Tobacco – Tobacco treatment – Puffing
Patent
1989-03-23
1991-06-04
Millin, V.
Tobacco
Tobacco treatment
Puffing
131291, A24B 318
Patent
active
050205501
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus for expanding materials of an agricultural origin, and more particularly, to an apparatus for expanding tobacco material.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Tobacco is an example of one agricultural material that is cultivated and harvested. Harvested tobacco leaves have a relatively high water content and thus cannot be used directly to manufacture a commercial tobacco product. For this reason, the harvested tobacco leaves are dried so as to remove moisture therefrom. In general, therefore, only dried tobacco leaves may be preserved or used to manufacture a commercial tobacco product.
Tobacco leaves however, shrink extremely when they are dried. The tobacco material manufactured from such dried tobacco leaves also experiences shrinkage (i.e. reduction in volume). If tobacco material of reduced volume is used to manufacture cigarettes, for example, the amount of tobacco material per cigarette must be increased thereby deleteriously affecting cigarette productivity.
Due to the above circumstances, therefore, the dried tobacco material is expanded to increase the volume of the tobacco material, prior to use of the tobacco material to manufacture cigarettes, thereby improving cigarette productivity.
Conventional apparatus for expanding tobacco material are described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-1879 and Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 50-107197. The apparatus described in Japanese Publication No. 49-1879 includes an impregnation vessel used to impregnate the tobacco material with an organic solvent. More specifically, organic solvent is separated into liquid and gaseous phases. The tobacco material in the impregnation vessel is first dipped in the liquid-phase organic solvent, and then subsequently is contacted with the gaseous-phase organic solvent. The tobacco material impregnated with organic solvent is removed from the impregnation vessel and is heated. Upon heating, organic solvent contained in the impregnated tobacco material is evaporated as a gas from the tobacco material. By the evaporation of organic solvent, the tobacco material is expanded.
In the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 50-107197, liquefied carbon dioxide is used as an expanding agent in order to expand the tobacco material. In the expanding apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-107197 the principle of expanding the tobacco material is the same as that in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-1879 discussed above. In this regard, tobacco material impregnated with carbon dioxide is heated to evaporate carbon dioxide gas from the tobacco material, and thereby expand the tobacco material.
Since the expanding apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-1879 uses liquefied organic solvent as an expanding agent, the internal pressure of the impregnation vessel required to impregnate the tobacco material with organic solvent can be relatively low. In such a apparatus using liquefied organic solvent, the tobacco material can be charged continuously in the impregnation vessel so as to impregnate the tobacco material with organic solvent, and thus expansion of the tobacco material can be continuously performed.
Freon.TM. halogenated hydrocarbons are conventionally used as expanding agents. However, since Freon.TM.hydrocarbons are a known environmental pollutant, the amount of Freon.TM. hydrocarbon production has recently been decreased, with the result being that the cost of Freon.TM. has increased. For this reason, when an expanding apparatus using Freon.TM. hydrocarbon is employed in the tobacco production line, the cost of such tobacco is inevitably increased with an increase in the cost of the Freon.TM. hydrocarbons.
The expanding apparatus described in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 50-107197 uses liquefied carbon dioxide in place of Freon.TM. halogenated hydrocarbons as an expanding agent. Although the disadvantages of Freon.TM. can be eliminated, the advantage thereof (i.e., a cont
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Kobari Masao
Takeuchi Manabu
Uchiyama Kensuke
Uematsu Hiromi
Doyle Jennifer L.
Japan Tobacco Inc.
Millin V.
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