Modular tobacco preparation including extrusion

Abstract

A tobacco preparation method, where a tobacco material is prepared through at least one extrusion process including compressing the material with an increase in pressure and temperature and mechanically processing and abruptly flash drying the material at an extruder outlet, wherein the tobacco material includes a tobacco lamina material, where a tobacco preparation device includes a dosing conveyor and an extruder which compresses a tobacco material with an increase in pressure and temperature and mechanically process and abruptly flash dries the material at the extruder outlet, where the components are designated as a unit which can be modularly delimited for processing a tobacco material including a tobacco lamina material, where an arrangement of several tobacco preparation devices and a smoking article or cigarette manufacturing device includes such a device or such a device arrangement which is connected upstream of a cigarette maker or a secondary unit as a tobacco preparation module.

Claims

1. A tobacco preparation assembly array comprising: a plurality of tobacco preparation assemblies, wherein each assembly includes: a dosing conveyor; and an extruder that compresses a tobacco material using an increase in pressure and temperature, and mechanically processes and instantaneous-decompression dries the material at a shearing gap outlet of the extruder; wherein a cutting width of the extruder of a first assembly differs from a cutting width of the extruder of a second assembly, wherein an assembly is provided for each extrusion process, wherein the extrusion processes are performed in parallel, wherein, at least one extrusion process uses a tobacco lamina material as a starting material; a mixture of extrusion products produced by the respective extrusion processes forms a tobacco preparation product; and the tobacco preparation product is collected for further processing in a smoking product manufacturing process on a conveyor.

2. The array according to claim 1, wherein a tobacco material reservoir comprising a different starting material or combination of starting materials is provided for each assembly, the starting material or combination of starting materials including at least one of the following materials: Burley tobacco lamina material; Virginia tobacco lamina material; Orient tobacco lamina material; and tobacco stem material.

3. The array according to claim 2, wherein the tobacco material reservoir of at least one the assemblies is a raised silo from which the tobacco material is dispensed downwards by the effect of gravity.

4. The array according to claim 1, wherein the array is arranged as a primary module upstream of a secondary unit in a smoking product manufacturing device.

5. The array according to claim 1, wherein the dosing conveyor is a screw conveyor and the extruder is a screw extruder comprising an adjustable shearing gap outlet.

6. The array according to claim 1, further comprising a cooling device for the tobacco preparation product arranged downstream of the extruder, wherein the cooling device is a conveyor belt cooler, the tobacco preparation product being transported away from the respective assembly by the conveyor belt.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention is illustrated below in more detail on the basis of different embodiments and with reference to the enclosed figures. It can comprise the features described here, individually and in any combination, and can be understood as a method, a device or a use comprising the corresponding assignable features. The enclosed drawings show:

(2) FIG. 1 a schematic representation of an extrusion tobacco preparation module in accordance with the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 variants of an assembly array in accordance with the invention, in the form of a table;

(4) FIG. 3 a number of tobacco preparation assemblies in accordance with the invention, for different tobacco materials, interconnected to form a production module;

(5) FIG. 4 interconnecting a tobacco preparation module in accordance with the invention and a cigarette maker to form a cigarette manufacturing plant and/or cigarette factory, in a schematic representation; and

(6) FIG. 5 the conventional tobacco preparation for different tobacco materials as a flow diagram, to which reference has been made at the beginning in the discussion of the prior art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(7) In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a processing uniti.e. an extrusion modulecomprises the following components: a mixing silo 1, in which tobacco material is assembled as a batch, wherein a formula is devised; a dosing screw 2, which doses the tobacco material by volume and/or mass and transports it away from the silo 1; an extruder 3, to which the dosed tobacco material is delivered and in which the following steps are performed: conditioning with water/steam and, as applicable, casing; compressing, mixing, heating, dwelling, flavoring, aromatizing; shaping tobacco fibers which have been cut lengthways, to form a tobacco heap, while decompression-drying and simultaneously restoring the natural filling capacity by expanding to ambient pressure.

(8) Lastly, the module as a whole also comprises the cooling unit 4 which serves to fix the structure and extract adhering steam. The mixing silo 1 can be fed with whole packages, either with the aid of a slicer or a breaker, before they enter the mixing container. Furthermore, the bulk material which is pre-broken in this way can then be homogenized using a silo mixer and further processed.

(9) It should be noted with respect to the extruder that it can comprise a heatable pressure chamber which can comprise a tobacco material inlet on the low-pressure side and a tobacco material outlet on the pressure side, and a conveying device (a filling screw for conveying the tobacco material from the inlet to the outlet). The tobacco material outlet exhibits a flow channel cross-section (defined by the gap and profiling) for the passage of the tobacco material while being decompressed, and the flow channel cross-section preferably has gap walls which can be moved relative to each other and can exhibit roughening or profiling. The gap walls can also be able to be moved away from each other and towards each other, biased towards the closed state of the gap and can be moved relative to each other at a fixed or fixedly settable distance (0.01 mm to 2 mm). The roughening can be grooves or cross-profiling, and the gap can be an annular gap, cylindrical gap or a conical gap, the gap walls of which can in particular be continuously or intermittently moved back and forth relative to each other. The extruder screw can exhibit measures which reduce the chamber volume towards the region of the outlet, in particular decreasing screw pitches or increasing extruder shafts, and it is possible to arrange mechanical pre-comminuting means and/or pre-defibrating means in the pressure chamber. Inlets for conditioning or casing means and/or steam can be provided at the pressure chamber.

