An apparatus for and a method of manufacturing a crimped web for an aerosol-generating article is provided, including feeding a substantially continuous web to a set of crimping rollers including a first roller and a second roller, each of which is corrugated across at least a portion of a width thereof; and crimping the web by feeding the web between the rollers in a longitudinal direction of the web such that corrugations of the rollers apply a plurality of longitudinally extending and substantially parallel crimp corrugations to the web, wherein pitch values of the corrugations of one or both of the rollers vary across the width thereof such that pitch values of the crimp corrugations vary across a width of the crimped web.

The present invention relates to a method to fold a sheet (11) of material into a rod for an aerosol generating article, the method comprising: providing a central element and plurality of spaced apart walls (14), the spaced apart walls radially extending outwardly from the central element (12) following one another in a circumferential direction, each spaced apart wall defining an end surface (15) separated from the end surfaces of the adjacent walls; transporting the sheet of material and putting it in contact with the end surfaces of the plurality of spaced apart walls so that the sheet of material can partly fold within spaces defined between the spaced apart walls; and inserting the sheet of material into a funnel (16) to form a rod. The present invention also relates to an apparatus (10) to fold a sheet of material into a rod for an aerosol generating article.

Provided herein are cellulose acetate tow bands having less than 0.1 wt. % titanium dioxide, wherein the content of titanium dioxide is measured by ashing and/or by titanium particle count density. Also provided herein is a method of measuring the titanium dioxide content of cellulose acetate tow by ashing. Also provided herein is a method for measuring the color of cellulose acetate tow.

A filter material for manufacturing a segment of a smoking article is described, wherein the filter material comprises a hydro-entangled nonwoven and the nonwoven comprises fibers, wherein the fibers are selected from the group consisting of pulp fibers, fibers of regenerated cellulose and mixtures thereof, and these fibers are together contained in the nonwoven in an amount of at least 50% and at most 100% of the mass of the hydro-entangled nonwoven, and wherein the nonwoven is in the form of a web, has a longitudinal direction in the running direction of the web, a cross direction orthogonal thereto and lying in the plane of the web and a thickness direction orthogonal to longitudinal direction and the cross direction. The nonwoven is shaped such that it has a wave structure in the plane formed by the cross direction and the thickness direction with a wave height of at least 50 .Math.m and at most 1000 .Math.m, as well as a wave length (22, 32, 42) of at least 150 .Math.m and at most 5000 .Math.m.

An apparatus for manufacturing a crimped web for an aerosol-generating article is provided, the apparatus including: a set of crimping rollers including a first roller and a second roller, each of which is corrugated across at least a portion of a width thereof, the first and the second rollers being arranged such that corrugations of the first roller substantially interleave with corrugations of the second roller, pitch values of the corrugations of one or both of the first and the second rollers varying across the width of the rollers, and the pitch values of substantially all of the corrugations of the first and the second rollers varying from about 0.5 mm to about 1.7 mm. A crimped sheet, and a method of manufacturing an aerosol-generating article component, are also provided.

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method of manufacturing a crimped sheet (70) of material for an aerosol-generating article. The method comprises the step of feeding a substantially continuous sheet of material to a set of crimping rollers (11, 21) in a transport direction (1), the set of crimping rollers comprising a first roller (11) having a first surface (12) and having a first plurality of ridges (17) across at least a portion of its width and a second roller having a second surface, the second surface (22) being formed at least for a portion thereof in a material having an hardness lower than the hardness of a material forming the first surface. Further, the method comprises crimping the substantially continuous sheet of material to form the crimped sheet by feeding the substantially continuous sheet between the first and second rollers in the transport direction of the sheet such that the corrugations of the first roller apply a plurality crimp corrugations to the substantially continuous sheet.

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).

An apparatus for forming filter rods for aerosol-generating articles is provided, including a first source and a second source, the first source being configured to supply filter material in a form of a first tow, and the second source being configured to supply filter material in a form of a second tow; a single driven delivery roller configured to advance the first tow and the second tow; and an extrusion tool configured to process the first tow and the second tow, the delivery roller being arranged such that the first and the second tows are advanced from the first and the second sources toward the extrusion tool only by the delivery roller, and the extrusion tool is further configured to process several sources of filter material simultaneously to create one filter rod. A method for forming filter rods for aerosol-generating articles is also provided.

An apparatus (100) for crimping a band of material and a method of crimping and shaping a band of material is disclosed. The apparatus (100) comprising a crimping portion (1) comprising a first crimping roller (2) defining a first rotational axis and a second crimping roller (3) defining a second rotational axis, wherein the first and second crimping rollers are configured to allow a band of material to pass therebetween and towards an adjacent apparatus; and an adjustment portion (20) configured to adjust the position of at least one of the first and second rotational axes relative to the position of the adjacent apparatus to thereby adjust the tension in the band of material between the crimping portion and the adjacent apparatus.

A cooling cigarette filter and a cigarette are disclosed. The cooling cigarette filter comprises a cooling section (2). The cooling section (2) comprises a cooling stick (201) formed from paper (5). The cooling stick (201) has one or more holes (202) communicating two ends of the cooling stick. And the surface of the paper (5) is coated with a cooling material. The cooling cigarette filter has the advantages of ensuring the amount of smoke and lowering the temperature of the smoke entering the mouth. Through the combination design of the structure of the cooling stick and the type and amount of the cooling material, the smoke can flow out of a smoke generation section rapidly and smoothly And the temperature of the high-temperature smoke before entering the mouth can be significantly lowered, thereby improving the comfort and satisfaction of smoking.