PROCEDURE FOR ASSEMBLY OF CIGARETTES

METHODE DE CONFECTION DE CIGARETTES

English Abstract

"Roll-your-own" cigarette are made in a
conventional roller device from a charge of tobacco and
a paper wrapper. The charge of tobacco is
pre-proportioned by enclosing it in a tubular wrapper, which
has abutting ends to define a radically-extending strip,
thereby providing the charge of tobacco in a novel
cartridge form. The tobacco cartridge is placed in the
rolling device, the strip torn off and the rollers
rolled to eject the remainder of the paper wrapper. The
tobacco charge then is ready to receive the cigarette
paper in conventional manner.

French Abstract

Cigarettes maison fabriquées dans une machine à rouler ordinaire à partir d'une quantité de tabac et d'un emballage papier. La quantité de tabac est mesurée à l'avance en l'insérant dans un emballage tubulaire, dont les extrémités aboutées définissent une longue bande, fournissant ainsi la quantité de tabac dans une nouvelle forme de cartouche. La cartouche de tabac est placée dans la machine à rouler, la bande déchirée et les rouleaux roulés pour expulser le restant de l'emballage papier. La quantité de tabac est alors prête à recevoir le papier à cigarettes d'une manière conventionnelle.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive
property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
1. A tobacco cartridge useful for forming self-made
cigarettes, comprising:
an elongate tobacco filler rod, and
an elongate tubular paper wrapper surrounding and
enclosing said filler rod and having circumferential
ends thereof abutting and joined together to form an
elongate strip.
2. The cartridge of claim 1, wherein said tobacco
filler rod contains a charge of tobacco corresponding to
a quantity desired in a finished cigarette.
3. The cartridge of claim 1, wherein said tobacco
filler rod contains a charge of tobacco corresponding to
a multiple of a quantity desired in a finished
cigarette.
4. The cartridge of claim 1, wherein said elongate
strip extends generally radially from said cartridge.
5. The cartridge of claim 4, wherein said abutting
circumferential ends are adhered continuously along
their abutment.
6. The cartridge of claim 4, wherein said abutting
circumferential ends are adhered at longitudinally-displaced
locations along their abutment.
7. The tobacco cartridge of claim 1, wherein the
filler rod is lightly compressed within the elongate
wrapper.
8. The tobacco cartridge of claim 1, wherein said
elongate wrapper is a conventional cigarette paper.
9. The tobacco cartridge of claim 8 including means
associated with the paper strip to permit the paper
strip to be removed from the remainder of the wrapper.
10. The tobacco cartridge of claim 9, wherein said
removal means comprises a tear strip.
11. In a method of self-making cigarette wherein a
charge of cut tobacco is loaded onto a rolling device
comprising an endless belt and a pair of rollers located

within the belt and a cigarette wrapping paper is fed
between a nip formed by the rollers to wrap and enclose
the charge of cut tobacco to form a cigarette, the
improvement which comprises:
providing said charge of cut tobacco in the form of
a tobacco cartridge comprising an elongate tobacco
filler rod and an elongate tubular paper wrapper
surrounding and enclosing said filler rod and having
circumferential ends thereof abutting and joined
together to form an elongate strip,
positioning said tobacco cartridge in said rolling
device with said strip protruding through the nip
between the rollers, and
removing the strip to separate the ends of the
wrapper and rolling the rollers to eject residual
wrapper, to provide said cut tobacco charge in said
rolling device.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein said tobacco
cartridge is of a length corresponding to a quantity of
tobacco desired in a finished cigarette.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein said tobacco
cartridge is of a length corresponding to a multiple of
the quantity of tobacco desired in a finished cigarette,
and individual lengths are severed from the resulting
cigarette.
14. The method of claim 12 or 13 including assembling
the cigarette with a filter.

