The invention relates to a method or apparatus (10) for crimping a sheet (70) of material The apparatus comprises a transport device to transport the sheet of material along a transport direction (1), and a set of crimping rollers (11, 21). The set comprises a first (11) and a second (21) main crimping roller, defining a first (18) and a second (28) rotational axis and being faced one in front of the other, the first roller including a first plurality of ridges (17) across a portion of its width (16), and the second roller having a second plurality of ridges (27) across a portion of its width; and a pre-crimping roller facing the first roller and having a third plurality of ridges across a portion of its width, the pre-crimping roller having a diameter smaller than a diameter of the first and second main roller.

The present invention relates to a method to form a rod for an aerosol generating article from a sheet of material (11), the method comprising the steps of: crimping the sheet of material (11); flattening the crimped sheet of material (11) by forcing it to contact a sliding edge, transversally arranged with respect to a feed direction of the sheet of material (11); giving a substantially tubular shape to the flattened sheet of material (11); and forming the rod with the so-shaped sheet of material (11). The present invention also relates to an apparatus to form a rod for an aerosol generating article from a sheet of material (11).

The present invention relates to a method to form a rod for an aerosol generating article from a sheet of material (11), the method comprising the steps of: crimping the sheet of material (11); flattening the crimped sheet of material (11) by forcing it to contact a sliding edge, transversally arranged with respect to a feed direction of the sheet of material (11); giving a substantially tubular shape to the flattened sheet of material (11); and forming the rod with the so-shaped sheet of material (11). The present invention also relates to an apparatus to form a rod for an aerosol generating article from a sheet of material (11).

A method for reducing stress of a garniture belt in a tobacco industry machine for manufacturing rods from a continuous rod comprising a filling material wrapped by a wrapper, the continuous rod being formed on the garniture belt being driven in a garniture channel of a garniture device, wherein the garniture device comprises a filling material receiving section, a rod diameter setting section and a rod stabilizing section, wherein the machine comprises at least one feeding unit for feeding the filling material onto the wrapper being transported on the garniture belt, a glue feeding unit, a cutting head for cutting the continuous rod into the rods, the method comprising adjusting a resistance of motion of the garniture belt by: reducing the resistance of motion of the garniture belt in the filling material receiving section by adjusting positions of guiding bars for guiding the garniture belt so that a width of the garniture channel in the filling material receiving section is greater than a width of the garniture channel in the rod diameter setting section, and/or reducing the resistance of motion of the garniture belt in the rod stabilizing section by adjusting positions of guiding bars for guiding the garniture belt so that a width of the garniture channel in the rod stabilizing section is greater than the width of the garniture channel in the rod diameter setting section.

A spacing drum comprising: a segment receiving drum section capable of receiving a predetermined number of segments per revolution of the drum from a procession of segments approaching the segment receiving drum section at a segment-feed spacing and a segment-feed speed; a segment releasing drum section capable of releasing the predetermined number of segments at a segment-release spacing and a segment-release speed; and a radial profile flight comprising a continuous arc segment extending across at least portions of the segment receiving drum section and the segment releasing drum section. Associated methods are also provided, including method of changing pitch along a spacing drum progressively with a radial profile flight.

A rod for use in a smoking article comprises a gathered sheet of homogenised tobacco material circumscribed by a wrapper. The sheet of homogenised tobacco material may comprises one or more aerosol-formers and have an aerosol former content of greater than 5% on a dry weight basis or of between 5% and 30% by weight on a dry weight basis. The rod may comprise a continuous element to which one or more additives have been applied, which is incorporated into the gathered continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material. A method of forming the rod comprises the steps of: providing a continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material; gathering the continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material transversely relative to the longitudinal axis thereof; circumscribing the gathered continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material with a wrapper to form a continuous rod; and severing the continuous rod into a plurality of discrete rods. The sheet of homogenised tobacco material is preferably crimped or otherwise textured.

A rod for use in a smoking article comprises a gathered sheet of homogenised tobacco material circumscribed by a wrapper. The sheet of homogenised tobacco material may comprises one or more aerosol-formers and have an aerosol former content of greater than 5% on a dry weight basis or of between 5% and 30% by weight on a dry weight basis. The rod may comprise a continuous element to which one or more additives have been applied, which is incorporated into the gathered continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material. A method of forming the rod comprises the steps of: providing a continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material; gathering the continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material transversely relative to the longitudinal axis thereof; circumscribing the gathered continuous sheet of homogenised tobacco material with a wrapper to form a continuous rod; and severing the continuous rod into a plurality of discrete rods. The sheet of homogenised tobacco material is preferably crimped or otherwise textured.

An orbital plant material feed assembly includes a drum structure and hopper assembly. An external surface of the drum structure has a curved shape and includes a peripheral groove. A width of the peripheral groove varies along the external surface of the drum structure. The hopper assembly may define a compression space between the drum structure and a portion of the hopper assembly that covers a portion of the peripheral groove.

A device for changing operative portions for tobacco industry machines including a receiving portion made in a structural part of a tobacco industry machine; a plug member attached to an operative portion of the tobacco industry machine, a locking member, housed in the structural part of the machine and configured to adopt a locked position, where it locks the plug member in the receiving portion, and a released position, where it releases the plug member from the receiving portion and actuating means acting on the locking member at least to move the locking member from the locked position to the released position.

A method for manufacturing rod-like articles for tobacco industry, the rod-like articles comprising longitudinal inserts located in a filling material, the method comprising: feeding a continuous tape-like wrapper; feeding a strand of the filling material onto the moving wrapper; feeding an insert material, in a form of a tape having weakenings, into the strand of the filling material; forming a continuous rod by wrapping the wrapper around the strand of the filling material with the insert material; cutting the moving continuous rod into discrete rod-like articles by a cutting head at a cutting plane that traverses the weakening in the tape of the insert material; the method being characterized by: inspecting ends of the insert in the rod like article cut from the continuous rod and comparing the ends with a predefined model to obtain a measure of similarity; and depending on the similarity, adjusting the action of the cutting head with respect to the movement of the continuous rod such as to increase the similarity between the ends of the insert to the model in a following rod like article.