibrous material prepared by a conventional spinning method (for example, a short fiber obtained by cutting a cellulose ester fiber prepared by a conventional spinning method), and fibrillation. Examples thereof include cellulose ester fibers (for example, fibrous esterified cellulose fibers, natural or synthetic fibers coated with cellulose ester, etc.), that is, the cellulose ester composition of the present invention is not limited to those composed of cellulose ester alone. The term "cellulosic ester composition" is used to mean a composition in which most of the surface is coated with cellulose ester, and these cellulose ester compositions may be used alone or in combination of two or more kinds.

As the form of the cellulose ester composition of the present invention, from the viewpoint of disintegration when wet, cellulose ester short fibers prepared by cutting a cellulose ester fiber prepared by a conventional spinning method, fibrils described in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-282584. Cellulose Ester Fiber, Fibrous Acetate described in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-280053, Japanese Patent Application No. 6-25
The fibrous material coated with the cellulose ester described in 455 can be preferably exemplified.

The cellulose ester composition is required to have both the ease of forming a non-woven fabric, the strength and the good disintegrating property.
The weight average length is preferably 1.0 mm or more and 10 mm or less. The weight average length referred to here is Kajaa.
It can be measured using a ni FS-200.

The nonwoven fabric of the present invention may be composed of only these cellulose ester compositions and a binder having excellent dispersibility in water, which will be described later. In addition, various fiber materials such as wood, linter, It may contain natural cellulose fibers such as hemp and synthetic fibers. Further, it may contain pulp of these fibers. Further, the pulp may be beaten or unbeaten. Using wood pulp obtained from hardwood, conifer, etc. by a conventional method such as sulfite method and craft method, in an appropriate amount so as not to impair the taste is low cost and it is also possible to improve the filtration efficiency of harmful tobacco components. And may be preferable.

The mixing ratio of the cellulose ester composition and other fiber materials is preferably the former / latter = 100/0 to 40/60, more preferably the former / latter = 90 / from the viewpoint of taste and filtration efficiency of harmful components of tobacco. 10 to 50/50 is preferable.

In the present invention, the above-mentioned cellulose ester composition alone or a mixture of the cellulose ester composition and other fiber materials is made into a non-woven fabric by a conventional method for producing a non-woven fabric, in which case it is dispersed in water. Mold using a binder with good properties.

Any method may be used for forming the nonwoven fabric. For example, a cellulose ester composition or a mixture of a cellulose ester composition and other fiber materials,
It is laminated on the flat screen wire by spraying or dropping it, and after adding an adhesive by a spray method or the like, it is dried and fixed. The method of adding the water-soluble adhesive is not particularly limited, but, for example, an aqueous spray, an air spray gun, an airless spray gun, a high speed rotating brush, and an adding device utilizing the circular force of the rotating disk can be used. Alternatively, a binder is laminated together with the cellulose ester composition or a mixture with other fiber materials, and then water or a water-containing organic solvent is sprayed, steam is applied, or the water-containing organic solvent is dipped.

As a binder having good dispersibility in water,
For example, a water-soluble adhesive can be exemplified. For water-soluble adhesives,
Natural product adhesives such as starch, modified starch, acceptable
Soluble starch, dextran, gum arabic, algin
Sodium acid, casein, gelatin, etc .; cellulose
Derivatives such as carboxymethyl cellulose, hydro
Xylethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose, water-soluble acetic acid
Cellulose, etc .; Synthetic resin adhesives, such as poly vinyl
Alcohol, polyvinylpyrrolidone, water-soluble acrylic
Resin etc. are illustrated.

When a water-soluble hot melt adhesive (for example, Paogen PP manufactured by Dai-ichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd., HM manufactured by Nippon Synthetic Chemical Co., Ltd., OKS manufactured by Nippon Synthetic Chemical Co., Ltd.) is used, After laminating a cellulose ester composition or a mixture of a cellulose ester composition and other fiber materials on a screen wire, it is added as a powder in a solid state, or a cellulose ester composition or a cellulose ester composition and other fiber materials The mixture can be adhered by mixing an adhesive in powder form in a solid state, laminating it on a screen wire, and then heating. As a heating method, for example, there is a method by hot pressing or microwave irradiation. When a water-soluble hot melt adhesive is used by such a method, the step of evaporating water and drying can be omitted as compared with the case of using it as an aqueous solution, and there is an advantage such as an increase in production speed.

