Method for processing reconstituted tobacco

Abstract

A method of processing reconstituted tobacco which reduces the attrition of reconstituted tobacco and increases the capacity of a primary processing facility by bypassing several conventional primary processing steps. This improved process allows reconstituted tobacco to bypass the primary processing steps up through final cut tobacco drying by separately cutting conventional reconstituted tobacco using a tobacco cutting machine. The method also includes the steps of drying reconstituted tobacco in a pre-dryer, forming sheets of reconstituted tobacco, cutting the sheets to a pre-selected width, transferring the sheets of pre-selected width to a primary processing facility, feeding the sheets of pre-selected width to a tobacco cutting machine, the sheets being cut to a pre-selected size, and blending the pre-selected size cut reconstituted tobacco with conventional cut tobacco.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.