Electrical smoking system and method

Abstract

An electrical smoking system comprising a cigarette and an electric lighter, wherein the cigarette comprises a tubular tobacco mat partially filled with material tobacco so as to define a filled tobacco rod portion and an unfilled tobacco rod portion. The cigarette and the lighter are mutually arranged so that when the cigarette is received in the lighter, the electrical heater element of the lighter at least partially superposes at least a portion of the filled tobacco rod portion. The cigarette and the lighter are also mutually arranged so that when the cigarette is received in the lighter, the free end of the cigarette is occluded. The cigarette includes a zone of perforations at a location along the filled tobacco rod portion, with the cigarette being free of perforations along the unfilled tobacco rod portion. An apparatus for perforating a cigarette which can be smoked in an electrical smoking device includes a drum link-up assembly and a laser perforating apparatus. The apparatus can be used in a method of perforating a tobacco rod of the cigarette prior to assembly of the tobacco rod to a filter rod via tipping paper. In the method, a tobacco rod is supplied to the drum link-up assembly wherein the tobacco rod is moved from a combining apparatus to a tipping apparatus which attaches the tobacco rod to a filter rod by tipping paper. In making the cigarettes with a tobacco rod and a filter rod, a combining apparatus forms a continuous tobacco rod which is cut into 2-up tobacco rods.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.