Device and method for eliminating cigar wrapper color

Abstract

The present invention discloses an apparatus and method for eliminating cigar wrapper color variations. The apparatus comprises a steam treatment box and a steam treatment rack placed in the steam treatment box. The steam treatment box has a square cavity structure, a door on the front, and an exhaust valve, a pressure gauge, and a temperature display on the top. The temperature display is connected to a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature within the steam treatment box cavity. A drain valve is provided at the bottom of the steam treatment box, and a steam inlet pipe is provided on the side. The steam treatment rack is used to place tobacco rods, and comprises an upper hanging rack, a middle hanging rack, and a bottom rack. The upper hanging rack, the middle hanging rack, and the bottom rack are all square frame structures made of pipes. The present invention provides an apparatus and method for eliminating cigar wrapper color variations. Cigar wrapper tobacco leaves that have good field growth and high quality but contain color variations due to air-drying can be concentratedly treated with high-temperature, high-humidity steam to completely eliminate the color variations.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of cigar tobacco leaf airing, and in particular to a device and a method for eliminating cigar wrapper color variations. Background Art

[0002] Cigars are primarily composed of a wrapper, a binder, and a filler. The wrapper, the tobacco leaf that wraps the outermost layer of the cigarette, provides both wrapping and aesthetics, while also harmonizing the aroma and improving combustion. The quality of the wrapper determines the quality of the cigarette.

[0003] The first quality requirement of cigar industry enterprises for wrapper tobacco is that the leaves are complete and the appearance color must be uniform. No matter how good the other quality indicators of variegated tobacco leaves are, they have no use value.

[0004] Cigar tobacco is a type of air-cured tobacco. This process involves hanging fresh tobacco leaves in a dedicated air-curing room, where they gradually change color from green to yellow and brown under natural temperature and humidity conditions, and then slowly dry. During this air-curing process, a series of physical changes, physiological metabolic reactions, and biochemical reactions occur within the tobacco leaves, including pigment metabolism, water metabolism, carbon metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, and various redox reactions. Cigar tobacco air-curing is completely dependent on atmospheric temperature and humidity. Despite efforts to control the air-curing room's temperature and humidity through various methods, such as opening and closing doors and windows, using exhaust fans, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers, the quality of the air-cured tobacco leaves remains unsatisfactory due to the variability and uncontrollability of natural temperature and humidity, as well as the complexities of tobacco leaf physiology and biochemistry. Green spots, green flakes, and yellow-brown discolorations still occur frequently and are difficult to eliminate.

[0005] Internationally, high-quality cigar producers are primarily concentrated in Caribbean countries like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Honduras, as well as in Asia like Indonesia and the Philippines, and Connecticut in the United States. These countries have an oceanic climate, and cigar tobacco leaves are typically cured during or near the rainy season. This climate is characterized by frequent but light rainfall, high humidity, and strong air movement. The resulting cigars are generally of high quality, with Cuban leaves being particularly popular among both industrial companies and consumers. Cuban tobacco also has a small amount of "blue spots" (or "green specks"), which consumers often consider specialty tobacco. However, leaves from other countries must undergo special treatment to eliminate these spots before they can be purchased.

[0006] Cigar tobacco production in China is relatively new, especially for wrapper leaves, which are just getting started. Each producing region is still in the process of exploring, accumulating, and improving the natural temperature and humidity conditions during tobacco leaf curing, the air-drying facilities, and the curing processes and experience. Consequently, a certain percentage of unsuitable leaves suffer from "green spots, blue dots, blue flakes," and other color variations, which seriously impact farmers' income and enthusiasm for growing tobacco. To address this problem, the usual approach is to extend the curing time and increase the relative humidity in the later stages of curing, using a "dry-wet cycle" to improve color uniformity. However, this has little effect on the "green spots, blue dots, and blue flakes," only slightly fading them. Secondly, after the tobacco leaves are purchased, during the centralized fermentation stage, increasing the moisture content and fermentation temperature promotes further deepening and improving color uniformity, but the "green spots, blue dots, and blue flakes" remain persistent. Summary of the Invention

[0007] In order to overcome the deficiencies of the above-mentioned prior art, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for eliminating the variegation of cigar wrappers. The wrapper tobacco leaves that grow well in the field and have high quality but contain variegated spots due to air-drying can be concentratedly treated with steam at high temperature and high humidity to completely eliminate the variegated spots.

