Back to results
US 5,964,225 AGranted
Tobacco treatment cylinder and method
AssigneePhilip Morris Incorporated
InventorsRobert S. Blackwell, Roger L. Honaker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tobacco treatment system comprising a rotatable cylinder and a plurality of axially directed flights, with each flight having a forward side and a back side relative to the rotational motion of the cylinder, with both the forward and back sides being concave-open in a direction toward the interior of the cylinder.
Claims7
A tobacco treatment apparatus comprising:
- a rotatable cylinder having an interior wall;
- and
- a flight disposed axially along at least a portion of said interior wall, said flight having a forward portion and a backside portion relative to the rotational motion of said cylinder, both said forward portion and said backside portion being concave toward an inner portion of said cylinder such that said cylinder is essentially free of corner regions between said flight and said interior wall wherein both said forward portion and said backside portion are concave and meet at an apex of sufficient height to carry tobacco along an angular path-portion as said cylinder rotates.
A method of treating tobacco comprising the steps of:
- tumbling tobacco within a rotating cylinder amongst first, second and third flights in succession, each flight having a concave forward portion and a concave backside portion relative to the rotational motion of the cylinder, said concave forward and backside portions being concave toward an inner portion of said cylinder wherein both said forward portion and said backside portion are concave and meet at an apex of sufficient height to carry tobacco along an angular path-portion as said cylinder rotates;
- said tumbling step including the step of wiping said concave backside portion of said third flight with tobacco tumbled from said first flight.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.