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.

Provided are a method and apparatus for making a cigarette filter assembly for potentially reducing particle breakthrough. The method includes forming a lofty porous network of charge retaining polymer fibers by mechanical, chemical or thermal bonding of the fibers, wrapping the lofty porous network in a cylindrical or tubular shape with optional mediating filter fibers in a filter paper to form a filter plug while maintaining the lofty structure. The charge retaining fibers can be charged to attract and hold particles from such sources as particulate matter from sorbents (preventing break-through), and smoke constituents while having a suitable pressure drop. The apparatus handles the lofty media with minimal crushing, for example, by spacing apart delivery rolls equipped with protrusions to punch, push, and/or pull the lofty media ahead for high speed operation.

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 invention provides a method of producing a tobacco smoke filter or filter element comprising: • heat treating a continuously advancing longitudinally extending strand of material; • cooling the heat treated continuously advancing strand; and • forming a longitudinally extending outer layer of tobacco smoke filtering material around the continuously advancing strand, to form a continuously advancing rod comprising a longitudinally extending strand (1a) of material and a longitudinally extending outer layer (2a) of tobacco smoke filtering material engaged around the longitudinally extending strand (1a). An apparatus for carrying out the method, and products of the method, are also provided.

A tow band (TB) for use in a cigarette filter is a tow band in which a plurality of filaments (F) made of cellulose acetate fibers are bundled together and crimped. In the tow band, a filament denier is not less than 6.0 and not more than 11.0, a total denier is not less than 5,000 and not more than 15,000, and a Cv value of the number of crimps of the tow band is not more than 4%.

A filter element for use in a smoking article includes a filter material comprised of paper sheet having a crimped three-dimensional structure. Polyethylene glycol, triethyl citrate, or triacetin is interacted with the filter material to increase the selective removal of semi-volatile compounds from mainstream smoke being drawn through the filter element, over the filter material alone. An associated method of making a filter element for use in a smoking article is also provided.

The present invention relates to an apparatus (100) for crimping a sheet of material (6), the apparatus comprising: a first (9) and a second (10) facing crimping rollers defining a first (1) and a second (22) rotational axis, respectively, the first and second axis being parallel to each other, wherein at least one of the first and second crimping roller includes a plurality of corrugations; an angle changing device, the angle changing device being adapted to change a crimping angle (11) formed between a fixed reference plane (12) and a movable plane (13) containing the first and the second rotational axis.

Disclosed herein is a tow band comprising cellulose acetate and a filler. The filler may be selected to have a degradation rate greater than that of the cellulose acetate. The tow band may be bloomed and formed into a filter rod, which may then be incorporated into a cigarette filter. The tow, tow band, and filter structures described herein degrade more rapidly than other known tow, tow bands, and filter structures.

The invention relates to an apparatus for crimping a sheet of material, the apparatus comprising a first and second facing crimping roller defining a first and second rotation axis, respectively, the first roller including: a first plurality of circumferential ridges, each ridge defining a ridge amplitude; wherein each of said first plurality of ridges is interrupted along its circumferential extension forming an interruption gap where for a given interruption angle an amplitude of the ridge differs from the ridge amplitude in the remaining circumferential extension of the ridge; wherein said plurality of interruption gaps forms an interruption band defining a direction of extension, said direction of extension being angled with respect to a direction defined by the first rotation axis of an angle comprised between about 2° to about 25°.

The invention also relates to a method for crimping a sheet of material as well as a crimped sheet of material and a rod made of a crimped sheet.

A lyocell material for a cigarette filter and a method of manufacturing the same are disclose. The lyocell material which is biodegradable and eco-friendly can be manufactured by crimping lyocell multifilaments to obtain a crimped tow.