US3185162A - Process for making reconstituted sheet tobacco - Google Patents

Description

PROCESS FOR MAKING RECONSTITUTED SHEET TOBACCO Joseph Vincent Flore, Fairfield, Conn., Harry Allison Hooper, Larchmont, N.Y., and Matthew Sailee Monte,

Stratford, Raymond Joseph Moshy, Westport, and Otto Karl Schmidt, Springdale, Conn., assignors to American Machine & Foundry Company, a corporation of New Jersey Filed Dec. 5, 1960, Ser. No. 73,562

No Drawing.

1 Claim. (Cl. 131140) This invention relates in general to tobacco processing and, more particularly, to coated reconstituted tobacco sheet.

Tobacco sheet may be made by depositing a thin layer of an aqueous or other suspension of finely-divided tobacco and a suitable binder on a flat surface. The thin layer is then dried and removed from the surface as tobacco sheet.

If such tobacco sheet is used as a cigar wrapper, it should exhibit all the features of a natural tobacco leaf cigar wrapper such as good color and sheen, a natural feel, no stickiness in the mouth, no unusual or bitter flavor characteristics, good burn aroma and taste, and a good burn rate, as well as water resistance. Although tobacco sheet yields a better performance than natural leaf on cigarmaking machines because it has more uniform physical characteristics than do varied natural tobacco leaves, heretofore some tobacco sheet has lacked the aforementioned desired properties.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide tobacco sheets, which may be used for cigar wrappers and in other smoking articles, which look, feel and taste like natural tobacco leaf.

This and other objects, advantages and features of invention will become apparent from the following description.

The invention relates to coating manufactured tobacco sheets with a thin layer of protective material on either one or both sides. It may be used on sheets made by a paper-making process, a process where dust is adhered to a sticky film or where dust is mixed with a binder. When the coating is hydrophobic there is a marked increase in resistance to moisture penetration. When coated on both sides, the sheet is waterproof.

Clearly a coating must have more than useful physical properties. It must not be noxious or toxic in the amounts used; it must have an acceptable taste and appearance and not detract from the tobacco character of a smoking article. Moreover, the coating material and method must be easy and practical to use with delicate tobacco material.

Many tobacco sheets have been made from water soluble adhesives which are limited in use by a tendency to disintegrate in the mouth. Mouth pieces have been used to overcome this and reinforcing tapes have also been used. However, a flexible, non-brittle coating is a far more elegant solution to this problem.

When the sheet is used as a wrapper on a cigar, for example, the coating is preferably used on the surface of the sheet which is outermost on the smoking article. Both sides of the sheet may be coated when protection against chewing a desired. Also, several successive layers of coating material may be appplied to the sheet, and in particular to the area at the mouth end of a smoking article. Coating may be applied in the course of sheet manufacture or on the finished smoking article.

The invention particularly concerns making a moisture resistant tobacco product and includes or comprises forming a sheet of tobacco by mixing a major proportion by weight of finely divided tobacco With a minor proportion by weight of water soluble adhesive, such as a 3,185,162 Patented May 25, 1965 ice cellulose ether, e.g., ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose, in aqueous solution and drying the sheet so formed. Thereafter the improvement consists of coating the surface of the dried sheet witha solution of ethyl cellulose and iinally drying the coating to produce a thin, flexible surface coating which protects the water soluble adhesive and the tobacco from attack and degradation by external moisture and is compatible with the smoking quality of the tobacco product. i

7 Example 0.5 part locust beam gum is added slowly, with agitation, to a 2.5% suspension of 1 part of highly refined sulfite pulp in water and agitation is continued until solution is complete. To the resulting dispersion is added, with stirring, 0.75 part diethylene glycol humectant, 0.5 part dialdehyde starch wet strength agent (as a 10% solution), 0.7 part diatomaceous earth and 6 parts tobacco dust (screen through mesh) which has been prewetted with water (1 part tobacco to 2 parts Water). Finally, 0.5 part ethyl hydroxyethyl cellulose adhesive are blended in carefully and the total solids adjusted to 10%. The resulting dispersion is cast on a moving stainless steel belt. The sheet on the belt is dried and then coated with an alcoholic solution of ethyl cellulose and the coating dried.

Since a coating which is hydrophilic will tend to remove moisture from the lips of a smoker and then cause a coated tobacco sheet wrapper to tend to stick to the lips as does a'cigarette paper, a hydrophobic coating on the sheet which may be used is ethyl-cellulose. This may be applied in either an alcoholic solution or as an aqueous emulsion.

What is claimed is:

In the process of making a moisture resistant tobacco product comprising the steps of:

(A) forming a sheet of tobacco by mixing a major proportion of finely divided tobacco by weight with a minor proportion by weight of water soluble adhesive in aqueous solution and (B) drying said sheet, the improvement consisting of the steps of (I) coating the surface of said dried sheet with a solution of ethyl cellulose, and (II) finally drying the coating on the sheet to produce a thin, flexible surface coating which (a) protects the water soluble adhesive and the tobacco from attack and degradation by external moisture and (b) is compatible with the smoking quality of the tobacco product.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 126,698 5/72 Harris 131-12 X 303,493 8/84 .Culp 131-12X 864,948 9/07 Butler 13112 1,338,827 5/20 Goodfellow 131-17 1,671,182 5/28 Eberlein 13l-12 1,750,835 3/30 Chamberlain 68244 2,158,565 5/39 Andrews 13l17 2,443,221 6/48 Burgstein 117--l58 X 2,613,672 10/52 Sartoretto et a1. 13117 2,613,673 10/52 Sartoretto et al. 131l7 2,708,175 5/55 Samfield et al 131-l7 2,734,509 2/ 56 lurgensen 131-17 2,734,510 2/56 Hungerford et a1. 13117 2,734,513 2/56 Hungerford et a1. 2,769,734 11/56 Handel 13l17 2,797,689 5/57 Frankenburg 13l--l7 (References on following page) 3 i o 4 Detert 131140 FOREIGN PATENTS samfield et a1 131--140 Ro e g e a fir-- 131*17 1,451 1882 Great Britain. Carmellini et a1 131 17 OTHER REFERENCES C0 1ton 131 140 5 The Condensed Chemical Dictionary, pages 28 and Phll -2 131-140 451; published 1956 by Reinhold Publishing Corp., New Howard 131-17 k 7 Rosenberg 131-140 Rosenbsrg et a 4 131 17 ABRAHAM G. STONE, Puma) Exammer. Detert eta1. 13117 10, F. RAY CHAPPELL, Examiner.