Method for manufacturing a first subunit of an HNB smoking article, comprising a rod member and a cavity thereon, subunit, and HNB smoking article

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for producing a first subunit of an HNB smoking article that comprises a rod-shaped body and a cavity arranged thereon, wherein a tubular body is arranged on and attached to one of the end faces of the rod-shaped body, such as via a cover strip attaching the tubular body to the rod-shaped body.

Claims

1. A method for producing a subunit of a Heat Not Burn (HNB) smoking article, comprising: arranging a tubular body on an end face of a rod-shaped body; and attaching the tubular body to the rod-shaped body, wherein attaching the tubular body to the rod-shaped body comprises adhering a cover strip to the tubular body and to the rod-shaped body such that the cover strip attaches the tubular body to the rod-shaped body; wherein arranging the tubular body on the end face of the rod-shaped body comprises arranging a double-length tubular body between the end face of the rod-shaped body and a corresponding additional end face of an additional rod-shaped body, wherein attaching the tubular body to the rod-shaped body comprises attaching the double-length tubular body to the rod-shaped body and to the additional rod-shaped body, and wherein, after attaching the double-length tubular body to the rod-shaped body and to the additional rod-shaped body, the method further comprises: cutting the double-length tubular body down a center of the double-length tubular body; wherein attaching the double-length tubular body to the rod-shaped body and to the additional rod-shaped body comprises attaching the double-length tubular body to the rod-shaped body and the additional rod-shaped body via a double-width cover strip; wherein cutting the double-length tubular body down the center of the double-length tubular body comprises: orienting a longitudinal axis of the double-length tubular body horizontally when cutting double-length tubular body down the center of the double-length tubular body; and cutting the double-length tubular body into two separate pieces and to produce two separate structures, wherein a first piece of the two separate pieces is the tubular body and a first structure of the two separate structures is the tubular body attached to the rod-shaped body, and wherein a second piece of the two separate pieces is an additional tubular body, and a second structure of the two separate structures is the additional tubular body attached to the additional rod-shaped body; orienting the tubular body attached to the rod-shaped body such that a longitudinal axis of the tubular body and a longitudinal axis of the rod-shaped body are vertically oriented, and a cavity of the tubular body is open at a top of the tubular body, which is above the rod-shaped body; and filling the cavity of the tubular body with a filling material from above the tubular body.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the cover strip is adhered to the tubular body and to the rod-shaped body over the entire surface of the cover strip.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the rod-shaped body is a heat source, and wherein the cover strip is adhered to at most 30% of a lateral surface area of the heat source.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, prior to attaching the tubular body to the rod-shaped body, coating an inside of the tubular body with a metal and/or organic coating.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the metal and/or organic coating is stable at temperatures of up to at least 350 degrees Celsius.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the tubular body is made of cellulose.

7. A subunit of a Heat Not Burn (HNB) smoking article, comprising: a rod-shaped body, wherein the rod-shaped body has a cavity arranged thereon; and a tubular body arranged on, and attached to, an end face of the rod-shaped body, wherein the cavity of the tubular body is filled with a filling material, wherein the subunit of the Heat Not Burn (HNB) smoking article is produced according to the method of claim 1.

8. The subunit according to claim 7, wherein the cover strip is adhered to the tubular body and to the rod-shaped body over an entire surface of the cover strip.

9. The subunit according to claim 7, wherein the rod-shaped body is a heat source, and the cover strip is adhered to at most 30% of a lateral surface area of the heat source.

10. The subunit according to claim 9, wherein the cover strip is adhered to 20% to 30% of the lateral surface area of the heat source.

11. The subunit according to claim 7, wherein the tubular body is coated on an inside of the tubular body with a metal and/or organic coating.

12. The subunit according to claim 11, wherein the metal and/or organic coating is stable at temperatures of up to at least 350 degrees Celsius.

13. The subunit according to claim 7, wherein the tubular body is made of cellulose.

14. A Heat Not Burn smoking article, comprising: a subunit according claim to 7.

15. The heat not burn smoking article according to claim 14, wherein the cover strip is adhered to the tubular body and to the rod-shaped body over an entire surface of the cover strip.

16. The heat not burn smoking article according to claim 14, wherein the rod-shaped body is a heat source, and the cover strip is adhered to at most 30% of a lateral surface area of the heat source.

