A diagnostic method for analysing the operation of at least part of a production line in the tobacco industry includes feeding through the line a probe having the shape of a smokers' article and provided with an electronic card configured to acquire one or more parameters; the method includes a step of activating the probe with the possibility of temporally synchronizing the data acquired by the probe with the data acquired by the line at the same time.

A smoking article is provided and has opposed lighting and mouth ends. A mouth end portion is disposed at the mouth end and a heat generation portion is disposed about the lighting end. An outer wrapping material is wrapped at least about the heat generation portion and extends toward the mouth end portion, to define a cylindrical rod. An aerosol-generating portion is disposed within the outer wrapping material and between the heat generation and mouth end portions. The aerosol-generating portion is configured to generate an aerosol in response to heat received from the heat generation portion. Heat from the heat generation portion for aerosol formation is provided by igniting a combustible fuel element (e.g., a plurality of parts or pieces of clean burning carbonaceous material) located within an enclosed heat generation cartridge.

A cigarette wrapper includes transversely extending banded regions applied by a printing technique, such as gravure printing. The banded regions may be applied in a one or more application of a printing composition that may be an aqueous starch solution also containing an anti-wrinkling agent such as propylene glycol, and calcium carbonate. The pattern of banded regions may be bands or stripes and the like along and/or around the tobacco rod. The banded regions may be solid or contain any number of cross-web and/or longitudinal discontinuities. The pattern may be configured so that when a smoking article is placed on a substrate, at least two longitudinal locations along the length of the tobacco rod have film-forming compound located only on sides of the smoking article not in contact with the substrate.

A method of manufacturing a smoking article that contains, as members, at least a tobacco rod, a cooling segment, and a filter segment and in which a low-stiffness member L and a high-stiffness member H are adjacent to each other, the method includes (A) placing an adhesive on either surface of a tipping paper to form each portion of a high adhesive weight and a low adhesive weight per unit area after solidification, where the portion of a high adhesive weight is provided in a region for wrapping the member L; and (B) preparing a composite segment that contains at least the tobacco rod, the cooling segment, and the filter segment and wrapping the composite segment in the tipping paper.

A sheet-type aerosol generating article includes at least two aerosol generating sheets each having aerosol generating material and an inductively heatable susceptor The inductively heatable susceptor is positioned between the aerosol generating sheets and each of the aerosol generating sheets has an exposed surface. Methods for manufacturing sheet-type aerosol generating articles are also disclosed.

Provided herein are systems, apparatuses, and methods of manufacturing high quality cigarettes, as well as products produced thereby. Such systems, apparatuses, and methods are particularly suitable for manufacturing products using smokable materials that are generally considered difficult to process, such as those that have high resin content, low density (or are fluffy), and/or are sticky (e.g., cannabis flower).

A wrapper of a smoking article includes a base web and at least one transverse banded region. The banded region includes a first zone, a second zone and a third zone of add-on material. The second zone has about 25% to about 75% less add-on material than the first zone and the third zone. The banded region is about 5 mm to about 9 mm wide and the second zone is centrally located between the first zone and the third zone. The second zone includes a plurality of dots of the add-on material spaced from adjacent dots in the second zone by a distance greater than a distance between adjacent dots in the first zone and the third zone.

Storage containers, products, and methods of packing a smoking product are described. An example storage container has a main body that has a first end, a second end, a lengthwise axis, a width, and defines a chamber and an indicium. The lengthwise axis has a midpoint. Each of the first end and second end is moveable from a sealed configuration to an unsealed configuration. The width of the main body tapers from the second end toward the first end. The indicium is defined at a location between the midpoint of the lengthwise axis and the first end and extends along a portion of the width of the main body. The main body has a first width at the location between the midpoint of the lengthwise axis and the first end and a second width at the second end. The first width is less than the second width.

There is provided a method of making rods having predetermined values of cross-sectional porosity, and a cross-sectional porosity distribution value for use as an aerosol-forming substrate in a heated aerosol-generating article, including providing a continuous sheet of aerosol-forming material having a specified width and a specified thickness; gathering the sheet transversely relative to a longitudinal axis thereof; circumscribing the gathered sheet with a wrapper to form a continuous rod; severing the rod into a plurality of discrete rods; determining values of cross-sectional porosity and cross-sectional porosity distribution for at least one of the discrete rods; and controlling one or more manufacturing parameters to ensure that the cross-sectional porosity and cross-sectional porosity distribution values of subsequent rods are within the predetermined values.

A processing machine for rod-shaped articles includes a base frame including a back plate extending upward from the base frame; and a plurality of function modules each adapted to perform a manufacturing function on a rod-shaped article. Each function module includes a mounting plate adapted to removably attach the function module to the back plate as a unit, and a dedicated drive motor supported on the mounting plate and adapted to move at least a portion of the function module. The plurality of function modules includes at least one of a rod infeed module, a hopper module, a drum module, a knife module, and a gluing module. A method of configuring a modular processing machine for rod-shaped articles is also described.