Description

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"Butler II"
PRO OEDURE FOR ASSEMBLY OF CIGAKh~
The present invention is directed to the assembly
of cigarettes by individuals.
The assembly of cigarettes by the consumer has
been known in various forms for a long time. One of the
simplest procedures involves placing a charge of tobacco
on a cigarette paper and then rolling it into a rod and
sealing it. This procedure requires a degree of manual
skill and is time consuming.
The procedure has been improved by a simple roller
device comprising an endless belt and a pair of rollers
mounted in a frame and within the endless belt. The
rollers may be spaced apart to permit a charge of
tobacco to be placed in a channel formed in the belt
between the rollers. The rollers then are brought
together to form a cavity in which the charge of tobacco
is located.
The rollers are rolled to roll the tobacco charge
into a rod and then a cigarette paper is introduced
between the rollers and rolled into the cavity to
- surround the rod, with the glue lap on the overlapping
edge being moistened before entering the cavity to form
the paper tube surrounding the tobacco charge.
one of the appeals of "roll-your-own" cigarettes is
the lower cost of the resulting cigarette, since tobacco
sold in loose form or some other inherently-unsmokeable
form attracts a much lower excise tax than tobacco sold
in the form of ready-to-smoke cigarettes in many
jurisdictions, so that the cost to the smoker of the
self-assembled cigarette is much lower than machine-
assembled cigarettes.
One of the problems that the individual assembly of
cigarettes encounters is obtaining a consistency in the
quantity of the tobacco charge employed and hence
obtaining a consistency in smoking quality.
In accordance with the present invention, a novel
form of tobacco cartridge is provided which permits a

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novel procedure to be provided for the assembly of
"roll-your-own" cigarettes. The present invention
utilizes a conventional roller device of the type
described above in combination with such novel tobacco
cartridge in such novel procedure.
In accordance with one aspect of the present
invention, there is provided a novel tobacco cartridge
comprising a tobacco charge, generally corresponding to
the quantity desired in the finished cigarette, or a
multiple thereof, preferably only lightly compressed,
wrapped within an elongate tubular paper wrapper,
usually conventional cigarette paper. The
circumferential ends of the tubular wrapper are abutted
and joined together to form an elongate strip.
This tobacco cartridge construction enables a
measured or pre-proportioned quantity of tobacco to be
incorporated into a cigarette, in the manner described
below,'for a more uniform smoking quality.
The tobacco cartridge may be made on a
conventional cigarette-making machine with suitable
modifications to the wrapping procedure to result in the
abutted ends, rather than conventional overlapping ends.
Hence, instead of the paper ends overlapping, as
in the conventional cigarette, the ends of the paper
wrapper abut one another and are glued together along
their abul ~nt, either by a continuous glue line or by a
number of glue spots, to provide a radially-extending
strip of abutted cigarette paper.
The tobacco cartridge, therefore, is not a true
cigarette and is not normally smokeable in that form, as
a result of the radially-projecting strip, but is suited
to enable cigarettes to be self-assembled.
Some means is provided associated with the paper
strip, such as a tear tape, to permit the paper strip to
be removed in a manner which breaks the glue line and
hence separates the end of the paper wrapper.

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The tobacco cartridge is placed in the conventional
roller device so that the paper strip extends from the
nip between the roller elements. The paper strip then
is torn off, so that the ends of the paper wrapper
thereby are separated from one another. Rolling of the
roller elements then ejects the torn paper wrapper from
the roller device, leaving a tobacco charge of the
correct and desired quantity in the roller device.
The tobacco charge, therefore, replaces the tobacco
charge usually manually positioned by the smoker in the
roller device. A conventional cigarette paper then is
inserted and rolled in a conventional manner, the glue
line moistened and the finished cigarette removed from
the roller device.
Where the cigarette has been formed from a multiple
lengths, for example, a double-length cartridge, the
cigarette may be cut or otherwise divided into a
multiple number of cigarettes of individual conventional
lengths.
The plain-ended cigarettes that result from this
procedure may be provided with a filter by assembly with
the cigarette rod holder described in our copending
Canadian Patent Application Serial No. 2,003,288-0 filed
November 17, 1989. As described therein, a cigarette
rod holder for a "roll-your-own" cigarette may comprise
a conventional cigarette filter plug provided with a
wrapper which extends for a short distance beyond the
plug to provide a recess for receipt of the plain-ended
cigarette. The tube may be of a length sufficient to
hold ~he cigarette.
Alternatively, a length of filter material may be
positioned in abutment with the filler rod in the
roller device, and a length of cigarette paper
sufficient to encompass the filler rod and filter
element.

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The advantage that this procedure offers over the
conventional "roll-your-own~ operation employing the
conventional cigarette roller is that the charge of
tobacco positioned in the roller and wrapped in the
cigarette paper is predetermined by the quantity of
tobacco in the cartridge and not subject to considerable
variation, as is the case when the roll-your-own smoker
changes the roller from a source of loose cut tobacco.
The smoker, therefore, is able to get consistent smoking
qualities from a roll-your-own cigarette.
In summary of this disclosure, the present
invention provides a novel procedure for the assembly of
cigarettes by individuals using a conventional roller
device which provides to the smoker a more uniform
smoking quality from cigarette to cigarette.
Modifications are possible within the scope of this
invention.