US3504678A

US3504678A - Mouthpieces for cigarettes

Info

Publication number: US3504678A
Application number: US758807A
Authority: US
Inventors: Roger Edward Pitt
Original assignee: Molins Machine Co Ltd
Current assignee: Molins Machine Co Ltd
Priority date: 1967-09-15
Filing date: 1968-09-10
Publication date: 1970-04-07
Anticipated expiration: 1987-04-07
Also published as: FR1579891A; DE1782545A1; GB1236208A

Description

April 7, 1970 R. E. PITT I MOUTHPIECES FOR CIGARETTES Filed Sept. 10, 1968 United States Patent 3,504,678 MOUTHPIECES FOR CIGARETTES Roger Edward Pitt, London, England, assignor to Molins Machine Company Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Filed Sept. 10, 1968, Ser. No. 758,807 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Sept. 15, 1967, 42,271/ 67 Int. Cl. A24d 01/04, 01/06 US. Cl. 131-105 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention concerns improvements in or relating to mouthpieces for cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos or other smokable articles which will hereinafter be referred to as cigarettes, and is particularly concerned with mouthpieces containing a loose material for treating smoke drawn through the mouthpiece by the smoker by, for example, filtering it, which material is of a nature such that, to be effective it has to be properly packed in the mouthpiece. Examples of such materials are particulate or granular materials, such as carbon, used for filtering tobacco smoke. Further examples are granular materials intended to have a chemical or physico-chemical filtering effect on the smoke or to have some other effect such as flavouring it.

One of the problems which arises in incorporating a loose material in a cigarette mouthpiece is that of packing and enclosing it reasonably tightly so that all the smoke passes through the material and none is allowed to bypass it. In practice it is found to be difficult to pack particulate material into a wrapping in a cigarette mouthpiece sufiiciently well to ensure that most of the space in the wrapping is filled and there is virtually no by-passing.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved mouthpiece for cigarettes.

According to the present invention there is provided a mouthpiece for cigarettes, having a quantity of a loose material for treating smoke from the cigarette contained in an annular wrapping, and having constricting means acting on the wrapping to constrict the space it encloses and to effect tighter packing of the material contained therewithin so as to cause smoke passed therethrough to come into contact with the material rather than to bypass it.

Preferably the material is granular or particulate and it can be composed of grains or particles of a wide range of sizes up to a certain size which may, for example, be 1 mm. In one embodiment the material is a filtering material which acts to remove from the smoke not only some of the particulate phase of the smoke but also some of the gaseous phase. Preferably it is a material which does not adversely affect the flavour of the smoke and which is not toxic. The material may be an organic polymer.

The constricting means can comprise a constricting member constrained to embrace the wrapping tightly and can be resilient. The degree of resilience can be chosen according to the tightness of packing of the material that is required and the packing tightness may, in turn, be chosen to strike a balance between the conflicting re quirements of filtering efiicacy which calls for tight packing, and ease of draw which calls for loose packing. If, on the other hand, the arrangement is such that the material is quite loosely packed and, in fact, has some freedom of movement, then the constricting member may be non-resilient. In either case, however, it is convenient for the constricting member to be more or less annular and even cylindrical.

The mouthpiece may be a. multi-stage mouthpiece having the material in one or more of its stages and is convenierttly a three stage filter mouthpiece, having the material in the centre stage and having the other two stages constituted by filter plugs. The mouthpiece can be enclosed within a further outer wrapping to which the constricting member is secured and conveniently this further wrapping can be used for uniting the mouthpiece to its cigarette.

The invention extends to a method of making the mouthpiece described comprising the steps of enclosing the material in its wrapping, applying a constricting member to the inside of a further, outer wrapping and enclosing the wrapped material in the further wrapping to constrict the space it encloses and to effect tighter packing of the material contained therewithin. A succession of constricting members can be applied, for instance by adhesive, to a continuous web of outer wrapping material which may be cut into strips which are then wrapped and then sealed around assemblages of cigarettes and mouthpieces to unite them.

Alternatively the continuous web of outer wrapping material may be continuously wrapped about a continu- 'ously formed mouthpiece rod having a series of stages of the material enclosed within its wrapping, the whole being then cut up and subsequently attached to tobacco rods to form mouthpiece cigarettes. This method is particularly suitable for forming mouthpieces which are also as described in United States application Ser. No. 701,648 filed Jan. 30, 1968.

The invention also extends to apparatus having means for carrying out the various steps of the methods described.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a section of a mouthpiece cigarette, and

FIGURE 2 is a transverse section of the cigarette on the line 11-11 of FIGURE 1.

Referring to the drawing the cigarette comprises a tobacco rod 1 secured to a mouthpiece having three stages namely end stages comprising filter plugs 2 and 3 and between them a central stage of granular filtering material 4, by means of an outer wrapper 5. The three stages 2, 3 and 4 are encased within an inner wrapper 6 and to the outer wrapper 5 there is secured a band 7 of resilient material which is constrained to constrict the inner wrapper 5 in the region of the granular material 4 thereby to compact it so as to tend to eliminate bypasses and to cause all the smoke drawn from the tobacco rod 1 to come into close contact with sufiicient of the material 4 to be properly filtered thereby.

It is to be noted that the band 7 does not extend across the whole width of the opened out wrapper 5, but only across such part of the width as corresponds with the circumference of the mouthpiece: that is to say the band 7 does not extend on to the part of the wrapper which overlaps itself and is used to seal the wrapper.

The cigarette shown is produced by the method of arranging a double length mouthpiece between two cigarette lengths, uniting the three components by means of an outer wrapper which extends over the whole of the double length mouthpiece and over a short length of each cigarette length, and cutting the mouthpiece in the middle to form two complete mouthpiece cigarettes. Thus in manufacture, the outer wrapper band is initially twice the width of the band 5, and two bands 7 are secured to it before it is wrapped around the double-length mouthpiece and the ends of the cigarette lengths.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A mouthpiece for a cigarette comprising an e1on gated multi-stage filter at least one of said stages comprising particulate material for treating smoke from the cigarette and having filter plug elements on opposite sides thereof, an inner wrapper about said particulate material, an outer wrapper about said multi-stage filter and inner wrapper, and a constricting member between said inner and outer wrappers, said constricting member having an axial length no greater than the axial length of said stage containing particulate material and being constrained by said outer wrapper to embrace said inner wrapper tightly to effect tighter packing of said particulate material contained therewithin whereby the smoke passing therethough will come in contact with said material and not by-pass it.

2. A mouthpiece according to claim 1, wherein said constricting member is secured to the interior surface of said outer wrapper.

3. A mouthpiece according to claim 1, wherein the particulate material is a smoke-filtering material comprising particles having a range of different sizes.

4. A mouthpiece according to claim 3, wherein the material is a non-toxic organic polymer which acts to remove some of the gaseous phase from the smoke as well as some of the particulate phase.

5. A mouthpiece according to claim 1, wherein the constricting means is resilient.

6. A mouthpiece according to claim 1, wherein the constricting means is annular and surrounds the inner wrap-per and particulate material.

7. A mouthpiece cigarette having a mouthpiece according to claim 1, wherein said other wrapper extends over and is secured to at least a portion of the exterior surface of the rest of the cigarette.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,320,960 5/1967 Molins.

MELVIN D. REIN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 13l265.