Tobacco moistening and opening apparatus

In an apparatus for premoistening and opening tobacco in bales, comprising means defining a conditioning chamber, horizontal conveyor means for continuously advancing a succession of bales of tobacco towards and into the conditioning chamber, a plurality of tobacco removal means mounted in said conditioning chamber for continuously removing tobacco from the leading face of the bale in the conditioning chamber, and steam impingement means structurally integral with and structurally forming part of said tobacco removal means for impinging steam on said leading face to cause penetration of steam therein, the improvement wherein said tobacco removal means and said steam impingement means are constituted by a steaming doffer comprising:

• an elongate axle member mounted vertically in said conditioning chamber for rotation about its longitudinal axis, said axle member having an elongate bore extending the length thereof for communication with a source of steam,
• a plurality of elongate arm members fixedly mounted in juxtaposed relation on said axle member for rotation therewith, each pair of arm members including one member extending in generally diametrically opposed relation to the other member generally perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of said axle member from an inner extremity at said axle member to an outer extremity,
• each pair of arm members being angularly offset from each adjacent pair of arm members, when viewed in plan, whereby, when viewed in elevation, the outer extremities of the one pair members define a first helix and the outer extremities of other pair members define a second helix,
• each said arm member having a steam-conveying passage associated therewith extending from fluid flow communication with the elongate bore in said axle member to fluid flow communication with a plurality of openings directed coaxially with the arm member at the outer extremity of the arm, whereby a plurality of steam jets may be formed at the arm outer extremity.