These binders having good dispersibility in water can be used alone or in combination of two or more.

Further, these binders having good dispersibility in water are preferably odorless so as not to impair taste, and those which are not harmful to the human body, for example, those belonging to food additives. It is desirable that the amount is small, for example, 30% or less, more preferably 20% or less, and more preferably 10% or less of the weight of the cellulose ester composition or the mixture of the cellulose ester composition and other fiber materials.

The basis weight of the nonwoven fabric in the present invention is not particularly limited, but is preferably 15 to 45 g / m ² , and particularly 20 to 4
It is preferably 0 g / m ² . When the basis weight is less than 15 g, the strength of the non-woven fabric becomes weak, which is not preferable. If the basis weight exceeds 45 g, crepe is less likely to be applied in the crepe processing step, and a non-uniform gap is likely to be formed in the filter cross section, which is not preferable.

The non-woven fabric of the present invention is composed of the above-mentioned components and has a large strength when dried due to the adhesive force of the binder, but when wetted by rainwater or the like, it rapidly disintegrates as the binder swells and dissolves.

The nonwoven fabric of the present invention is wound into a desired circumference by creping or embossing, if necessary, according to a conventional method using, for example, a general paper filter winding device, and then wound to a desired length. The tobacco filter of the present invention can be obtained by cutting into pieces.

When creping is performed, the non-woven fabric is passed through a pair of creped rolls in which a large number of grooves are formed along the advancing direction, and wrinkles and some crevices are formed along the advancing direction of the non-woven fabric. Can be done. The embossing can be performed by passing the non-woven fabric between rolls having irregularities formed in a lattice or random pattern, or by pressing the non-woven fabric with the roll having the irregularities formed.

The nonwoven fabric of the present invention is used as it is, or after being subjected to the above-mentioned processing, the nonwoven fabric is wound into a funnel, rolled up in a cylindrical shape with a wrapping paper, glued, and cut into an appropriate length to prepare a filter plug. it can. If necessary, you can attach a guide when winding the funnel and control the folded state after winding. In winding, the creped nonwoven fabric is often wound in a direction transverse or substantially orthogonal to the direction in which wrinkles extend.

In such a winding method, for example, as in Japanese Patent Application No. 6-145578, a non-woven fabric made of cellulose ester and wood pulp produced by a conventional wet papermaking method without using a special binder is used as a creping roll. Although there is a problem that the fibers are significantly dropped off by rubbing with the device at other parts or other parts, such a problem is small in the nonwoven fabric of the present invention due to the adhesive force of the binder.

As another method of forming a filter, a non-woven fabric which is bulky and has good air permeability is prepared, and this is cut into a continuous tape shape having a narrow strip width, and several layers are superposed in a stepwise manner to form an S-layer.
The existing method of winding in a letter shape can also be applied.

In the production of the filter plug, if it is necessary to paste the ends of the cylindrical wrapping paper together or glue the rolled up cylindrical material and the wrapping paper, the disintegration property when wet is not lost. It is preferable to use the water-soluble adhesive.

[0034]

EFFECT OF THE INVENTION Since the tobacco filter of the present invention contains a cellulose ester composition as a main component, it is excellent in taste and selective removal of phenols, and is excellent in disintegration when wet, and environmental pollution can be reduced. Further, the nonwoven fabric according to the present invention does not have "void" even if it is not subjected to crepe treatment, and provides a cigarette filter having satisfactory ventilation resistance and hardness. Less loss of fibers in the area that rubs against the device,
Good workability.

[0035]

The present invention will be described in more detail based on the following examples, but the invention is not intended to be limited to these examples.

In the examples and comparative examples, the basis weight,
The tensile strength, disintegration property, and taste were measured by the following methods.

-Basis weight (g / m ² ): JIS-P-8
It measured according to 121.

-Tensile strength (kg / 15 mm): width 1
A 5 mm sample was measured according to JIS-P-8113.

