US2668544A - Cigarette mouthpiece material - Google Patents

Description

I Feb. 9, 1954 Filed April 50, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR GLEN/v Dnrmsolv BM imp ATTORNEYS Feb. 9, 1954 G. DAVIDSON ,6

CIGARETTE MOUTHPIECE MATERIAL Filed April 50, 1947 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 F1g l4 Elg- 1E1 INVENTOR GLEN/V Dgwosalv AT TORNEYS Patented F ch. 9, 1954 1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CIGARETTE MOUTHPIECE'MATERIAL Glenn Davidson, Aurora, Ill.

Application April 30, 1947, Serial No. 744,925

2 Claims.

This invention relating as indicated to cigarette mouthpiece material is more particularly directed to mouthpiece material formed as a made-up product of ribbon-like character which is adapted to be folded or bent longitudinally in the manufacture ofcigarettes having individual mouthpiece plugs; this application being a continuation, in part and as to common subject matter, of: my application Serial No. 512,419, now abandoned, which is a division of my application Serial No. 335,193, filed May 14, 1940, now Patent No. 2,342,924, issued February 29, 19M.

Mouthpieces or inserts have been used to some extent for preventing the tobacco from coming into direct contact with the mouth, for avoiding the'waste of tobacco otherwise contained in the end of the cigarette which is thrown away, and more particularly, when composed of fire resistant material, for the purpose of preventing the smoldering .of the discarded end and consequent danger of fire. While the desirability of such devices is recognized, particularly for the purpose last referred to, they have not come into general use, partly because as heretofore devised their manufacture has involved considerable trouble and expense, adding materially to the cost of the cigarette, and partly because they have resulted in changes in the characteristics of the cigarette to which the public has become accustomed.

The present invention has for one object the provision of a ribbon of mouthpiece material, this ribbon being substantially fiat and preferably having a Width slightly less than the width ofa conventional web of cigarette wrapper material.v Furthermore, this ribbon has a thickness which permits it to be folded from its flattened condition to its final circular condition without any portions overlapping. Stated in other words, the ribbon has a width and thickness so that its longitudinal edges may be folded into abutting relationship and the resultant circular plug will substantially fill the circle formed-by the exterior surface of such plug. The ribbon thus formed can be employed in the commercial manufacture of cigarettes since no special coiling equipment is necessary. I prefer to use a ribbon having a width corresponding approximately to the circumference of a conventional cigarette wrapper.

Another object of the invention is to provide a preformed ribbon which can be conveniently coiled into reels orrolls and which can be made close to the source of supply of raw materials andsubsequently shipped to a cigarette factory;

provide a ribbon of mouthpiece material which mayor may not have an envelope but in any event which has cellulosic material in some form which acts as a filtering medium. In some in- .stances the filtering medium may consist of woven material or a mass of adhesively united cellulose fibers. It is also possible to use round strands or separate relatively narrow strips. M

It is still another object of the invention to provide a ribbon of folded cellulose material, such as paper or the like, it being understood that spaces willoccur for the passage of smoke between the folds when the ribbon is formed into a plug of circular cross section.

To the accomplishmentof the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafterfully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail. certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but afew of the various ways in which the principle of the invention maybe employed. v

In said annexed drawings: 1

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a diagrammatic showing of apparatus which may be used to form ribbons of mouthpiece material;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of one form of ribbon;

Fig. 3 is a transverse section of a modified form of ribbon;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section of another modification of ribbon; r

Fig. 5 is a transverse section of still another modification of ribbon;

Fig. 6 is an elevation of one of theglue-rollers shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a transverse section of a ribbon composed of woven material;

Fig. 8 is a plan view taken from above and greatly enlarged of Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a transverse section of a suitable pull belt; 3 T

Fig. 10 is a perspective view with parts broken from the ribbon shown in Fig. 5

Fig. 11 is a view similar to Fig. in which the mouthpiece is formed from a ribbon of the character shown in Fig. 4;

Fig. 12 is a side elevation of apparatus diagrammatically illustrated in which the ribbon shown in Fig. 13 may be produced;

Fig. 13 is a modification of ribbon construction;

Fig. 1A is a diagrammatic. showing of one means of forming, channels in the upper surface of the ribbon shown in Fig. 5; and

Fig. is a vertical section on line l5-l5 OI Fig. 12.

