Philip Morris Products S.a.

Philip Morris USA Inc.

Pierre-Yves Gindrat

Alessandro Metrangolo

John Faulkner

Gerard Zuber

Marine Jarriault

Cedric Meyer

Alexis Louvet

Jean-Pierre Schaller

Philippe Bourgoin

Christopher John Grant

Thomas Badertscher

Jean-Claude Schneider

Daniele Sanna

Yorick Klipfel

Gérard Zuber

Jacques Weiss

Mario Sinisi

Karl Markus Nordlund

Miles Richard Hawley

Matthew Rees

Julian Gregory Messing

Zsolt Albert

Cédric Meyer

An aerosol-generating article for an aerosol-generating device including a heating element is provided, the aerosol-generating article including: an aerosol-forming substrate including homogenised tobacco material; a support element disposed immediately downstream of the aerosol-forming substrate; an aerosol-cooling element disposed downstream of the support element; and an outer wrapper circumscribing the aerosol-forming substrate, the support element, and the aerosol-cooling element, the support element abutting the aerosol-forming substrate.

Aerosol-generating article for use with an aerosol-generating device

A smoking article is provided, including an aerosol-generating substrate, the aerosol-generating substrate being a rod including a gathered sheet of homogenised tobacco material circumscribed by a wrapper, the gathered sheet of homogenised tobacco material including one or more aerosol-formers and having an aerosol-former content of greater than 5% on a dry weight basis, and the rod having a length of between 5 mm and 20 mm.

Rods for use in smoking articles

A rod is provided, formed from a first sheet including a tobacco material and a second sheet including a non-tobacco flavourant, the first and second sheets being gathered together and circumscribed by a wrapper. The rod may be used as a component part of an aerosol-generating article.

Flavoured rods for use in aerosol-generating articles

The method for intermediately storing double-length substantially cylindrical semi-finished products comprises the step of providing a tipping apparatus and forming double-length substantially cylindrical semi-finished products in the tipping apparatus. The method further comprises the steps of providing a cutting device and cutting the double-length semi-finished product into single products with the cutting device and providing a packer and packing single products in the packer. The method yet further comprises the steps of transporting the double-length semi-finished products from the tipping apparatus to the cutting device and transporting the single products from the cutting device to the packer, and intermediately buffering double-length substantially cylindrical semi-finished products in a buffer arranged between the tipping apparatus and the cutting device.

Method and apparatus for intermediately storing double-length semi-finished products

An aerosol-generating article is provided, including an aerosol-forming substrate; a support element located immediately downstream of the aerosol-forming substrate; an aerosol-cooling element located downstream of the support element; and an outer wrapper circumscribing the aerosol-forming substrate, the support element and the aerosol-cooling element. The support element abuts the aerosol-forming substrate. The aerosol-forming substrate is penetrable by a heating element of an aerosol-generating device.

A rod for use in a smoking article comprises a gathered sheet of homogenised tobacco material circumscribed by a wrapper. The sheet of homogenised tobacco material may comprises one or more aerosol-formers and have an aerosol former content of greater than 5% on a dry weight basis or of between 5% and 30% by weight on a dry weight basis. The rod may comprise a continuous element to which one or more additives have been applied, which is incorporated into the gathered continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material. A method of forming the rod comprises the steps of: providing a continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material; gathering the continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material transversely relative to the longitudinal axis thereof; circumscribing the gathered continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material with a wrapper to form a continuous rod; and severing the continuous rod into a plurality of discrete rods. The sheet of homogenised tobacco material is preferably crimped or otherwise textured.

The invention relates to a method for adjusting the diameter of an elongated rod, said method comprising: providing an elongated rod having a preliminary diameter; selecting a desired final diameter of the elongated rod; providing a diameter adjusting device including a first tubular element having an inlet and an outlet and a channel connecting the inlet and the outlet; adjusting the diameter of the outlet as a function of the desired final diameter of the elongated rod, wherein the diameter of the inlet is bigger than the diameter of the outlet when adjusted; and inserting the elongated rod in the diameter adjusting device from the inlet and outputting it from the outlet so that said elongated rod is compressed to the desired final diameter when outputted from the outlet of the first tubular element.