[0008] The present invention is achieved through the following technical solutions:

[0009] A device for removing color from cigar wrappers, comprising a steam treatment box and a steam treatment rack placed in the steam treatment box; the steam treatment box is a square cavity structure, with a box door on the front; an exhaust valve, a pressure gauge and a temperature display are provided on the top of the steam treatment box; the temperature display is connected to a temperature sensor, and the temperature sensor is used to sense the temperature in the inner cavity of the steam treatment box; a drain valve is provided at the bottom of the steam treatment box, and a steam inlet pipe is provided on the side; the steam treatment rack is used to place cigarette rods, and comprises an upper cigarette hanging rack, a middle cigarette hanging rack and a bottom rack; the upper cigarette hanging rack, the middle cigarette hanging rack and the bottom rack are all provided with a plurality of It is a square frame structure composed of pipes; the upper tobacco hanging rack, the middle tobacco hanging rack and the bottom rack are connected and fixed by vertical connecting rods; its beneficial effects are: the equipment forms a closed space, and the exhaust valve, pressure gauge and temperature display provided on the equipment can perform controllable high-temperature and high-humidity treatment on the tobacco leaves after the steam is introduced, so that the mottled spots in the inferior tobacco leaves are completely eliminated, which can greatly improve their quality and generate higher economic value; the steam treatment rack is provided with a double-layer tobacco hanging rack, and the tobacco rods can be placed on the upper tobacco hanging rack and the middle tobacco hanging rack, which enhances the space utilization rate and can simultaneously perform operations to increase the efficiency of tobacco processing.

[0010] Preferably, the inner wall of the steam treatment box is paved with an inner wooden board; its beneficial effect is that the wooden structure has strong water absorption, which can effectively reduce the condensation water droplets on the inner wall of the box after adding steam, affecting the color elimination effect of the tobacco leaves.

[0011] Preferably, a steam uniform plate is provided on the bottom frame, and a plurality of air holes are evenly distributed on the steam uniform plate; the beneficial effect is that the steam can more evenly perform high-temperature and high-humidity treatment on the tobacco leaves in each area after entering the box.

[0012] Preferably, an observation window is provided on the side of the steam treatment box; the beneficial effect of this is that it facilitates more intuitive observation of changes in tobacco leaves.

[0013] Preferably, a high-temperature resistant sealing strip is provided on the inner side of the door, which has the beneficial effect of enhancing the sealing of the door and preventing steam from escaping.

[0014] Preferably, the steam treatment box is provided with a latch hole, in which a latch is provided for fixing the box door; its beneficial effects are: simple structure, low production cost, and reliable guarantee of the airtightness of the box door and safety in a high-pressure environment.

[0015] Preferably, the air inlet pipe is provided with several branch pipes, which are connected to the bottom of the steam treatment box, and the pipe openings of the branch pipes extend to the inner cavity of the steam treatment box; the beneficial effect is that the air inlet pipe is divided into multiple outlets, and steam can be added from multiple parts of the box at the same time, so that the steam can be quickly and evenly distributed in the box, ensuring that the tobacco leaves are in the same high temperature and high humidity environment.

[0016] Preferably, a first sliding wheel is provided at the lower end of the base frame; a second sliding wheel is provided at the bottom of the steam treatment box; the beneficial effect is that the movement of the steam treatment box and the steam treatment frame is facilitated, and the labor intensity of workers is reduced.

[0017] Furthermore, the distance between the upper cigarette hanging rack, the middle cigarette hanging rack and the bottom rack is 60-70 cm, which has the beneficial effect of reasonably designing the height between the cigarette hanging racks according to the size of the tobacco leaves, which can greatly improve the space utilization rate and enable the equipment to achieve more tobacco leaf processing capacity in a limited space.

[0018] A method for removing cigar wrapper color: using any of the above-mentioned devices for removing cigar wrapper color, the steps include: first, braiding the tobacco leaves with color after the drying process, and hanging them on the tobacco rods, with the distance between each tobacco leaf between 2CM-3CM; second, placing the tobacco rods on the steam treatment rack, and placing the steam treatment rack in the steam treatment box; third, connecting the steam inlet pipe of the steam treatment box with the steam generator through a pipeline; fourth, turning on the steam generator to allow steam to enter the steam treatment box, and when the temperature in the steam treatment box reaches 80-90℃, adjusting the switch value of the exhaust valve to make The temperature in the steam treatment box is maintained at 80-90℃; Step 5, wait for 90-120 minutes, then take out the steam treatment rack, remove the tobacco stems, and transfer them to the drying room for natural drying; Step 6, after the tobacco leaves have been naturally dried for 5-10 days, they are taken off the rack for humidification and rehumidification to restore the moisture content of the tobacco leaves to 28-30%, and they are selected, sorted, flattened, and dried again; Step 7, when the moisture content of the tobacco leaves drops to 25-26%, tobacco leaves of the same color are piled together for fermentation; Step 8, when the fermentation temperature reaches 45℃, they are turned over and pushed, and fermented again; Step 9, after repeated turning and fermentation 2-3 times, they are aged.