Referring now to the drawings, and especiefih Fig. 1, a series of drums I, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is shown from which webs 6, I, 8, 9 and I 0 are respectively drawn to form a ribbon of the character shown in Fig. 4. In this ribbon the laminations 7,, 8 and 9 are united to each other and to the other plies 6 and H] by means: of adhesive that is applied from the rollers H t2, [3 and I l. The 21s,.- hesi-ve is contained in reservoirs l5, l6, I [8' and each of these reservoirs is preferably provided with an adjustable scraper blade I9 so as to wipe all of such adhesive from the outer so? face of the rollers leaving a small amount in each of the grooves and 21', Fig. 6'. The result of this-construction-is that glue or other adhesive is applied to the webs of cellulosic material, such as paper, inthin lines, the adhered areas being sufficiently restricted ir-r'size and number to permit the necessary longitudinal smoke passageways between the sheets.

The webs just described are drawn through the forming tube 2 2*, thus uniting each of the laminations one to the other; This drawing through is accomplished by means of the pull belt 23 and the ribbon in final form is drawn up to form a roll 2%. The glue rolls from which the webs are drawn in Fig. 1 may be separately powered and synchronously driven with the paper pull belt in order to prevent rupture or breakage where fragile material is used in the webs.

' In Fig. 2 the laminations 25,26, 21, 28 and 29 are adhesiyely united in much the same manner as the webs shown in Fig. l and this form of ribbon differs only from that shown in Fig. 4 by width of the various webs. It may be desirable in some instances to provide a ribbon in which the laminations decrease in width from the bottom to the top as this" may render the folding operation less difiicult.

.In Fig. 3 I have shown a transverse section of a ribbon somewhat; similar to that shown in F 4 but in which thelaminations 3| 32, 33. 34 and 35 are enclosed in two webs somewhat wider than the laminations so as to form an envelope. The two webs are adhesively united by means of suitable lines of adhesive material 31 and 38, the adhered areasbeing suiiiciently restricted in size and number to permit the necessary longitudinal smoke passageways between the sheets.

' Fig. 5 shows a section of a ribbon which consists of a backing 39 and a mass of cellulosic fibers 60 or selected cellulose pulp. This mass may be formed much in the manner of a product now on the market sold under the trade name. of Balsam Wool. This material is deposited on the backing .39 and the adhesive contained therewith serves to unite theflbers into a matted mass and at the same time to unite the mass to the backing.

' The rollers shown in Fig. 1 are more fully illusstrated by Fig. 6 in which the roller l l is provided with two circumferential grooves the urpose 9 which is to apply an adhesive material in two lines upon web 6. The other rollers are similar to roller H and function in the same manner.

In Fig. '7 I have shown sectionally a ribbon composed of a backing 4| which has a filter medium associated therewith which in this instance takes the form of woven material. Preferably, this woven material is made from warp strands 43 having a round configuration, and weft strands 44 having the same shape, all of said strands preferably being composed of a cellulosic material such as paper.

The fabrication of ribbons of geometrical cross section. to. be later compressed to circular cross, section in the cigarette machine difiers from the fabrication of round mouthpiece rods in important. respects. First, since only very slight compression is required in the ribbon, a relatively fragile absorbent wrapper may be used if a wrapper is desired. Second, if the paper pull belt is to be allowed to encircle the ribbon, it cannot be of the same type as that used in forming round rods as well as cigarettes themselves, for such a belt would tend to compress and distort, the ribbon from geometrical cross section. This is undesirable for many reasons. First, it places the wrapper or the freshly applied glue, holding the layer together, under strain. Secondly, a rod held in a compressed condition. tends to-be rigid longitudinally and cannot readily be wound on to spools without damage as can an uncompressed ribbon. Accordingly, the material must be carried through the forming tube either on a flat belt or a series of individual belts, i. e., one for each side of desired geometrical cross section must be used. With suitable guides these can all be carried on the same drums or a specially designed single belt as I have shown in cross section in Fig. 9 may be used. Such a belt must fold at sharp angles to form a tube of the desired cross section. In order to. accomplish this,v my belt, generally indicated at 16 in Fig. 9, is composed of sections 18, 19, 80, 8| and 82 which are hingedly connected one to the other so as to form an envelope rectangular in cross section.

