The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 19, 1995
Filed:
Aug. 06, 1992
Applicant:
Inventors:
Luis M Dominguez, Winston-Salem, NC (US);
Sydney K Seymour, Clemmons, NC (US);
Assignee:
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Winston-Salem, NC (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
A24B / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
131108 ; 131905 ;
Abstract
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.