Japan Tobacco Inc.

Takao Akutsu

Hideyuki Fujiwara

Takahiro Ono

A process for measuring the lamina size distribution comprises the steps of uniformly spreading sampled laminae over a conveyor and transporting the same; image-forming the conveyed lamina at a detection region having a given area by using a television camera each time when the lamina moves by a length corresponding to that of the detection region; storing in a memory binary video data which are converted from the video signal obtained by the image-forming; processing the stored video data to encircle continuous ones of the binary data which correspond to the lamina with a rectangular frame; counting the number of continuous ones of the binary data; converting the continuous ones of the binary data in the frame into the other ones binary data after counting; successively carrying out the same processing of different continuous ones of binary data to calculate the size of respective laminae; and measuring the distribution of the lamina size upon the basis of the calculation results.

Process for measuring lamina size distribution

An apparatus for drying and conditioning tobacco leaves, including a heater for heating conditioning air for conditioning tobacco leaves after drying, a temperature controller for controlling the heater so that the temperature of the conditioning air becomes a preset temperature, an atomized water sprayer for cooling the conditioning air fed to the heater, a humidifier for humidifying the conditioning air, and a humidity controller for detecting the moisture content of the tobacco leaves after drying and conditioning and controlling the humidifier so that the moisture content of the tobacco leaves becomes a target moisture content. The humidity controller is so constructed as to control the humidifier on the basis of a wet-bulb temperature. Saving of heat energy can be attained, and because a cooling chamber is not needed, the apparatus can be made compact and it becomes easier to stabilize a target moisture content.

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Tokyo, Japan

Takao Akutsu