Tobacco – Tobacco or tobacco substitute product or component part thereof – Compositions – e.g. – smoking or chewing mixture or medium
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-22
2002-04-30
Silverman, Stanley S. (Department: 1731)
Tobacco
Tobacco or tobacco substitute product or component part thereof
Compositions, e.g., smoking or chewing mixture or medium
C131S365000, C131S359000, C131S194000, C131S335000, C131S353000, C131S355000, C162S139000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06378528
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to smoking articles such as cigarettes, and in particular, to those smoking articles having a short fuel element and a physically separate aerosol generating means. These smoking articles are capable of providing the smoker with the pleasures of smoking (e.g., smoking taste, feel, satisfaction, and the like). The invention particularly relates to improved methods for making improved substrates for use in such smoking articles.
Cigarettes, cigars and pipes are popular smoking articles which use tobacco in various forms. Many products have been proposed as improvements upon, or alternatives to, the various popular smoking articles. For example, numerous references have proposed articles which generate a flavored vapor and/or a visible aerosol. Most of such articles have employed a combustible fuel source to provide an aerosol and/or to heat an aerosol forming material. See, for example, the background art cited in U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,082 to Banerjee et al.
A number of smoking articles have been designed and produced having a short carbonaceous fuel element and a physically separate aerosol generating means. Smoking articles of this type, as well as materials, methods and/or apparatus useful therein and/or for preparing them, are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,151 to Shelar; U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,082 to Banerjee et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,168 to Resce; U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,318 to Clearman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,644 to Haarer et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,365 to Sensabaugh et al., and the patents cited in U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,965, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Many of the smoking articles described in the prior art employ a combustible fuel element for heat generation and an aerosol generating means positioned physically separate from, but often in a heat exchange relationship with, the fuel element. The aerosol generating means typically includes one or more aerosol forming substances such as glycerin and a carrier or substrate therefor. During smoking, heat generated by the fuel element acts to volatilize the aerosol forming substances, thereby providing an aerosol which resembles tobacco smoke.
Many of the prior art smoking articles employ a substrate as a carrier for the aerosol forming substance in the aerosol generating means. Typically these substrates have been noncombustible solids, e.g., graphite, carbon, alumina, and the like, which are deemed heat-stable under the operating conditions of the smoking articles using them. In such articles the substrate was exposed to temperatures in the range of 400°-800° C., necessitating a heat-stable material. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,182,062 and 5,203,355 the substrate material was a cellulosic material such as a gathered paper, bearing an aerosol forming material at a loading level ranging from about 100% to about 400% by weight.
Such smoking articles often additionally include tobacco in various forms such as cut filler, reconstituted tobaccos, densified pellets, tobacco dust and tobacco extracts, as well as tobacco flavor modifiers and tobacco flavoring agents. Such tobacco components are included in addition to the substrate bearing the aerosol forming material, which is the prime source of aerosol former for smoke generation. The tobacco components can also add aerosol and/or flavorants to the smoke generated by the substrate, to enhance the volume, flavor, or other qualities of the smoke ultimately provided to the smoker.
Some such smoking articles have previously utilized tobacco supersaturated with aerosol forming materials as substrates. Such substrates provided good quantities of aerosol, but were difficult to make and difficult to incorporate into the smoking articles.
Indeed, substrates for use in such smoking articles, whether or not they incorporated tobacco, have tended to be expensive to make and difficult and expensive to manufacture into the finished product. Aerosol formers, such as glycerin, tended to migrate from the substrates, especially if the substrates were loaded with high amounts of the aerosol former, so that a visible wet ring of aerosol former would often form around the substrate portion of the smoking article. Migration of substrate could also have a deleterious effect on the storage or shelf-life of the smoking articles, which typically have to be stored for extended periods in warehouses which are often hot, or otherwise conducive to loss of aerosol former. Typically smoking articles should be able to produce adequate aerosol even after storage for up to seven months at 88° F. and 80% relative humidity.
The present invention represents an improvement in substrates for smoking articles, wherein the heat-stable substrate is wholly or partially replaced by tobacco or tobacco-containing compositions, which themselves bear a high load of aerosol former. The invention is particularly directed to methods of making improved tobacco substrates containing substantial amounts of aerosol formers, and of making smoking articles incorporating such substrates.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides improved substrate material for cigarettes and other smoking articles employing short fuel elements and physically separate aerosol generating means. The substrate is a tobacco material bearing a substantial amount of an aerosol forming composition. The tobacco substrate is manufactured in a way which permits it to be made into substrate elements for inclusion in smoking articles in a manner similar to the manufacture of tobacco cigarettes.
The substrates of the present invention are tobacco materials; that is, they primarily comprise tobacco, although additives and fillers may be included in the substrate. Preferred tobacco materials used as substrates herein are flue cured, Turkish, expanded tobacco, expanded stems, and traditional blend ratios of the known tobacco types. Preferably the tobacco utilized in the substrate is cellular tobacco material, e.g., cut tobacco leaf or the like, in which a substantial percentage of the tobacco plant cells remain. Other types of tobacco, such as reconstituted tobacco sheet, can be added in minor proportions for flavor enhancement, but it is preferred that the majority of the tobacco be cellular tobacco material.
The preferred type of tobacco used for the substrates of the present invention is flue-cured tobacco, particularly tobacco which has been cured using heated air only, without substantial contact with products of combustion of the fuel used to heat the air.
Prior to conversion into the substrate material of the present invention, the tobacco may be in the forms of sheets, webs, strands, filaments, strips, shredded tobacco and the like. Preferably, the substrate material starts as strip tobacco, which is the form of tobacco produced when tobacco leaf is deveined. The strip tobacco is contacted and infused with aerosol former. Preferably such contact takes place in a casing drum, which is a rotating drum liquid/solid contact device. Casing drums are known per se in the tobacco industry, and have long been used to add relatively small amounts (e.g., about 3%-6% by weight) of moisture, emollients (including glycerin) and/or flavorants to tobacco. The tobacco material is preferably continuously fed to one end of the rotating drum, which has a series of baffles to agitate and convey the tobacco to the other end of the drum.
As the tobacco traverses the rotating drum, it is intimately contacted by aerosol former in liquid form, whereby the aerosol former becomes sorbed by the tobacco material. The aerosol former is in liquid form, preferably in an aqueous solution, since the presence of water typically reduces the viscosity of the aerosol former, which aides in penetration of the aerosol former into the tobacco material. Preferably the aerosol former solution is applied by pressure nozzles spaced throughout the casing drum. Alternatively or additionally, steam can be injected into the casing drum to heat and humidify the tobacco being processed, thus improving i
Banerjee Chandra Kumar
Beeson Dwayne William
Conner Billy Tyrone
Hoots Randall Allison
Shelar Gary Roger
Halpern Mark
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
Silverman Stanley S.
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