Cigarette substitute article and method of making the same
AssigneeR.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
InventorsMickey Lee Smith, Cynthia Stewart Stokes, Ronald Odell Wagoner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cigarette substitute article comprises one or more rod segments made of a gathered web or filamentary tow material in which a flavorant is embedded in liquid or powder form or in a breakable flavorant-containing capsule. The components of the article are designed to be fabricated using conventional cigarette making and cigarette filter making machinery.
Claims11
A smokeless cigarette substitute comprising a filter rod having a transverse cross-sectional area and a longitudinal axis, said rod having two ends and being made of a gathered web or filamentary tow extending from end to end of said rod and across the entire transverse cross-sectional area of said rod, said rod having a length greater than about 40 mm and being overwrapped with paper, a flavorant disposed in direct contact with said web or tow only along the axis of said rod and between the ends thereof, said flavorant being in the form of a liquid or powder injected along the axis of said rod, the transverse cross-sectional area of the flavorant being substantially smaller than the transverse cross-sectional area of the rod and confined to a central portion of the transverse cross-sectional area of the rod such that said flavorant is in non-contacting relation with the paper overwrapping the rod, said flavorant being selected from the group consisting of peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, menthol, cinnamon, chocolate, coffee and vanillin.
A method of making a smokeless cigarette substitute article comprising the steps of:
- forming a continuous rod of a gathered web or filamentary tow material on a cigarette filter rod maker having a garniture, said rod having a longitudinal axis and a cross-sectional area, the gathered web or filamentary tow material extending across the entire cross-sectional area of said rod;
- continuously injecting a flavorant in the form of a liquid or a powder into said rod at the garniture of said maker, said flavorant being injected only along the longitudinal axis of said rod such that said flavorant is confined to a central portion of said rod and is in direct contact with the web or tow material, said flavorant being selected from the group consisting of peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen, menthol, cinnamon, chocolate, coffee and vanillin;
- overwrapping said rod with a paper wrap at said garniture such that said paper wrap is in non-contacting relation with said flavorant;
- cutting said continuous rod into individual cigarette substitute rods of a predetermined length in the range of 40 mm to 120 mm such that the injected flavorant extends from end to end of each individual rod;
- and
- packing said individual cigarette substitute rods in a package.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.