-Water disintegration degree: About 0.2 g of a sample is
Pour into 200 ml of water in a 0 ml beaker (diameter 75 mm), stir with a magnetic stirrer so that the height of the vortex center becomes 3/4 of the height of the highest liquid level,
Observe the state of sample collapse after 10 minutes and 20 minutes,
It is evaluated on a scale of 5 according to the following criteria.

Evaluation Criteria A: Completely disintegrates after 10 minutes B: There is a part (lump) that does not partially collapse after 10 minutes, but completely collapses after 20 minutes C: Part that does not collapse even after 20 minutes , Or the shape has collapsed, but some lumps remain due to re-aggregation, etc. D: After 20 minutes, more than half of the non-collapsed portion remains, or the shape has collapsed but halved due to re-aggregation, etc. The above lump remains E: Almost does not collapse after 20 minutes-Taste test: Cigarette cigarette [commercial tobacco (Japan Tobacco Inc., trade name highlight) filter plug removed] The taste test was conducted by 5 smoking lovers, the flavor and taste was evaluated according to the following criteria, and the average value of the evaluations of 5 people was given.

Evaluation Criteria Flavor 3: Aroma flavor with no pungent taste and cigarette flavor 2: Flavor flavor with no pungent taste, but with umami taste 1: Pungency Example 1 Cellulose acetate short fibers (Y-shaped cross section, fineness) 4 denier, fiber length 5.2 mm, degree of substitution 2.45) is sprayed on the screen wire by an air flow to be laminated,
After spraying 10 wt% of carboxymethyl cellulose in the state of 5% aqueous solution to the wire-shaped mixture, the mixture was pressed and dried to prepare a nonwoven fabric having a basis weight of 29 g / m 2.
The tensile strength was 1.0 kg and the water disintegration degree was A.

Example 2 1 kg of wood pulp (softwood bleached sulfite pulp)
Was immersed in 1000 ml of water for 1 hour, then drained and replaced with acetic acid. To this, 60 liters of acetic acid and 60 liters of acetic anhydride were added and kept at 80 ° C. for 1 hour. The product was centrifugally deliquored, washed with water and dried to obtain an average degree of substitution of 0.15 and a fiber length of 3.2.
mm fibrous esterified product was obtained. 80 parts by weight of the surface acetylated pulp and 20 parts by weight of acetylated corn starch were sprayed on the screen wire by an air stream to be laminated,
It was filled with 100 ° C. steam. After 2 minutes, it was pressed at an appropriate pressure, dried with hot air, and peeled off from the screen wire. This non-woven fabric has a basis weight of 33 g and a tensile strength of 0.7 k.
The degree of water disintegration was B.

Example 3 90 parts by weight of the surface acetylated pulp of Example 2 was sprayed on a screen wire by an air stream to be laminated, and 10 parts by weight of carboxymethyl cellulose was sprayed in a 5% aqueous solution in three steps. did. After being dried as it was and separated from the screen wire, it was passed through a drying roll with a gap of 0.5 mm set while spraying steam. This non-woven fabric has a basis weight of 53 g and a tensile strength of 1.3 k.
The degree of water disintegration was A.

Example 4 Cellulose acetate (substitution degree: 2.45) was added with 95 parts of acetone,
It was dissolved in a solvent consisting of 5 parts of water to obtain a solution having a concentration of 20%.
500 ml of water was placed in a juicer mixer, and 100 ml of the above cellulose acetate solution was gradually added while rotating the blade. This operation was repeated to obtain the slurry
Was drained by centrifugation and washed with water. The resulting fibrous material is further treated with boiling water at 100 ° C. for 30 minutes, centrifugal deliquoring,
A tangled mass of fibers was obtained by air drying. This was crushed by crushing with a differential roll to obtain a fiber length of 2.
A 3 mm fibrous material was obtained. On the other hand, wood pulp for papermaking (softwood bleached kraft pulp) is dispersed in water, deliquored, air-dried, crushed with a refiner, and sieved with a 14 mesh screen.
Crushed pulp that passed through the sieve was obtained. While 70 parts of the present fibrous cellulose acetate and 20 parts of the crushed pulp were sprayed onto a screen wire by an air stream to be laminated, 10 parts of methyl vinyl ether maleic anhydride copolymer (VEMA 101 manufactured by Daicel Chemical Industries, Ltd.) equivalent to 5% was added. The solution was sprayed with an airless spray in three portions. After pressing with an appropriate pressure, it was dried with hot air and peeled off from the screen wire. This non-woven fabric has a basis weight of 27 g and a tensile strength of 1.8 k.
The degree of water disintegration was B.

