ITTV20090160A1 - PROCESS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCTS TO BE USED FOR THE FILLING OF SMOKE ITEMS, CIGARETTES, CIGARS AND DRUMS - Google Patents

Description

Description

process to improve the quality of products to be used for the filling of smoking articles; cigarettes, cigars and shredded products

The present invention illustrates a method for treating the tobacco coming from separation plants (hereinafter referred to as beating plants) of the leaf limbs (hereinafter referred to as strips) from the ribs (hereinafter referred to as stems).

State of the art

At present, the leaf limbs that come out of the threshing plant are dried in continuous belt dryers in which the drying fluid is the hot air used at different temperatures see table 1

The hot fluid in said dryers crosses the flaps from top to bottom and vice versa; in any case, the tobacco treated in this way does not have a homogeneous and uniform humidity and therefore the strips are dried at a humidity lower than that of subsequent use; subsequently the flaps are cooled and then re-humidified, the drying, cooling and humidification process lasts between about 5-25 min

The tobacco during the drying phase, due to the fluid used and the residence time, shrinks and its granulometric dimensions are reduced (this phenomenon in English is called shrinkage)

Tobacco is sold according to its organoleptic quality and its particle size.

In the sale of tobacco in strips, the percentages of tobacco that have:

• dimensions greater than 2.54 cm (1 inch);

• dimensions greater than 1.27 cm [1/2 inch);

• dimensions less than 0.635 cm (1/4 inch)

• dimensions less than 0.317 cm (l / 8 inch)

Normally the tobacco that passes through a grìglia that has holes equal to 0.317 cm (1/8 of ìnch) is not classified as strips and therefore loses part of the commercial value

Other dryers such as rotating cylinder or hot fluid stream can also be used for drying tobacco.

These machines are currently used to exclusively treat cut tobacco, whether it is from the leaf or from the ribs.

In the rotating cylinder the tobacco is heated by conduction, convection and radiation.

In hot fluid flow dryers, hereinafter referred to as flash dryers or tower dryers, the tobacco receives most of the heat by convection as the fluid also carries it inside the dryer.

The fluid used can be air or a mixture of air and steam.

Fluid temperatures can be in the range of 130-260 ° C.

The oxygen content in said mixture can be in the range of 1.5-5%.

The residence time of the tobacco in the plant can be included in the Interval 4-15 sec.

The tobacco treated in the latter type of plant has an average size of output larger than those of entry.

The present invention is further illustrated hereinafter in a preferred embodiment thereof for purely illustrative and non-limiting purposes with reference to the flow chart Table 2 which shows the production cycle

The tobacco coming out of the beating is sent through a flow control system to a drying plant, such as a flash dryer, in which the fluid used is a mixture of steam and air. The contact time between drying fluid and tobacco is between 4-15 sec.

R is defined:

The present invention is further illustrated hereinafter in a preferred embodiment thereof reported for purely illustrative and non-limiting purposes with reference to table 2 which shows the flow of the production cycle.

Treated tobacco has an inlet humidity O.V.%, measured on a wet basis, within the range

16% <O.V.% <26%

The drying plant is a flash dryer type plant in which:

the velocity of the drying fluid V (e is:

3m / sec <Vfe <30 m / sec

Preferably

5m / sec <Vfe <24 m / sec

is in range

Preferably

0.1 <R <0.35

The temperature Tf ° C of the drying fluid is included in the range:

140 ° C <T, <240 ° C

preferably

160 ° C <Tf <20G ° C

The drying fluid is composed of water vapor and air; the ratio between the mass of vapor and air must be such that the quantity of oxygen measurable in the hot fluid upstream of the treatment is within the range

1.5% <0 <15%

preferably

1.5% <Tf <5%

Process flow

The present invention has been illustrated and described in a preferred embodiment thereof, but it is understood that in the practical embodiment executive variations may be made without however departing from the scope of protection of the present patent.

Claims (2)

Claims 1. process to improve the quality of products to be used for filling smoking articles; cigarettes, cigars and forage products characterized by the fact that the ribbed tobacco coming from a plant separating the leaf limbs from the ribs of the tobacco leaves is treated in a hot fluid stream drying system, this not only reduces the shrinkage effect due to the drying currently carried out in belt dryers but also increases the size of the flaps due to the expansion effect due to rapid evaporation of part of the water contained in the tobacco in the drying plant. • The flow of this process is that indicated in table. 2 Treated tobacco has a moisture content O.V.%, measured on a wet basis, in the range 16% <O.V.% <26% The drying plant is a flash dryer type plant in which: the speed of the drying fluid Vfeè: 4m / sec <Vfe <24 m / sec is in range 0.05 <R <0.5 • The temperature Tf "C of the drying fluid is included in the range: 140 ° C <T, <240 ° C • The drying fluid is composed of water vapor and air; the ratio between the mass of vapor and air must be such that the quantity of oxygen measurable in the hot fluid upstream of the treatment is within the range 1.5% <0 <15% 2. The method according to claim 1 characterized in that the quantity of tobacco introduced into the flash dryer system is not controlled by a flow regulation system