17. The heat not burn smoking article according to claim 16, wherein the cover strip is adhered to 20% to 30% of the lateral surface area of the heat source.

18. The heat not burn smoking article according to claim 14, wherein the tubular body is coated on an inside of the tubular body with a metal and/or organic coating.

19. The heat not burn smoking article according to claim 18, wherein the metal and/or organic coating is stable at temperatures of up to at least 350 degrees Celsius.

20. The heat not burn smoking article according to claim 14, wherein the tubular body is made of cellulose.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention is explained in the following on the basis of preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows an HNB smoking article comprising various subunits; and

(3) FIG. 2 shows a method sequence according to the invention for producing a subunit of the HNB smoking article that comprises a rod-shaped body and a tubular body.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(4) FIG. 1 shows an HNB (heat not burn) smoking article 1 in the form of a cigarette. The HNB smoking article 1 is composed of a plurality of subunits 2, 3, 4 and 5, or also segments, which are held together by three cover strips 6, 7 and 8. In this figure, the first subunit 2 is formed by a rod-shaped body 9 and an adjoining tubular body 10 which are interconnected by the first cover strip 6. The second subunit 3 is a tobacco stick filled with tobacco fibres 15, the third subunit 4 is a filter filled with a filter material 16 and, finally, the fourth subunit 5 is a mouth piece which is formed by a tubular piece 18 having a cavity 17. The second subunit 3 is connected to the first subunit 2 by the second cover strip 7, and the third subunit 4, together with the fourth subunit 5, is connected to the second subunit 3 by the third cover strip 8. As a whole, this results in a dimensionally stable, rod-shaped HNB smoking article 1 having a circular cross-sectional area.

(5) The rod-shaped body 9 of the first subunit 2 is in this case formed by a heat source which has a heat-generating, combustible core 12, e.g. activated carbon, and an insulation layer 11. In addition to activated carbon, heat sources that are electrically activated in an alternative manner or heat sources that contain a combustible material that is not activated carbon can also be used as heat sources.

(6) According to the invention, adjoining the rod-shaped body 9 is the tubular body 10 that is attached thereto, which tubular body comprises a cavity 14 and is formed by a thin tubular wall 13 that is made of cellulose and has a preferred wall thickness of from 0.1 to 0.3 mm. A quantity of loose cellulose-based pellets 19 is provided in the cavity 14 of the tubular body 10, which pellets are impregnated with propylene glycol and are used to influence flavour and/or to reduce the number of components in the hot gases that are generated by the heat source. The tubular body 10 is dimensionally stable to the extent that the shape of the cavity 14 does not change during the production process, even under the effect of transverse forces. Therefore, the cavity 14 adjoining the rod-shaped body 9 is conveniently prefixed by the tubular body 10 and, as a result of the connection between the tubular body 10 and the rod-shaped body 9, is placed on the rod-shaped body 9 in a convenient manner by means of the production method described below.

(7) The consumer activates the HNB smoking article 1 by igniting the combustible core 12 of the heat source and, as is the case in conventional cigarettes, sucking on the mouth piece, which is in this case the fourth subunit 5. The air flow that is drawn in then flows from the heat source through the pellets 19 arranged in the cavity 14 of the tubular body 10 and then through the tobacco fibres 15 of the tobacco stick and, in the process, outgases the volatile components of the tobacco fibres 15. The hot gas flow in which these volatile components of the tobacco fibres 15 are concentrated then flows through the filter material 16 and the cavity 17 of the mouth piece, and is then inhaled by the consumer. In the process, the air flow is cooled down in the filter material 16 and in the stretch covered by the cavity 17. If cooling is insufficient, additional cooling regions, which may or may not comprise cooling material, can of course be provided.

(8) The invention relates to the method for producing the first subunit 2 comprising the rod-shaped body 9, which is formed by the heat source, and the adjoining cavity 14, which method is described in more detail in the following with reference to FIG. 2.