[0019] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are: 1. The equipment has a simple structure, low production cost and easy operation; 2. The design of the inner wooden board can effectively reduce the phenomenon of condensed water appearing on the inner wall of the box after adding steam, thereby reducing the influence of condensed water on the color elimination effect of tobacco leaves; 3. The closed space formed by the equipment can subject the tobacco leaves to controllable steam high temperature and high humidity treatment, so that the color patches in inferior tobacco leaves are completely eliminated, which can greatly improve the quality of tobacco leaves and generate higher economic value; 4. The tobacco leaves treated with the equipment and method have greatly reduced bad smells, nicotine content, irritation, etc., which reduces the difficulty of fermentation and shortens the fermentation cycle. After moderate fermentation and aging, the color of the tobacco leaves is further pure, the taste is more mellow, and the quality is better. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] Figure 1 This is a structural diagram of the steam treatment box described in Example 1;

[0021] Figure 2 This is a structural diagram of the steam treatment rack described in Example 1;

[0022] In the figure: 1. Steam treatment rack; 2. Upper smoke hanging rack; 3. Middle smoke hanging rack; 4. Bottom rack; 5. Steam equalizer; 6. First sliding wheel; 7. Steam treatment box; 8. Treatment box frame; 9. Inner wooden board; 10. Sealing steel plate outside the box; 11. Box door; 12. Latch hole; 13. Temperature display; 14. Exhaust valve; 15. Pressure gauge; 16. Observation window; 17. Steam inlet pipe; 18. Drain valve; 19. Second sliding wheel. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions of various embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making any creative efforts are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0024] Example 1

[0025] like Figures 1-2 As shown, a device for eliminating the color of cigar wrappers includes a device for eliminating the color of cigar wrappers, the device including a steam treatment box 7 and a steam treatment rack 1 placed in the steam treatment box 7; the steam treatment box 7 is a square cavity structure, and a box door 11 is provided on the front; the top of the steam treatment box 7 is provided with an exhaust valve 14, a pressure gauge 15 and a temperature display 13; the temperature display 13 is connected to a temperature sensor, and the temperature sensor is used to sense the temperature in the inner cavity of the steam treatment box 7; the bottom of the steam treatment box 7 is provided with a drain valve 18, and the side is provided with an air intake pipe 17; the steam treatment rack 1 is a frame structure for placing cigarette rods; it includes an upper cigarette hanging rack 2, a middle cigarette hanging rack 3 and a bottom rack 4; the upper cigarette hanging rack 2, the middle cigarette hanging rack 3 and the bottom rack 4 are all square frame structures composed of pipes; the upper cigarette hanging rack 2, the middle cigarette hanging rack 3 and the bottom rack 4 are fixed by welding with vertical connecting rods.

