R.j. Reynolds Tobacco Company

Sydney Keith Seymour

Balager Ademe

Lloyd Harmon Hancock

John Larkin Nelson

Vernon Brent Barnes

Carl Carlton Greene, Jr

Calvin Wayne Henderson

Robert Leslie Oglesby

Ford Mitchell Shore

John Fitzgerald

Russell Dean Barnes

Carl Carlton Greene

Barry Smith Fagg

Philip Andrew Deal

Luis Mayan Dominguez

Travis Eugene Howard

Bain C McConnell

Gary Lee Wood

Wallace R Lassiter

William R Jarvis

Wayne M Furin

Jack Gray Flinchum

Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an off-line manner to a continuous paper sheet web that is later used for cigarette manufacture. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an on-line manner to continuous paper web moving through an operating cigarette making machine. The coating formulation is applied to the paper web using roll applicator techniques, ink jet printing techniques or electrostatic precipitation techniques. Liquid coating formulation are curable, and are virtually absent of solvent or liquid carrier. Radiation, such as ultraviolet or electron beam radiation, is used to solidify and fix polymerizable liquid components of the coating formulation that have been applied to the paper web. Heating and subsequent cooling of the coating formulation used to fix solid components of the coating formulation that have been applied to the paper web. Registration techniques are used to ensure proper positioning of the additive material on the smokable rods so manufactured, and to ensure proper quality of those cigarettes.

Methods and apparatus for manufacturing cigarettes

Equipment and methods for manufacturing cigarettes

Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive materials, which can have the forms of liquid or paste formulations, can be applied to the paper web using application apparatus possessing rollers. One of those rollers can have a series of pockets in its roll face to receive additive formulation from a reservoir and to define the pattern of the formulation on the paper. A radiant dryer can be used to dry the additive material that has been applied to the paper web. The radiant dryer can be located on one component of a two component assembly that is used to manufacture cigarettes. Spectrometric techniques can be used to ensure proper registration of the additive material on the cigarette rods so manufactured, and to ensure proper quality of those cigarettes.

Methods for adapting an automated cigarette making apparatus

Cigarettes can be manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes can possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive materials can have the forms of liquid or paste formulations. The formulation can be applied to the paper web using application apparatus possessing rollers. A radiant dryer can be used to dry the additive material applied to the paper web. Such a system provides a source of paper web, applies additive material to that web in a pattern, dries the paper web, and winds the treated paper web on to a bobbin. That bobbin can be later used to provide a source of paper web on a cigarette making machine, which unrolls that bobbin, receives the treated paper web from that bobbin, supplies tobacco filler and manufactures a cigarette rod from the paper web and tobacco filler.

Materials, equipment and methods for manufacturing cigarettes

Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive materials, are applied to a continuous paper web on the cigarette making apparatus. The formulation can be applied to the paper web using application apparatus possessing rollers, and one of those rollers has a series of pockets in its roll face to receive additive formulation from a reservoir and to define the pattern of the formulation on the paper. The automated cigarette making apparatus can comprise multiple components. A first component of the assembly provides a source of paper web, applies additive material to that web in a pattern and dries the paper web; while a second component receives the paper web, supplies tobacco filler and manufactures a cigarette rod from the paper web and tobacco filler.

Equipment for manufacturing cigarettes

Methods for manufacturing cigarettes

Cigarettes manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus can possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied as patterns. The additive materials, which can have the forms of liquid or paste formulations, are applied to a continuous paper web. The formulation can be applied to the paper web using application apparatus possessing rollers. One of those rollers can have a series of pockets in its roll face to receive additive formulation from a reservoir and to define the pattern of the formulation on the paper. A radiant dryer can be used to dry the additive material applied to the paper web. The radiant dryer can be located on one component of a two component assembly used to manufacture cigarettes.

Method for registering pattern location on cigarette wrapping material

A method of and system for detecting glue skips on tipping paper used to secure filters to cigarette tobacco rods and the rejection of defective cigarettes based thereon in which a particle radiation sensor is used to monitor the amount of glue applied to the tipping paper and a laser edge detector is used to monitor for proper alignment of the tipping paper during cigarette tipping operations in a typical cigarette manufacturing machine. The signals output from the particle radiation sensor are fed to a skip detection system which produces an output signal upon detecting a glue skip or a loss of glue. The glue skip or loss of glue signals as well as the paper edge detection signal produced by the laser edge detector are all fed to a programmable logic controller which, upon detecting a defective condition, generates a cigarette reject signal which is fed to the cigarette rod rejection system of the typical cigarette manufacturing machine in order to prevent the defective cigarettes from entering the stream of commerce.

Method of and system for cigarette tipping glue skip detection and

A real-time cast sheet weight monitoring and control system in which the weight of a cast base sheet of wet laid tobacco slurry as well as the weight of a composite tobacco cast sheet formed by applying dry granular tobacco to the wet laid cast sheet prior to drying is disclosed in which two beta gauge sheet weight sensing devices are used to provide input signals to a controller which alternately uses those signals to monitor and control the weight of the cast base sheet by means of controlling the servo drive motors of a casting blade in a head box which is casting the wet laid sheet onto a stainless steel belt and which also uses those same signals to control the variable speed drive of a top loader for controlling the amount of dry granular tobacco which is uniformally applied to the wet laid cast base sheet prior to the drying of the composite tobacco cast sheet material formed thereby. The controller primarily monitors and controls the total weight of the composite tobacco cast sheet but interrupts that monitoring and control function periodically to monitor and control the weight of the wet laid cast base sheet.

On-line basis measurement system for control of tobacco cast sheet

A cigarette density profile measurement system which utilizes a hopper system for storing a large number of cigarette rods whose density is to be measured which hopper system is used to feed one cigarette rod at a time to a fixed cigarette holder which incorporates a beta gauge system which sequentially irradiates a slice of the cigarette rod with beta particles for measurement of the mass of tobacco contained in that slice of the cigarette rod. By measuring the number of beta particles which pass through each slice of the cigarette rod, the cigarette density profile measurement system is able to determine the density of the tobacco contained in the cigarette rod being measured. A programmed microcomputer is utilized to control the cigarette density profile measurement system and is also provided with additional software for analyzing the density data.

Cigarette density profile measurement system

The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for detecting foreign matter including small particles of organic materials such as plastics within a layer of tobacco. The tobacco is irradiated with a plurality of selected NIR radiation wavelength bands. Data representative of the NIR radiation exiting the tobacco is compared to a predetermined reference representative of a plurality of different tobacco samples to determine whether the inspected tobacco contains foreign matter.

Method and apparatus for detecting foreign matter within a layer of

A method and apparatus for nondestructively, quickly and accurately measuring concentration of a material in a sample, for example carbon concentration in a carbon-containing sheet, by optically sensing a two-dimensional portion of the carbon-containing sheet and converting the sensed portion into a two-dimensional array of points, each having a digital value related to the sensed optical intensity at the point. Preferably, each point has a gray scale value of the sensed optical intensity at the point. An average digital gray scale value for the two-dimensional gray scale array of points is obtained and compared to the average digital gray scale value of a carbon-free sheet to obtain an optical density. The obtained optical density correlates highly with the carbon concentration, as measured by chemical concentration measurement techniques which are slow and destructive.

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Clemmons, NC, United States of America

Sydney Keith Seymour