GB1013303A - Smoking article and method and apparatus for producing same - Google Patents

Abstract

1,013,303. Moulding tobacco particles. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. Aug. 13, 1962 [Aug. 11, 1961], No. 30940/62. Heading B5A. [Also in Division A2] In manufacturing tobacco casts suitable for use in a pipe, cigar or cigarette, a foaming agent, which may be an adhesive, is whipped into a foam and tobacco particles, e.g. shreds followed by dust, folded into it to form a slurry which is extruded, cast or otherwise shaped and then dried to a preselected moisture content, e.g. from 5 to 40% to form a stable, relatively porous mass which may be dip-coated or wrapped in paper or tobacco leaf. If desired a foam stabilizing agent may be added to the slurry and re-foaming effected before shaping; alternatively a blowing agent, e.g. baking powder, may be added. Suitable foaming agents are natural or synthetic hydrophilic gums, e.g. glycogen, partially deacetylated chitin, cellulose ethers or esters, starches or starch ethers or esters, amylose, amylopectin, locust bean gum, guar gum, gum arabic, algino, carageenans, laminarins, agar, dextrans, phosphomannans, glucoronic acid containing gums, hydrolysed keratins, egg albumin, gluten, zein, soy, cottonseed and torula yeast proteins, polyvinyl alcohol, polyoxyethylene, polyacrylamide. As foam stabilizing agents salts of sulphate esters of the alkylphenoxypolyoxyethylene ethanol and salts of sulphate compounds of the type N-methyl-N-oleoyl taurine, sorbitan esters, ethylene oxide-sorbital condensation products, lecithin and its derivatives, may be used. The foam may also incorporate casein, humectants, ash and burn additives, e.g. titanium dioxide, diatomaceous earth, nitrate salts, biocides, flavouring agents, and the slurry made with water or a mixture of water and organic liquids and dried by rapid micro-wave heating or relatively slower oven drying. The cast product may be provided with a relatively non-porous covering by being dipped in a liquid composition comprising amylose acetate or cellulose triacetate, ball-milled tobacco, chloroform and methylene chloride. Apparatus for shaping the slurry comprises a feed hopper 5 from which the slurry is metered by a reciprocating plunger 25 into moulds 15 on an endless sprocket chain 7 which are then closed by upper mating mould portions 14 on a further chain 6. Drying is effected in an oven 16 and removal of the dried shaped cores 31 from the moulds 15 by pneumatic pressure supplied through a line 34 to a U-shaped housing 32 through which the moulds pass. The empty moulds are then brushed and sprayed with release agent before re-use. In a further form of apparatus (Fig. 4, not shown) the foamed slurry is extruded on to a moving conveyer belt through a variable iris-type orifice to form cigar shapes interconnected by narrow strips which are subsequently severed after drying to produce individual pieces which are wrapped in tobacco leaf or reconstituted tobacco web to form cigars.