[0026] Among them, the cigarette rod is a wooden pipe with a length of 140 cm; the steam treatment box 7 is composed of a treatment box frame 8, an inner wooden board 9, a sealing steel plate 10 outside the box, a box door 11, a latch hole 12, a temperature display 13, an exhaust valve 14, a pressure gauge 15, an observation window 16, a steam inlet pipe 17, a drain valve 18, and a second sliding wheel 19. During the production process, the stainless steel square tube is first welded to the treatment box frame 8, and the inner wooden board 9 with strong hygroscopicity is fixed on the inside of the treatment box frame 8. The wooden material has strong hygroscopicity, which avoids the box wall from being hygroscopic after the steam is added. Condensed water droplets; a layer of stainless steel outer sealing steel plate 10 is wrapped on the outside of the processing box frame 8; then, a box door 11 is set at one end of the steam processing box, and a box door latch hole 12 is set at the upper and lower box openings at one end of the steam processing box 7 box body for installing the latch; a temperature display 13, an exhaust valve 14, and a pressure gauge 15 are respectively placed on the top surface of the steam processing box 7 box body, an observation window 16 is placed on the upper side of the steam processing box 7 box body, and a steam inlet pipe 17 is placed at the lower side of the steam processing box 7; a bottom plate is placed on the bottom surface of the steam processing box 7 box body A drain valve 18 is provided, and four second sliding wheels 19 are provided under the bottom plate of the steam treatment box 7; the volume of the steam treatment rack 1 is slightly smaller than the empty volume inside the steam treatment box 7, and includes an upper hanging cigarette rack 2, a middle hanging cigarette rack 3 and a bottom rack 4; the upper hanging cigarette rack 2, the middle hanging cigarette rack 3 and the bottom rack 4 are all square and are square frame structures welded by stainless steel pipe fittings, with a spacing of 60 cm between them, and the bottom rack 4 is provided with a first sliding wheel 6, which is 15 cm high from the bottom rack; the length and width of the upper hanging cigarette rack 2 and the middle hanging cigarette rack 3 are close to the empty volume inside the steam treatment box. The length and width of the base frame 4 are 1 / 2 of the width of the upper hanging smoke rack 2 and the middle hanging smoke rack 3; a steam uniform flow plate 5 is provided on the base frame 4, and the material is stainless steel plate. The length and width are close to the length and width of the space inside the steam treatment box 7, and there are mesh-shaped air holes on the steam uniform flow plate 5; the steam generator is a small fully automatic electric steam generator with a power of 3KW, a steam volume of 4kg / h, and a steam pressure of 0.3Mpa. The steam generator and the steam treatment box are separated by a brick wall, the wall is punched, and the two are connected with a high-temperature and high-pressure resistant special pipe.

[0027] Example 2

[0028] A method for removing cigar wrapper color, using the device for removing cigar wrapper color in the above embodiment, specifically comprising the following steps: first, firstly, drying the wrapper tobacco leaves containing "blue spots, blue dots, blue flakes" or other variegated colors and collectively braiding them, mainly by using a thin thread or iron wire to pass through the tobacco stems and hang them on the tobacco rods; the distance between the tobacco leaves is between 2cm and 3cm, and the total number of tobacco leaves depends on the capacity of the steam treatment box 7 and the power of the steam generator; secondly, placing the tobacco rods covered with tobacco leaves on the steam treatment rack 1, and pushing the steam treatment rack 1 into the steam treatment box 7, and closing the box door; thirdly, connecting the steam inlet pipe 17 of the steam treatment box 7 to the steam generator through a pipeline The fourth step is to open the exhaust valve 14 located in the center of the top surface of the steam treatment box 7 before starting the steam generator. After starting the steam generator, the hot steam quickly squeezes out the cold air in the steam treatment box 7. When the cold air is completely eliminated and the steam is ejected for 10 minutes, the exhaust valve 14 is closed. At this time, steam is injected into the steam treatment box 7. When the temperature in the box reaches 80-90°C, the steam treatment rack 1 is pushed out after stabilizing for 90-120 minutes. During this period, when the pressure gauge 15 located in the center of the top surface of the steam treatment box 7 is greater than 0.3 MPa, the exhaust valve 14 located in the center of the top surface of the steam treatment box 7 must be opened to exhaust and reduce pressure. When the temperature display 13 located in the center of the top surface of the steam treatment box 7 reaches 8 When the temperature is above 0°C, open the drain valve 18 on the bottom plate of the steam treatment box 7 to remove condensed water in the box and reduce the temperature and pressure in the box. If necessary, open the exhaust valve 14 and the drain valve 18 simultaneously or alternately to reduce the temperature and pressure in the box; observe the changes of the tobacco leaves in the box through the observation window 16 located on the upper side of the steam treatment box 7 to decide whether to process for a certain length of time; the fifth step is to wait for the temperature in the box to stabilize for 90-120 minutes and the changes of the tobacco leaves reach the expected state, turn off the steam generator, open the exhaust valve 14 and the drain valve 18 until there is no steam overflowing. When the temperature of the temperature display 13 drops below 60°C, pull out the door latch and open the door from the back of the door. The staff will quickly Evacuate quickly to avoid high temperature burns; when the temperature drops below 40°C, push out the steam treatment rack 1, remove the tobacco stems, hang them in a ventilated and cool place for 1-2 days to air-dry the water droplets on the surface of the tobacco leaves; Step 6, transfer the tobacco stems to the drying room, with a distance of 20 cm between the tobacco stems, open the doors and windows, and dry them naturally for 5-10 days. When the main veins are completely dry, humidify and rehumidify the tobacco leaves to restore the moisture content to 28-30%. Immediately remove them from the shelves, flatten them one by one, select and grade them; Step 7, when the moisture content of the tobacco leaves drops to 25-26%, stack and ferment the tobacco leaves of the same color; Step 8, turn the pile when the fermentation temperature reaches 45°C and ferment again. Step 9, after repeatedly turning and fermenting the pile 2-3 times, stop fermentation and carry out aging treatment.

