Method of making a rod for use as an aerosol-forming substrate having controlled porosity distribution

Abstract

There is provided a method of making rods having predetermined values of cross-sectional porosity, and a cross-sectional porosity distribution value for use as an aerosol-forming substrate in a heated aerosol-generating article, including providing a continuous sheet of aerosol-forming material having a specified width and a specified thickness; gathering the sheet transversely relative to a longitudinal axis thereof; circumscribing the gathered sheet with a wrapper to form a continuous rod; severing the rod into a plurality of discrete rods; determining values of cross-sectional porosity and cross-sectional porosity distribution for at least one of the discrete rods; and controlling one or more manufacturing parameters to ensure that the cross-sectional porosity and cross-sectional porosity distribution values of subsequent rods are within the predetermined values.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.