Example 5 90 parts of cellulose acetate short fibers (Y-shaped cross section, fineness 2.2 denier, fiber length 4.8 mm, substitution degree 2.45)
10 parts of a water-soluble hot melt adhesive Paogen PP-15 (manufactured by Dai-ichi Kogyo Seiyaku Co., Ltd.) was sprayed onto a screen wire by an air stream to be laminated. Do this for 10 minutes at 120 °
After being kept at C, it was allowed to cool and peeled off from the screen wire. Further, using a roll at 60 ° C, a linear pressure of 0.1 kg / c
Pressed m. The basis weight of this nonwoven fabric was 31 g, the tensile strength was 1.1 kg, and the water disintegration degree was A.

Example 6 A non-woven fabric prepared in the same manner as in Example 4 and peeled off from the screen wire was subjected to a linear pressure of 9 k using a roll at 60 ° C.
Pressed at g / cm. The basis weight of this nonwoven fabric was 30 g, the tensile strength was 1.6 kg, and the water disintegration degree was A.

Example 7 The non-woven fabric obtained in Example 1 was cut into a width of 280 mm, treated with a crepe roll (surface temperature: room temperature, groove pitch width: 2 mm, groove depth: 0.5 mm) and then wound up to form a filter plug. did. The resulting filter plug has a length of 100
mm, circumference 24.8 mm, ventilation resistance 370 mm WG. The taste test was 2.8.

Example 8 The nonwoven fabric obtained in Example 2 was cut into a width of 250 mm, treated with a crepe roll (surface temperature: room temperature, groove pitch width: 2 mm, groove depth: 0.5 mm) and then wound up to form a filter plug. did. The resulting filter plug has a length of 100
mm, circumference 25.1 mm, ventilation resistance 440 mm WG. The taste test was 2.2. Example 9 The sheet obtained in Example 3 was cut into a width of 25 mm, and four tape-shaped non-woven fabrics were wound up without crepe treatment to prepare a filter plug. The obtained filter plug has a length of 100 mm, a circumference of 25.1 mm, and a ventilation resistance of 38.
It was 0 mmWG. The taste test was 2.7.

Example 10 The nonwoven fabric obtained in Example 4 was cut into a width of 280 mm, treated with a crepe roll (surface temperature: room temperature, groove pitch width: 2 mm, groove depth: 0.6 mm) and then wound up to form a filter plug. did. The resulting filter plug has a length of 100
mm, the circumference was 23.9 mm, and the ventilation resistance was 510 mmWG. The taste test was 2.7.

Example 11 The nonwoven fabric obtained in Example 5 was cut into a piece having a width of 280 mm and wound without crepe treatment to prepare a filter plug. The obtained filter plug had a length of 100 mm, a circumference of 25.3 mm, and a ventilation resistance of 380 mmWG. The taste test was 2.4.

Example 12 The non-woven fabric obtained in Example 6 was cut into a width of 280 mm, treated with a crepe roll (surface temperature: room temperature, groove pitch width: 2 mm, groove depth: 0.4 mm) and wound up to form a filter plug. did. The resulting filter plug has a length of 100
mm, circumference 24.6 mm, ventilation resistance 480 mm WG. The taste test was 2.1.

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. Cellulose ester staple fiber, fibrous beauty treatment salon
Pulp, cellulose ester fibret, cellulos
Ester coated pulp, fibrillated cellulos
A mixture of one or more selected from ester fiber
Water-soluble natural products that have good dispersibility in compounds and water, or
It consists of a uniform dispersion of synthetic resin adhesive.
Tobacco filter made by winding woven cloth into a rod 2. The tobacco filter according to claim 1 , further comprising natural fibers and / or synthetic fibers. 3. The tobacco filter according to claim 1 , further comprising wood pulp. 4. A non-woven fabric is creped and / or embossed 20
Claims characterized by being rolled up after being processed
Item 1. The tobacco filter according to any one of Items 1 to 3 . 5. A tobacco provided with the tobacco filter according to claim 1 .