The internal bore of the forming tube is tapered from a width at: the entrance equal to: the width of the envelope web, to the width of the desired ribbon at the exit end. This taper is so formed that the belt shown in Fig; 9 is. first folded, from its flattened or extended form, that is with the parts 18, I9, 80, 8| and 82 in a single plane, at the twov innermost hinges to forms. three-sided trough in which the sides 80 and" are parallel to each other and at right angles to the bottom, consisting of B2, 18 and T9. Subsequently the belt is folded at right angles: to. the two outermost hinges to form the rectilinear enclosure as shown in Fig. 9.

In Fig. 10 I have illustrated a complete mouthpiece cigarette in which a plug 86 formed as shown in Fig. 14 and section of tobacco 84' are errclosed by a wrapper 85'. The openings 83 having a tear-drop cross section areformed by means shown in Fig. 14.

Fig. 11 depicts a cigarette similar to that shown in Fig. 10 but. in which the mouthpiece plug is formed from the ribbon shown in Fig. st.

' In Figs. 12 and 15 a web of cellulosic material 89 is drawn beneath a central forward guide. which folds the web longitudinalli, and centrally thereoi. The web encounters asecond set. of guides, one of which Si, is shown, and then, en?- ccunters. a third pair of guides. one or whi h. 82.. shown. In this way the web assumes the sen eral shape shown in 'Fig. 13 in the forming tube which a mass of cellulose fibers 86 are provided with channels 83 in the upper surface of such mass by means of cutters 81. The backing 88 adhesively united at spaced-apart locations by reason of the spaced type of glue applying means as aforedescribed is sufficient to hold the matted mass, 86 in place during such cutting operation and the channels 83 will be given a U formation. This U formation will be changed to'what may be called a tcar-drop section, as shown in Fig. 10, when the ribbon is folded to assume a circular cross section.

g The cigarettes shown in Figs. 10 and 11 may be assembled in some such manner as that shown in my Patent No. 1,963,076, issued June 19, 1934, which was reissued February 21, 1939, as Reissue Patent No. 21,007.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided a ribbon of mouthpiece material which can be very inexpensively manufactured and which can be rolled about a drum without any damage whatever to such ribbon. Furthermore, it will be noted that I have provided a ribbon which may be continuouslymade thus rendering the cost of production comparatively low so that the individual mouthpieces severed from such ribbon are low in cost and the resulting mouthpiece cigarette can be manufactured for less cost than a conventional cigarette because of the subs titution of low cost mouthpiece material for relatively expensive cigarette tobacco.

It will be noted that I have used the term ribbon throughout the preceding description and it should be understood that this term has been arbitrarily selected to define a composite flat member as distinguished from a rod having a circular cross section.

Heretofore, circular rods have been used which were made by drawing strands of cord or crepe paper from supply spools into a tubular cylinderformer with a twisting action, or strands of crepe paper, in graduated width as drawn from their respective supply spools, were progressively guided straight into superposed but unattached relationship directly into the tubular cylinder-former to form the filter rod. Altogether in contrast to this direct building up of a rod from fed-in independent unattached strands, my invention provides as an article of manufacture a fiat-section ribbon of layers secured against disassembly, and which can be handled as such and which can be stored and shipped as a coil or reel. A ribbon has certain advantages over a rod, the most important of which is the flexibility in usage of the ribbon. In the first place a ribbon can be manufactured in a paper mill close to the source of supply and then shipped to a cigarette factory in reels or coils, where it can be incorporated with tobacco to form a mouthpiece cigarette. However, this is not the case with a mouthpiece rod of indefinite length. Such rods must be made on the cigarette machine, or if made at the paper mill or other remote point, they must be severed at such place and shipped in short lengths which necessitates a hoppermechanism for feeding the same. On the other hand, the reel of mouthpiece ribbon can be conveniently shipped uncut and be severed at the cigarette machine. Moreover, with the proposals heretofore to build up a cylindrical rod of insert material at the cigarette machine,

the design and operation of the cigarette machine ary feed-in of a made-up ribbon 'to be cut into mouthpiece sections and folded and assembled into cigarettes. By using a ribbon of this critical width above-described, I may cut ofi sections of ribbon and assemble them with the outside wrap-' per paper while moving the wrapper paper and the'ribbon along parallel paths. This feature makes possible suificiently rapid operation to fit in with the high speed of modern cigarette machines, and is in contrast to the requirements of other systems which use the width of their ribbon as the length of their plugs, and which necessitate bringing together the ribbon and wrapper paper at right angles; 1. e. no opportunity is provided to accelerate the ribbon sections to the speed of the wrapper paper simultaneously with attaching them thereto. Such an operation lacks practicability.