Method for adjusting the diameter of an elongated rod

An apparatus for wrapping a sheet of wrapping material () around a rod-shaped article () or a plurality of linearly arranged substantially cylindrical segments, either of which comprises a fragile segment (), comprising: &#x2014;a rotatable drum () having a circumferential drum surface () comprising a plurality of flutes () adapted to hold a rod-shaped article () or a plurality of linearly arranged substantially cylindrical segments, and comprising attachment portions () arranged between the flutes () adapted to hold a sheet of wrapping material () having an adhesive on an outer surface, &#x2014;a rolling device () comprising a contact surface () arranged at a predetermined distance from the drum surface (), to contact a periphery of the rod-shaped article () or plurality of linearly arranged substantially cylindrical segments to make the rod-shaped article () or plurality of linearly arranged substantially cylindrical segments move out of the flute () and roll over the outer surface having the adhesive thereon to wrap the sheet of wrapping material () around the rod-shaped article () or plurality of linearly arranged substantially cylindrical segments. At least a portion () of the contact surface () is resiliently displaceable away from the circumferential drum surface ().

Apparatus and method for wrapping a sheet of wrapping material around a rod-shaped article

A rod is provided, formed from a first sheet including an aerosol-forming material and a second sheet including a thermally-conductive material, the first and second sheets being gathered together and circumscribed by a wrapper. The rod may be used as a component part of an aerosol-generating article.

Thermally conducting rods for use in aerosol-generating articles

A method of feeding rod-shaped consumer goods to a packing apparatus is provided, including providing a plurality of rod-shaped consumer goods to an upstream end of a stacking channel, and feeding the plurality of rod-shaped consumer goods along the stacking channel to a downstream end of the stacking channel. The upstream end of the stacking channel is higher than the downstream end in the vertical direction, and at least a portion of the stacking channel extends at an angle of between about 25 degrees and about 75 degrees with respect to the vertical direction. The method further includes receiving the plurality of rod-shaped consumer goods into a hopper from the downstream end of the stacking channel, and distributing the plurality of rod-shaped consumer goods from the hopper into a packing apparatus.

Method of feeding rod-shaped consumer goods to a packing apparatus

The apparatus for combining tobacco sheets comprises a first shaft for carrying a first bobbin of tobacco sheet and a second shaft for carrying a second bobbin of tobacco sheet. The apparatus also comprises a splicing unit for combining an end portion of tobacco sheet from the first bobbin to a head portion of tobacco sheet from the second bobbin. The splicing unit comprises a cutting device for cutting the tobacco sheets such as to provide complementary cuts to the tobacco sheets from the first bobbin and from the second bobbin, a dispensing device for dispensing water to at least one of the tobacco sheets, and a combining device for applying force onto the tobacco sheets thereby producing a spliced tobacco sheet.

Apparatus and method for combining tobacco sheets

A method is provided for evaluating porosity distribution within a porous article such as a crimped filter, a tobacco plug, or a cigarette, including obtaining a digital image of a transverse area of the article and determining a pore area fraction for each of a plurality of identically dimensioned sub-areas of the transverse area of the article. This provides a plurality of pore area fractions. The plurality of pore area fractions allow the evaluation of a local porosity distribution within the transverse area of the porous article. Each sub-area within which a pore area fraction is calculated overlaps with at least one adjacent sub-area by between 10% and 95%. The method for quantitatively evaluating porosity distribution may be used to control a process for manufacturing the porous article.

Evaluating porosity distribution within a porous rod

A rod is provided, formed from a first sheet including an aerosol-forming material and a second sheet including a non-tobacco material, the first and second sheets being gathered together and circumscribed by a wrapper. The rod may be used as a component part of an aerosol-generating article. The second sheet preferably includes a material configured to modify an aerosol evolved from the aerosol-forming material or to modify other properties of the rod.

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Saxon, Switzerland

Pierre-Yves Gindrat