A method for dry process of flavoring material

Abstract

The present application belongs to the technical field of new tobacco, and particularly relates to a method for dry-process flavor material conditioning, which specifically comprises the following steps: performing at least three times of filling coating on a sheet base after defibration and forming through a conventional technology, and respectively performing conventional drying, and adding moisture conditioning and calender conditioning processes between two times of filling coating according to set conditions, adding a set proportion of water to the sheet base after filling coating and drying, allowing the sheet base to be rehumidified, and then performing calender conditioning to complete the conditioning of the dry-process flavor material, and a sealing coating process can be additionally added after the last filling coating process, so that the appearance of the sheet base is more compact, and the porosity of the dry-process product can be greatly reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the field of novel tobacco technology, specifically relating to a method for conditioning dry aroma-producing materials. Background Technology

[0002] New tobacco raw materials for tobacco use, compared with traditional tobacco shreds and traditional reconstituted tobacco leaves, have the important characteristics of low-temperature smoking and aroma release and load-bearing capacity. Therefore, they can also be called aroma-producing materials, and their main process mainly draws on traditional sheet technology.

[0003] Tobacco sheets, also known as reconstituted tobacco, reconstituted tobacco, or homogenized tobacco, are mainly composed of tobacco dust, stems, or low-grade tobacco leaves, plus plant fibers, adhesives, and other additives. Furthermore, for reconstituted tobacco used in traditional cigarettes, there are no specific requirements or demands regarding its surface structure beyond standard specifications. Heated cigarettes, as a key research area for new tobacco products, primarily use reconstituted tobacco as a raw material. However, due to their unique structure and smoking requirements, they have specific requirements for reconstituted tobacco, generally requiring a smooth and uniform surface structure, minimal color variation, and moderate density.

[0004] There are four main processing technologies for reconstituted tobacco: wet process, dry process, roller pressing process, and slurry process. Each of these four processes has its own advantages and disadvantages. Currently, the main processing technologies commonly used in heated cigarettes are the dry process, roller pressing process, slurry process, and some improved processing technologies. Among them, the technical requirements for dry reconstituted tobacco are different from those for roller pressing and slurry processes, especially in terms of its surface structure, such as higher air permeability and loose, porous structure.

[0005] Currently, existing technologies mainly focus on the preparation process, but pay less attention to the adjustment of product appearance and quality matching. CN 108464526A defines a pretreatment technology for dry reconstituted tobacco leaves used in heat-not-burning processes, mainly by controlling the calendering before forming and regulating its state by limiting pressure and temperature; CN 109875097 A proposes that samples obtained after calendering before forming heat-not-burning cigarettes show better performance, but does not limit the calendering adjustment during the production process; CN108185503 B is similar to the aforementioned patents, both involving calendering before the agglomeration and forming of dry reconstituted tobacco leaves, but this patent limits the process of the early dry production process.

[0006] Although existing technologies can improve the appearance of dry reconstituted tobacco products to some extent, they have not achieved a more ideal state. Larger pores and some powdering still occur. Most existing technologies are similar to the patents mentioned above, mainly focusing on calendering products before dry reconstituted tobacco is rolled and before heated cigarettes are rolled. There are no pre- or mid-term treatments. At the same time, the appearance of dry reconstituted tobacco is determined by the process. The loose sheet structure combined with the spraying and adhesion method means that the material cannot have strong cohesion and firmly bond with the sheet. Summary of the Invention

[0007] The purpose of this invention is to provide a method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials to solve the problems existing in the background art.

[0008] To achieve the above objectives, this application employs the following technical solution:

[0009] A method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials comprises the following steps:

[0010] S1. Filling and coating are applied to the substrate after fiber debonding and molding, and then the substrate is dried in a conventional manner to obtain the first substrate.

[0011] S2. Based on the set conditions, determine whether a moisture adjustment process is required after step S1. If not, proceed to step S3. If yes, add a set proportion of water to the film base dried in step S1 to allow the film base to rehydrate, then perform calendering and conditioning to obtain the second film base, and then proceed to step S3.

[0012] S3. Fill and coat the first substrate from step S1 or the second substrate from step S2, and then perform conventional drying to obtain the third substrate.

[0013] S4. For the third substrate obtained in step S3, make a judgment. If the third substrate is obtained from the first substrate, perform a moisture adjustment process and proceed to step S5. If the third substrate is obtained from the second substrate, determine whether a moisture adjustment process is required. If not, proceed to step S6. If yes, proceed to step S5.

