Japan Tobacco Inc.

Susumu Uchida

Katsuhide Yokota

Takashi Ogawa

Koji Sakamoto

Akihiro Sugiyama

Yasuo Saito

Kazuo Yoshimoto

Chihiro Hanaoka

Kenji Konishi

Nobuyasu Endo

Ryoichi Ishii

Yasuhiro Ohdaka

A flash dryer of cut tobacco comprises a drying duct () for connecting a feeding section () of cut tobacco to a tangential separator (). The drying duct () has an upstream-side duct portion () extending straight from the feeding section () at an elevation angle ranging from 30&#xb0; to 60&#xb0; and a downstream-side duct portion () curving upward in a convex shape. A dry gas that flows through the drying duct () may contain superheated steam.

Flash dryer for particulate materials

An apparatus for carrying out a method of controlling the moisture of tobacco material comprises a hollow rotating cylinder () having an inlet () and an outlet () for tobacco material, and a feeding device for supplying a moist air flow into the rotating cylinder () such that the moist air flow runs out from the inlet () toward the outlet () within the rotating cylinder (). Temperature and relative humidity of the moist air flow supplied into the rotating cylinder () are within the range of 40-80&#xb0; C. and 80-95%, respectively.

Method of controlling moisture of material and apparatus therefore

An infrared moisture measuring apparatus includes a first infrared light-emitting diode (LED) for emitting infrared rays of a measuring beam whose infrared absorption varies by the moisture content of an object to be measured and a second infrared LED for emitting infrared rays of a reference beam whose infrared absorption does not substantially vary by the moisture content of an object to measured. Also, an optical system is provided for illuminating the infrared rays of the measuring and reference beams emitted by the first and second infrared LEDs on the object and focusing the infrared rays reflected from the object, and an InGaAs light-receiving device is provided for receiving the infrared rays focused by the optical system and outputting a light-received signal which corresponds to a light quantity of the received infrared rays. The moisture value of the object is obtained based on the light-received signal output from the InGaAs light-receiving device.

Infrared moisture measuring apparatus and infrared moisture measuring

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Hiratsuka, Japan

Susumu Uchida