Aerosol generating article with improved mouth end cavity

Abstract

An aerosol-generating article (10) comprising: an aerosol generating substrate (12); and a mouthpiece (14) disposed downstream of the aerosol-generating substrate (12). The mouthpiece (14) comprises a hollow tubular segment (24) at its downstream end defining a mouth end cavity (40), and the hollow tubular segment (24) comprises a hollow tube (31) of fibrous material, and a polymeric film (35) secured to the inner surface (311) of the hollow tube (31).

Claims

1. An aerosol-generating article comprising: an aerosol generating substrate; and a mouthpiece disposed downstream of the aerosol-generating substrate, wherein the mouthpiece comprises a hollow tubular segment at its downstream end defining a mouth end cavity, wherein the hollow tubular segment comprises a hollow tube of fibrous material, and a polymeric film secured to an inner surface of the hollow tube, and wherein the fibrous material of the hollow tube comprises fibers formed of a first type of polymer and the polymeric film comprises at least about 20 percent of the first type of polymer, wherein the polymeric film has a thickness of from about 14 micrometres to about 90 micrometres.

2. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the tubular segment comprises a binder for binding the fibers of the hollow tube together and for binding the film to the inner surface of the hollow tube.

3. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 2, wherein the binder is a solvent for the fibers of the first type of polymer.

4. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 3, wherein the first type of polymer is an acetate ester of cellulose and the binder is an ester of glycerol.

5. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 4, wherein the acetate ester of cellulose is selected from the group of cellulose acetate, cellulose diacetate and cellulose triacetate.

6. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 5, wherein the ester of glycerol is triacetin.

7. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 5, further comprising an adhesive for securing the polymeric film to the inner surface of the hollow tube.

8. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 5, wherein the hollow tubular segment has a substantially annular cross section.

9. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 5, wherein the polymeric film is secured to an entire inner surface of the hollow tube of fibrous material.

10. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 5, wherein the polymeric film has an indicia on its inner surface.

11. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 4, wherein the ester of glycerol is triacetin.

12. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, further comprising an adhesive for securing the polymeric film to the inner surface of the hollow tube.

13. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the hollow tubular segment has a substantially annular cross section.

14. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the polymeric film is secured to an entire inner surface of the hollow tube of fibrous material.

15. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the polymeric film has an indicia on its inner surface.

16. A method of forming a hollow tubular segment for a mouthpiece of an aerosol-generating article, the method comprising: conveying a continuous band of fibrous material; shaping the continuous band into an annular profile; affixing a polymeric film to an inner surface of the shaped continuous band, wherein the fibrous material of the continuous band comprises fibers formed of a first type of polymer and the polymeric film comprises at least about 20 percent of the first type of polymer; and cutting a portion of the continuous band after the polymeric film has been affixed to its inner surface to form a hollow tubular segment for a mouthpiece of an aerosol-generating article, wherein the polymeric film has a thickness of from about 14 micrometres to about 90 micrometres.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the step of affixing a polymeric film to the inner surface of the shaped continuous band comprises: spraying a binder for the fibrous material over the shaped continuous band, wherein at least a portion of the sprayed binder resides on the inner surface of the shaped continuous band; and contacting the polymeric film with the inner surface of the shaped continuous band, wherein the polymeric film comprises a first type of polymer, and the binder is suitable for binding the first type of polymer of the polymeric film to the inner surface of the shaped continuous band such that the step of contacting results in the film becoming bound to the inner surface of the shaped continuous band.

18. A mouthpiece for an aerosol-generating article comprising: a hollow tubular segment at its downstream end defining a mouth end cavity, and wherein the hollow tubular segment comprises a hollow tube of fibrous material, and a polymeric film secured to an inner surface of the hollow tube, and wherein the fibrous material of the hollow tube comprises fibers formed of a first type of polymer and the polymeric film comprises at least about 20 percent of the first type of polymer, wherein the polymeric film has a thickness of from about 14 micrometres to about 90 micrometres.

Description

(1) Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a view of the aerosol-generating article of FIG. 1 with the mouthpiece unwrapped; and

(4) FIG. 3 shows a cross sectional view of the hollow tubular segment of FIG. 2 as taken perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the aerosol-generating article.

(5) FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an aerosol-generating article 10 in accordance with a first embodiment the present invention. The article is in the form of a smoking article. The smoking article 10 comprises an aerosol forming substrate in the form of wrapped rod 12 of tobacco cut filler. The rod 12 is attached at one end to a mouthpiece, in the form of axially aligned filter 14. A band of tipping paper 16 circumscribes the filter 14 and a portion 120 of the wrapped rod 12 of tobacco to join together the two portions of the smoking article 10.

(6) As shown in FIG. 2, the filter 14 comprises a hollow tubular segment 24. The hollow tubular segment 24 comprises a hollow tube 31 of elastically deformable fibrous filtration material, such as cellulose acetate tow. The hollow tubular segment 24 is at the downstream end of the filter 14, and defines a mouth end cavity 40 of the article 10. Upstream of the hollow tubular segment 24 is a filter segment 30, also formed of fibrous filtration material, such as cellulose acetate tow. The filter segment 30 is adjacent to the hollow tubular segment 24. The filter segment 30 and hollow tubular segment 24 are secured to one another by a circumscribing combining plug wrap 17.

(7) As can be best seen from FIG. 3, in addition to comprising the hollow tube of fibrous material 31, the hollow tubular segment 24 also comprises a polymeric film 35. The polymeric film 35 is secured to the inner surface 311 of the hollow tube 31. This means that the inner surface of the hollow tubular segment 24 is formed by the inner surface 351 of the polymeric film 35. The thickness of the polymeric film 35 relative to the thickness of the hollow tube 31 is not shown to scale in FIG. 3. The polymeric film 35 may be secured to the hollow tube 31 by way of a binder, by way of an adhesive or by way of both a binder and an adhesive. The polymeric film 35 may have a colour that is different to the colour of the hollow tube 31.