SMOKING ARTICLE WITH OVER-TIPPING BAND

Abstract

There is provided a smoking article (100) comprising a wrapped rod of smokable material (101);and a filter (102) comprising one or more filter segments(103), wherein the filter is in axial alignment with the wrapped rod of smokable material (101) and abuts the wrapped rod of smokable material (101) at an interface(105). A tipping wrapper (106) circumscribes at least a portion of the filter (102) and attaches the filter (102) to the wrapped rod of smokable material )101). The smoking article (100) further comprises an over-tipping band (107) circumscribing the filter (102) and overlying the tipping wrapper (106) at the upstream end of the filter (102) such that the over-tipping band (107) overlies the interface (105) between the wrapped rod of smokable material and the filter. The over-tipping band (107) is formed of an air impermeable sheet of a non-paper cellulosic material obtained by processing cellulose to form regenerated cellulose fibres.

Claims

1. A smoking article comprising: a wrapped rod of smokable material; a filter comprising one or more filter segments, wherein the filter is in axial alignment with the wrapped rod of smokable material and abuts the wrapped rod of smokable material at an interface; a tipping wrapper circumscribing at least a portion of the filter and attaching the filter to the wrapped rod of smokable material; an over-tipping band circumscribing the filter and overlying the tipping wrapper at an upstream end of the filter such that the over-tipping band overlies the interface between the wrapped rod of smokable material and the filter, wherein the over-tipping band is formed of a substantially air impermeable sheet of cellophane.

2. (canceled)

3. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the over-tipping band is substantially transparent.

4. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the tipping wrapper is substantially transparent.

5. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the over-tipping band extends at least 3mm in a longitudinal direction along the smoking article.

6. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the over-tipping band extends in a longitudinal direction along the smoking article by less than about a longitudinal width of the tipping wrapper.

7. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the a downstream end of the over-tipping band is at least 15 millimetres from the a downstream end of the filter.

8. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the an upstream end of the over-tipping band is no more than 5 millimetres from the interface between the filter and the wrapped rod of smokable material.

9. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the over-tipping band is formed of a tinted sheet material.

10. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the over-tipping band is affixed to the tipping wrapper.

11. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein the tipping wrapper is a paper wrapper.

12. A smoking article according to claim 10 wherein the over-tipping band is provided as a laminated layer on the paper wrapper.

13. A smoking article according to claim 1, wherein a self-extinguishment time of the smoking article is at least 15 percent lower than a self-extinguishment time of a corresponding smoking article with the over-tipping band removed.

14. A method for manufacturing a smoking article, comprising: providing a rod of smokable material having a wrapper; attaching a filter to the rod of smokable material by a tipping wrapper, wherein the filter abuts the rod of smokable material at an interface; and providing an over-tipping band around the filter and overlying the tipping wrapper at the upstream end of the filter such that the over-tipping band overlies the interface between the wrapped rod of smokable material and the filter, wherein the over-tipping band is formed of cellophane.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the over-tipping band is provided on the tipping wrapper prior to the step of attaching the filter to the rod of smokable material by the tipping wrapper.

16. A smoking article according to claim 3, wherein the tipping wrapper is substantially transparent.

17. A smoking article according to claim 3, wherein the over-tipping band extends at least 3 mm in a longitudinal direction along the smoking article.

18. A smoking article according to claim 4, wherein the over-tipping band extends at least 3 mm in a longitudinal direction along the smoking article.

19. A smoking article according to claim 5, wherein a downstream end of the over-tipping band is at least 15 millimetres from a downstream end of the filter.

20. A smoking article according to claim 5, wherein an upstream end of the over-tipping band is no more than 5 millimetres from the interface between the filter and the wrapped rod of smokable material.

21. A smoking article according to claim 7, wherein an upstream end of the over-tipping band is no more than 5 millimetres from the interface between the filter and the wrapped rod of smokable material.

Description

[0039] The invention will be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0040] FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a smoking article according to a first embodiment of the present invention; and

[0041] FIG. 2 is schematic perspective view of the smoking article of FIG. 1, shown unwrapped.

[0042] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a smoking article 100 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The same smoking article 100 is also illustrated, partly unwrapped, in FIG. 2. The smoking article 100 comprises a tobacco rod 101 circumscribed by a rod wrapper. Further, the smoking article 100 comprises a filter 102 comprising a plug 103 of filtration material circumscribed by a filter wrapper 104. The filter 102 is provided in abutting relationship with the tobacco rod 101 so that an interface 105 is defined between the filter 102 and the tobacco rod 101. A tipping wrapper 106 circumscribes substantially the whole filter 102 and attaches the filter 102 to the wrapped tobacco rod 101. Further, the smoking article 100 comprises a substantially transparent over-tipping band 107 circumscribing the filter 102 and overlying the tipping wrapper 106 at the upstream end of the filter 102. Thus, the over-tipping band 107 overlies the interface 105 between the wrapped rod 101 and the filter 102. The over-tipping band 107 has a width of about 5 millimetres and is formed of cellophane.

EXAMPLE 1

[0043] The self-extinguishment properties of a smoking article according to the invention as described above have been assessed on a smoke machine where the smoking article was smoked until the combustion cone reached a location 2 millimetres upstream of the tipping wrapper. At that time, the smoking article according to the invention was left under free burn conditions and the time it took for it to self-extinguish was measured.

[0044] The self-extinguishment behaviour of the smoking article according to the invention was compared with the self-extinguishment behaviour of other reference smoking articles. To this purpose, the same measurement described above was carried out on:

[0045] Reference smoking article 1 a cigarette having the same characteristics of the smoking article according to the invention, but without any over-tipping band;

[0046] Reference smoking article 2 a cigarette identical to the smoking article, but with an impermeable over-tipping band made of tipping paper;

[0047] Reference smoking article 3 a cigarette identical to the smoking article, but with an over-tipping band made of aluminium foil having a thickness of about 10 micrometres.

[0048] The following Table 1 contains the results of these measurements. The percent reduction in self-extinguishment time was calculated with reference to the self-extinguishment time of Reference smoking article 1, namely the one with no over-tipping band.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Self- extinguishment Self-extinguishment time Smoking Article time [s] Reduction [percent] Reference smoking article 1 193 === Reference smoking article 2 184 5 Reference smoking article 3 172 11 Example 1 (invention) 147 24

[0049] Thus, experimental results have shown that a smoking article according to the invention self-extinguishes significantly more quickly than a standard cigarette. Further, it appears that an over-tipping band made from an air impermeable cellulosic sheet material, such as cellophane brings about a reduction in the self-extinguishment time that is noticeably more pronounced than the reduction obtainable by applying on a same smoking article having otherwise the same structural features an over-tipping band made of other materials.