(9) In a first step, a double-length rod-shaped body 20 is provided and cut down the centre to form two individual rod-shaped bodies 9 of a single length. Subsequently, the two rod-shaped bodies 9 are pulled apart from one another and a double-length tubular body 21 is inserted between the rod-shaped bodies 9, as can be seen in the drawings at the top of FIG. 2. In earlier processing steps, the double-length tubular bodies 21 can be cut from tubular pieces of a length that is a multiple of the single length, subsequently staggered and lined up one behind the other by means of pressurised air to form a sequence of identically oriented double-length tubular bodies 21 that have longitudinal axes that are oriented in parallel with one another, the width of the strip corresponding to the length of the double-length tubular body 21. For this purpose, the double-length tubular bodies 21 are initially staggered after being cut and are then pushed together by means of pressurised air such that they have the same orientation and form the strip. The bodies can however also be pushed together mechanically by means of a counter surface. The bodies being pushed together by means of pressurised air is however advantageous in that the load on the double-length tubular bodies 21 is as low as possible, it also being possible in this case to move the double-length tubular bodies 21 on a type of air cushion in order to further reduce the load.

(10) In a subsequent step, a double-width first cover strip 22 is provided, the entire surface of which is preferably wetted with an adhesive and which is wrapped, in a rolling process, around the double-length tubular body 21 and around approximately 20 to 30% of the adjoining annular lateral surfaces of the rod-shaped bodies 9, as a result of which the double-length tubular body 21 is connected to the two rod-shaped bodies 9 arranged on the end faces. In a subsequent step, the resulting assembly is cut by a central cut through the double-length tubular body 21 into two first subunits 2, each consisting of a rod-shaped body 9 and a single-length tubular body 10, which subunits are interconnected by a first cover strip 6 of a single width. The cut through the double-length tubular body 21 is made when the double-length tubular body 21 is horizontally oriented, and this is advantageous in that the rod-shaped bodies 9 and the double-length tubular body 21 are in this case transported on a lateral surface of a transportation drum having a horizontal axis of rotation, as a result of which it is possible to produce a cut that has a particularly high cut quality. Furthermore, the cut quality is improved by the cavity 14 for receiving the pellets 19 being formed by the dimensionally stable double-length tubular body 21, which is then attached to the rod-shaped body 9 by means of the double-width cover strip 22. Owing to the dimensional stability thereof, the dimensionally stable double-length tubular body 21 is resistant to the cutting knife to such an extent that it is not deformed during the cutting process. As a result, the cutting knife cuts through the double-length tubular body 21 with a clean and perpendicular cut of a high cut quality.

(11) In order to fill the cavities 14 of the two resulting tubular bodies 10 of a single length, the two first subunits 2 are rotated into an orientation in which the longitudinal axes thereof are vertically oriented and in which the two cavities 14 are open at the top, by the tubular bodies 10 being arranged above the rod-shaped bodies 9, as can be seen in the drawings at the bottom of FIG. 2.

(12) Subsequently, the pellets 19 are poured into the cavities 14 from above, and this completes the method for producing the first subunits 2. In a subsequent step, the second subunit 3 in each case, which is the tobacco stick in this case, is set in position coaxially from above and connected to the first subunit 2 by the second cover strip 7. Subsequently, the third subunit 4 and the fourth subunit 5 are set in position one after the other, also coaxially, and connected to the second subunit 3 by the third cover strip 8.

(13) The method for producing the first subunit 2 comprising the heat source has been described; however, it would also be possible to fasten the third subunit 4 to the fourth subunit 5 so as to form an assembly by means of the same production method, the cavity 17 in the mouth piece not being filled in this case.

(14) Furthermore, the proposed method for producing the first subunit 2 is also advantageous for other subunits or segments of the HNB smoking article 1, if adjoining cavities have to be provided on said subunits or segments. Firstly, owing to the use of the proposed tubular bodies 10, the cavities are automatically dimensionally stabilised such that it is easier to fasten the subunits by means of the cover strips. In particular, by means of the tubular body 10, a dimensionally stable contact surface for adhering the cover strip is provided. Furthermore, the subunits are each assembled so as to have a vertically oriented longitudinal axis, and therefore, in this case, the tubular body 10 is also used as a spacer for the adjoining subunit that is to be set in position.

(15) The invention is also considered to be advantageous in that the first subunit 2 can also be produced in a prefabrication process and stored intermediately. If active carbon is used as the heat source, it is expedient to cut the rod-shaped bodies 9 immediately after the string has been produced since, in this state, the active carbon can still be cut in an effective manner before it hardens by cooling. In this case, the first subunits 2 can be stored intermediately both before and after the double-length tubular body 21 has been cut.