Again my critical ribbon width makes necessary only one fold to bring the ribbon to cylindrical form. Not more than one fold of sections of ribbon previously attached to wrapper paper is feasible in conventional tubular formers when such tubular formers are being used to simultaneously bring the ribbon sections to cylindrical form and enclose both the mouthpiece sections and the tobacco sections in the wrapper paper. This is in contrast to the U. S. patent to Aivaz, No. 2,064,239, which uses a ribbon width requiring the equivalent of multitudinous folds.

Another advantage of the ribbon type of mouthpiece material is that highly absorbent fragile material may be used particularly as the envelope or wrapper member, whereas in a round rod the envelope or wrapper must be relatively heavy and seldom is absorbent.

The term Balsam Wool has been used for lack of a better term to define a matted mass of cellulose fibers and it is to be understood that the invention is not to be restricted to this specific material. In fact Balsam Wool itself is too crude for a mouthpiece as the fibers are relatively large and the backing is too coarse. This term is meant to include all equivalent materials such, for example, as blotting paper which is readily susceptible to grooving and bending.

It is to be understood that the tear-drop channel shown in the drawings is only one example of the draft passage that may be formed and the invention is not restricted to that particular form. The exact form of channel will depend in part upon the grooves initially formed in the ribbon and in part upon the compression to which the ribbon is subjected.

The method of grooving shown will, of course, be understood to be merely an example of one method of forming channels in the filler ribbon material and it will be further understood that such channels may be formed by cutting, compressing, embossing, and other equivalent means, or such channels may be formed in the sheet at anode.

the time or manufacture, and thus facial grooving so formed is deeper than the. thickness 01 a single paper layer, and being longitudinally continuous and uniform throughout provides uniform small draft passageways, wholly in contradistinction to short non-continuous or inter rupted single layer irregularities as of, a crepe paper. Where the facial grooving is formed by linear compressing for instance, as by a dull disk instead. of a sharp one, the layers will also be adhered together along the spaced lines of such compression.

The forming tubes shown in Figs. 1 and 12 will have a cross section that conforms with the desired configuration.

I have used the term cellulosic fibre in the claims to denote paper, cardboard, blotting paper andother cellulosic base materials as the invention not restricted to paper alone.

other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed, change being made as regards the detail described, provided the features stated in any of the following claims, or the equivalent of such, be employed.

1 therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

1. A filter material for a smoking. article, comprising a series of individual sheets in superposed relation and of greater length than the length of a conventional cigarette and of a width corresponding substantially to the circumferential dimension of a cigarette, the longitudinal axes of each of the sheets being parallel to each other and extending in the same direction. as the longitudinal axis of all of said sheets, said sheets adhered to maintain their longitudinal edges parallel, the adhered areas being sufliciently restricted in size and number to permit the necessary longitudinal smoke passageways between the sheets,- the superposed relation of the sheets resulting in the provision of a. plurality of shallow passages longitudinally of the material, said material at one end thereof being in coil form having an axis transversely of its longitudinal axis, and portions thereof at the other end on being uncoiled from saidcoil form assuming a position in a second coiled form with lon ir tudinal edges abutted, wherein the axis of the coil is parallel to the longitudinal axis of each of the sheets, the portions intermediate said coils being flat.

2. A filter material for a smoking article, comprising a series of individual paper sheets in superposed relation and or greater length. than the length of a conventional cigarette and oi a width corresponding substantially to the circumferential dimension of a cigarette, the longitudinal axes of each of the sheets being parallel to each other andextending in the same direction as the-longitudinal axis of all of said sheets, said sheets being adhered to maintain their longitudinal edges parallel, but. being clear of any adhesive across the center of the sheets, the superposed relation of the sheets resulting in the provision of a, plurality of shallow passages longitudinally of the material, said material at one end thereof being in coil form having an axis transversely of. it longitudinal axis, and portions thereof at the other end on being uncoiled from said cell form assuming a position in a second coiled form with longitudinal edges abutted, wherein the axis of the coil is parallel to. the longitudinal axisoi each of the sheets, the portions intermediate said coils being flat.

GLENN DAVIDSON.

References Cited in the file: of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 314,639 Abadie Mar. 31, 1885 1,104,779 Cooley July 28, 1914- 2,035,398' Muller Mar. 24, 1936' 2,121,678 Armor June 21, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 437,599 Great Britain Oct. 28, 1935 523,861 France Oct. 26, 1921

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