Method and system to monitor tobacco material to detect insect infestation
AssigneePhilip Morris Products S.A.
InventorsRui Nuno Rodrigues Alves Batista, Ricardo Cali, Ivan Prestia, Alexandra Sereda
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a method to monitor tobacco material to detect insect infestation, the method comprising: —providing tobacco material in a closed space; —measuring the concentration of a semiochemical in the air present in the closed space; —comparing the measured concentration of the semiochemical with a threshold; and—lowering the temperature of the closed space if the concentration of the semiochemical is higher than the threshold.
Claims17
A method to monitor tobacco material to detect insect infestation, the method comprising:
- providing tobacco material in a closed space;
- measuring the concentration of a semiochemical in the air present in the closed space;
- comparing the measured concentration of the semiochemical with a threshold;
- lowering the temperature of the closed space if the concentration of the semiochemical is higher than the threshold
- associating an identifier to the tobacco material present in the closed space;
- if the measured concentration of the semiochemical is higher than the threshold, creating a data set comprising the identifier and a value representative of the measured concentration or of the comparison between the measured concentration and the threshold;
- sending the data set to a management unit;
- tracking the tobacco material present in the closed space along a supply line.
A system to detect the presence of an infestation in tobacco material, the system comprising:
- a closed space adapted to house the tobacco material;
- a gas sensor adapted to measure the concentration of a semiochemical in the air present in the closed space and adapted to emit a signal representative of the measured concentration;
- a cooling unit adapted to lower the temperature of the closed space;
- a control unit connected to the gas sensor and the cooling unit, the control unit being adapted to receive the signal from the gas sensor, to compare it with a threshold and to command the cooling unit to cool the closed space if the signal is above the threshold
- a data set comprising an identifier associated to the tobacco material present in the closed space and a value representative of the measured concentration or of the comparison between the measured concentration and the threshold;
- a management unit arranged to receive data from the data set so as to track the infested tobacco material along a supply chain.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.