[0029] In this example, three consecutive steam treatments, each treating 50 kg, resulted in the complete final grade of variegated tobacco. After treatment, the tobacco leaves were air-dried and graded, resulting in a zero percentage of final grade tobacco, complete elimination of variegated tobacco, and an average of 72.20% of leaves with uniform light brown, brown, and dark brown colors, with a relatively uniform percentage reaching 27.80%. After moderate fermentation using appropriate fermentation techniques, the average percentage of leaves with uniform color reached 96.42%, with a relatively uniform percentage reaching 13.58%. Furthermore, the color of the leaves deepened considerably, with a significant decrease in the proportion of light brown leaves and a significant increase in the proportion of brown and dark brown leaves.

[0030] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that they can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments, or replace some or all of the technical features therein with equivalents. However, these modifications or replacements do not deviate the essence of the corresponding technical solutions from the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for removing cigar wrapper color, characterized in that: include: A device for removing cigar wrapper color, comprising a steam treatment box (7) and a steam treatment rack (1) placed in the steam treatment box (7); the steam treatment box (7) is a square cavity structure, and a box door (11) is provided on the front; an exhaust valve (14), a pressure gauge (15) and a temperature display (13) are provided on the top of the steam treatment box (7); the temperature display (13) is connected to a temperature sensor, and the temperature sensor is used to sense the temperature in the inner cavity of the steam treatment box (7); a drain valve (18) is provided at the bottom of the steam treatment box (7). A steam inlet pipe (17) is provided on the side; the steam treatment rack (1) is used to place cigarette rods, and includes an upper cigarette hanging rack (2), a middle cigarette hanging rack (3) and a bottom rack (4); the upper cigarette hanging rack (2), the middle cigarette hanging rack (3) and the bottom rack (4) are all square frame structures composed of pipes; the upper cigarette hanging rack (2), the middle cigarette hanging rack (3) and the bottom rack (4) are connected by vertical connecting rods, the inner wall of the steam treatment box (7) is paved with an inner wooden board (9), and the bottom rack (4) is provided with a steam uniform plate, and the steam uniform plate is evenly distributed with a plurality of air holes; An observation window (16) is provided on the side of the steam treatment box (7); A high-temperature resistant sealing strip is provided on the inner side of the box door (11); The steam treatment box (7) is provided with a latch hole (12), and a latch is provided in the latch hole (12) for fixing the box door (11); The steam inlet pipe (17) is provided with a plurality of branch pipes, the branch pipes are connected to the bottom of the steam treatment box (7), and the pipe openings of the branch pipes extend to the inner cavity of the steam treatment box (7); A first sliding wheel (6) is provided at the lower end of the base frame (4); a second sliding wheel (19) is provided at the bottom of the steam treatment box (7); The method for removing cigar wrapper color variation according to the device for removing cigar wrapper color variation comprises the following steps: The first step is to braid the tobacco leaves that have completed the drying process and contain different colors and hang them on the tobacco stems, with the distance between each tobacco leaf being between 2cm-3cm; The second step is to place the cigarette holder on the steam treatment rack (1), and then place the steam treatment rack (1) into the steam treatment box (7); The third step is to connect the steam inlet pipe (17) of the steam treatment box (7) to the steam generator through a pipeline; The fourth step is to start the steam generator to allow steam to enter the steam treatment box (7). When the temperature in the steam treatment box (7) reaches 80-90°C, adjust the switch value of the exhaust valve (14) to keep the temperature in the steam treatment box (7) at 80-90°C. Step 5: After waiting for 90-120 minutes, remove the steam treatment rack (1), remove the tobacco stems, and transfer them to the airing room for natural drying; Step 6: After the tobacco leaves have been naturally air-dried for 5-10 days, they are removed from the shelves and humidified to restore the moisture content of the tobacco leaves to 28-30%. The leaves are then sorted and flattened one by one and air-dried again. Step 7: When the moisture content of the tobacco leaves drops to 25-26%, the tobacco leaves of the same color are piled together for fermentation; Step 8: When the fermentation temperature reaches 45°C, turn the compost over and ferment again; The ninth step is to turn the pile over and ferment it 2-3 times before aging.

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