Tobacco – Cigar or cigarette making – Including perforating
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-04
2001-12-04
Silverman, Stanley S. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Cigar or cigarette making
Including perforating
C131S280000, C219S121700, C219S121710, C219S121760, C219S121720
Reexamination Certificate
active
06325068
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
This application claims the priority of German patent application Serial No. 198 24 849.0 filed Jun. 4, 1998. The disclosure of the German patent application, as well as that of each U.S. and foreign patent and patent application mentioned in the specification of the present application, is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to improvements in methods of an apparatus for treating elongated flexible laminates of the type having an elongated web of paper, artificial cork or the like and a film of an adhesive at least partially coating one side of the web. Laminates of such character can be utilized with advantage in so-called filter tipping machines for the making of filter cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars or the like (hereinafter referred to as filter cigarettes).
It is customary to make filter cigarettes by placing plain cigarettes of a unit length or multiple unit length end-to-end with rod sections (i.e., with filter plugs or filter muthpieces) for tobacco smoke, and by thereupon convoluting discrete adhesive-coated uniting bands around the abutting ends and the neighboring portions of the thus assembled pairs of rod-shaped constituents of filter cigarettes.
It is also customary to enhance the permeability of adhesive-coated uniting bands prior or subsequent to draping of such uniting bands around the pairs of coaxial rod-shaped components of filter cigarettes. This normally involves the making of perforations in the convoluted uniting bands or in the laminate which is to be subdivided into a series of discrete uniting bands. An advantage of such perforations is that the column of tobacco smoke flowing from the lighted end of a filter cigarette into the lungs of a smoker is mixed with relatively cool atmospheric air which is being drawn through the perforations. This is believed to be beneficial to the smoker. Reference may be had, for example, to U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,670 granted Aug. 4, 1981 to Uwe Heitmann et al. for “APPARATUS FOR INCREASING THE PERMEABILITY OF WRAPPING MATERIAL FOR ROD-SHAPED SMOKERS' PRODUCTS”. This patent shows and describes perforating apparatus which are designed to make perforations in a running strip of uncoated tipping paper as well as apparatus for the making of holes in discrete uniting bands which are already convoluted around pairs of coaxial rod-shaped products, e.g., around the abutting ends of coaxial plain cigarettes and filter mouthpieces of unit length or multiple unit length.
In order to ensure reliable and predictable adherence of a convoluted uniting band to the adjacent portions of cigarette paper surrounding a plain cigarette as well as to the adjacent portions of the wrapper of a filter mouthpiece, one side of the running web of tipping paper or the like is coated with a suitable adhesive, e.g., shortly or immediately upstream of the perforating station or immediately following the perforating step and prior to subdivision of the perforated and adhesive-coated web into a series of discrete uniting bands. It is advisable to avoid the application of adhesive to those portions of a perforated web of tipping paper which are immediately adjacent the perforations and/or the transversely extending strip-shaped zones flanking the locations where the web is being subdivided into discrete uniting bands because this reduces the likelihood of clogging the perforations with activated adhesive and/or of contamination of the regions of overlap of marginal portions of convoluted uniting bands. A clogging of the perforations with an activated adhesive defeats the purpose of the perforations, and contamination of the overlapping marginal portions of convoluted adhesive-coated uniting bands detracts from the appearance of filter cigarettes.
Furthermore, the application of adhesive to one side of a running web of tipping paper in such a way that the regions immediately surrounding the perforations and the regions adjacent the severed zones of the running web are not coated with adhesive contributes significantly to the cost of the adhesive applying apparatus. Thus, the controls for the adhesive applicator are complex and expensive; in addition, such apparatus cannot always ensure the establishment of adhesive-free regions at the perforations and at the loci of subdivision of the web into discrete uniting bands.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of preventing the adhesive from clogging the holes and from contaminating the overlapping marginal portions of uniting bands, particularly of uniting bands for use in filter tipping and analogous machines.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method which renders it possible to simplify the application of adhesive to a running web of tipping paper or the like.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for the practice of the above outlined method.
An additional object of the invention is to provide novel and improved uniting bands for use in filter tipping machines.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a combined adhesive applying and influencing as well as web severing apparatus which can be utilized in a filter tipping machine as a superior substitute for heretofore known apparatus.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of treating the adhesive subsequent to its application to a running web of tipping paper, particularly in a machine for the making of filter cigaretes or the like.
Another object of the invention is to provide novel and improved filter cigarettes.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved combination of one or more sources of coherent radiation and optical elements for use in an apparatus of the above outlined character.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One feature of the invention resides in the provision of a method of treating a laminate including a web (e.g., a web of paper or artificial cork) and a film of an inactivatable adhesive which at least partially coats at least one side of the web. The improved method comprises the steps of (a) severing at least one first portion of the laminate to thus provide one or more perforations and/or slits extending all the way between the one side and the other side of the laminate, and (b) inactivating the adhesive forming part of at least one second portion of the laminate, particulary of that (second) portion or those (second) portions of the laminate which surrounds or surround the severed portion(s).
In accordance with a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the adhesive film coats at least a major a portion of the one side (most preferably the entire one side) of the web. This simplifies the application of the adhesive film.
If the laminate is a strip of tipping paper for use in a so-called filter tipping machine which is used to assemble plain cigarettes and filter rod sections into filter cigarettes, such strip consists of a series of coherent uniting bands adapted to be convoluted around abutting ends and around the adjacent portions of plain cigarettes and filter rod sections. The method of treating such laminate preferably further comprises the step of advancing the laminate in a predetermined. direction along a predetermined path, and the severing step includes repeatedly cutting across the advancing web in a predetermined portion of the path (particularly in a path portion which is defined by the peripheral surface of a roller or an analogous rotary member) to thus separate successive uniting bands of the series from the advancing laminate. The thus separated uniting bands are ready to be attached to and thereupon convoluted around abutting end portions of a plain cigarette and a fiter mouthpiece or around the end portions of two coaxial plain cigarettes and the entire filter mouthpiece between them.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the instant invention, the adhesive is inactivatable in response to exposure to coherent radiation issuing from one or mor
Dombek Manfred
Voss Helmut
Hauni Maschinenbau AG
Kinberg Robert
Silverman Stanley S.
Venable
Walls Dionne A.
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