Door assembly for a tobacco storage facilty, and associated apparatus and method

Abstract

An apparatus and associated method are provided for protecting a tobacco storage facility used to contain tobacco material. The tobacco storage facility includes a tobacco enclosure defining at least one enclosure opening for providing access to the tobacco enclosure. A door assembly is operably engaged with the tobacco enclosure about the at least one enclosure opening. The door assembly includes a screen arrangement having a mesh sized to limit tobacco pests from passing therethrough. The door assembly is configured such that the screen arrangement is capable of moving between a closed position covering the tobacco enclosure and an open position allowing access to the tobacco enclosure. A method of monitoring pests in a tobacco enclosure is provided. The interior of the tobacco enclosure is monitored for pests using a monitoring system. At least a portion of the interior is fumigated if the number of detected pests meets or otherwise exceeds a predetermined pest threshold.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.