(10) The enclosed FIG. 2 shows variants in accordance with the invention in the form of a table, together with the number of extruders (extruder cells and/or extruder modules) necessary. If whole leaves are used without tobacco specialization, then a minimum of just one extruder is necessary. The mixture formula is then realized in a silo of the extruder module, as shown in FIG. 1, and no distinction is made in process terms between for example Virginia, Burley, Orient and stems. When using whole leaves, the proportion of the structuring agent cellulose corresponds to the natural content in the leaves and is therefore regarded as particularly advantageous with respect to the product characteristics.

(11) Embodiments are conceivable in which a separate extruder treatment of different tobacco materials and/or lamina varieties is performed, and the second line in FIG. 2 shows a variant in which threshed tobacco is used, i.e. in which stems and lamina are separately treated. This necessitates a minimum of two extruders, and it is possible to set different cutting widths for the stems and lamina and/or to select different casing variations.

(12) If, in accordance with the third and fourth variants in FIG. 2, the classic specialization of the lines is to be maintained, then three to four extruders are required, namely for Burley, Virginia, Orient and stems. The advantage of this approach is that it is possible to provide specialization using different process parameters and casing applications and other parameters (Burley extruder toasting, etc.). If the stems and Burley are separately treated, but the Virginia and Orient are treated together, then a minimum of three extruders are necessary; if the stems, Burley, Virginia and Orient are separately treated, then at least four extruders are needed and the invention becomes an illustration of standard tobacco treating, but with extruder modules and the corresponding space-saving and all the other advantages in accordance with the invention which have already been described.

(13) Combinations are of course possible, such as for example separately processing according to stems and leaves, wherein Burley, Virginia and Orient are processed together in one extrusion module.

(14) One of the aforesaid versions is shown in FIG. 3, wherein a stem processing module 10, a Virginia/Burley processing module 20 and an Orient module 30 respectively perform an extrusion tobacco preparation in accordance with the invention and then respectively deliver the extruded product via the conveyors 15, 25 and 35 to a common conveyor 50 which then forms the interface to the subsequent cigarette manufacture and/or to the cigarette maker.

(15) FIG. 4 as a whole shows a cigarette manufacturing device or small cigarette factory comprising an extrusion module 40 (silo 1, dosing screw 2, extruder 3, conveyor 55, dryer 4) which is arranged immediately upstream of a cigarette maker 60, wherein the tobacco preparation module 40 thus forms part of a cigarette machine (or a small group of cigarette machines), virtually in a ratio of 1:1. Introducing such a design in accordance with the invention and/or introducing the modular tobacco preparation in accordance with the invention enables independent production modules for tobacco preparation and cigarette manufacture to be provided, and a future factory could comprise integer multiples of such mini-factories as shown in FIG. 4. This design makes cigarette manufacture and/or smoking product manufacture significantly more flexible.

(16) The capacity can be adapted with regard to tobacco throughput to the requirements of the cigarette machine (requirements of the maker) either by the dosing conveyor of the extruder itself (a small setting range through variations in rotational speed) or by the number of extruders per silo (a large setting range through duplicating the base unit). Aromatizing can also be incorporated here, for example as the proven online aromatizing during cigarette manufacture. It can, however, also be performed beforehand in a flavor drum, together with mixing the material, before it is passed on to the tobacco silo.

(17) An extrusion cell, illustrated for example in FIGS. 3 and 4 by 20, 30 and 40 respectively, can require an installation space of 1515 m for an output capacity of up to 1000 kg/h. In summary, it may be said that the invention provides a resource-saving tobacco treatment (energy, incidence of exhaust vapors, etc.) without pre-treating the tobacco material, with an almost 100% raw material yield, in a compact extrusion module.

(18) In one method example of tobacco treatment in accordance with the invention, different Virginia grades are provided in the form of strips and mixed in a silo 1 comprising cutting mixer units for fibrous plant materials, without being moistened, in accordance with a formula, wherein the batch size is defined at 4000 kg. During mixing, additional comminuting of the breakable leaf material is deliberately tolerated. The dust which thus arises serves to stabilize the course of the process. It can perfectly well be advantageous to also make tobacco dust or other small tobacco materials from other sources part of the formula.

(19) The batch prepared in this way is supplied with the aid of a dosing screw 2 to the extruder 3, where it is formed into a fibrous tobacco product, as has already been described.

(20) The yield is then almost 100%. Instantaneous expansion creates attractive filling capacities of for example 5.1 ml/g, and the product is visually indistinguishable from the classic product. The dust and/or other small tobacco parts are bonded to the resultant fibrous tobacco material during the compression and extrusion process, which results in the high material yield. The cigarettes produced are of a high quality and are easily within the quality range of classic tobacco treatment. In addition, they are visually indistinguishable from cigarettes in which a classic tobacco treatment has been used. The hardness of the cigarettes is even improved, i.e. reduced, in the tobacco preparation in accordance with the invention.

(21) Thus, the present invention enables a flawless smoking product to be produced, with all the cited advantages with regard to the ability to manipulate the tobacco preparation, its productivity, and the savings in installation space, energy costs and plant costs.