[0014] S5. Add a set proportion of water to the third film base to allow it to rehydrate, and then perform calendering and conditioning to obtain the fourth film base;

[0015] S6. Fill and coat the third substrate that does not require moisture adjustment in step S4 or the fourth substrate obtained in step S5, and then perform conventional drying to obtain the fifth substrate.

[0016] S7. Repeat steps S4 to S6 until the substrate after defiberization and molding in step S1 is filled and coated, and then dried three or more times in a conventional manner to complete the conditioning of the dry aroma-producing material.

[0017] Furthermore, the powder particle size range in the coating liquid of the filler coating is 75um-180um.

[0018] Furthermore, the filling coating is applied by spray coating.

[0019] Further, in the moisture conditioning process, water mist is applied to maintain the substrate moisture content between 13% and 25%.

[0020] Furthermore, the light-adjusting mode adopts a soft pressing method, combined with a high temperature of 80-130℃.

[0021] Furthermore, the moisture conditioning and calendering processes must be added as an intermediate step between the two filling coating processes.

[0022] Furthermore, a sealing coating process is included after any filling coating process, which is achieved by limiting the powder particles in the coating liquid, with the particle size between 180um and 500um.

[0023] Furthermore, the powder particles are tobacco powder or non-tobacco plant powder.

[0024] The beneficial effects of this invention are:

[0025] 1. This technical solution adopts a combination of filling coating and sealing coating. Starting from adjusting the porosity and density of the substrate, small particles build up the substrate strength and improve adhesion, while large particles seal and block the small pores, further filling the pores and increasing the substrate density, thereby improving the problem of excessive porosity that is common in dry coating.

[0026] 2. Adding moisture adjustment and conditioning settings between the two filling coating processes is mainly to further reduce the pore size and make the substrate more compact. Combined with the other coating methods mentioned above, it can significantly reduce the porosity of dry products and make the appearance more compact. Attached Figure Description

[0027] Figure 1 This is a process flow diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

[0028] Figure 2 This is a process flow diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0029] The technical solution of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments are merely exemplary and can only be used to explain and illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the technical solution of the present invention.

[0030] The conventional dry process mainly consists of three parts: fiber debonding and forming, spraying and drying, and conditioning and winding. Conditioning and winding are mainly carried out after spraying and drying.

[0031] The technical solution of this application is:

[0032] A method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials comprises the following steps:

[0033] S1. A filler coating is applied to the fiber substrate after defiberization and molding, followed by conventional drying to obtain the first fiber substrate. The defiberization and molding process here uses conventional techniques without modification. Therefore, the specific defiberization and molding process parameters are determined by the manufacturer based on actual conditions and do not affect the implementation of the technical solution in this application. In subsequent processes of this application, the specifications and models of the coating liquid used for filler coating are the same. The main focus of the filler coating liquid is controlling the powder particle size range to 75um-180um; the proportion of other auxiliary materials is not limited, and the powder can be tobacco powder or other non-tobacco plant powders. The filler coating method is mainly spray coating, using medium-sized particles to initially fill the fiber substrate, allowing the material to adhere to the substrate. Conventional drying is not limited and depends on specific requirements.

[0034] Repeated coating mainly refers to the fact that the above-mentioned filling coating method can be repeated, such as repeating the filling coating four times or repeating the filling coating three times, but it is limited to at least three times.

[0035] After step S1, settings are made separately according to different processing techniques, which are explained below:

[0036] Example 1

[0037] After obtaining the first substrate in step S1, according to the set conditions, a moisture conditioning process is required after step S1. A certain proportion of water is applied to the first substrate to allow it to rehydrate. Then, the rehydrated first substrate is subjected to calendering and conditioning. In all the following embodiments of this application, the application of moisture is performed after the drying process, and each time the moisture content of the rehydrated substrate is maintained between 13% and 25% before calendering and conditioning. In the technical solution of this application, calendering and conditioning adopts a soft pressing method combined with high temperature. The recommended temperature is 80-130℃. No specific temperature value is given in this embodiment and all subsequent embodiments because this temperature range can meet the requirements of calendering and conditioning, and the impact of low or high temperatures on the overall technical solution of this application is negligible. After this calendering and conditioning process, the second substrate is obtained.

[0038] The second substrate is then subjected to a second filler coating, with the same coating solution, coating method, and amount of coating solution as the first filler coating. After that, it is dried in a conventional manner to obtain the third substrate.

[0039] According to the set conditions, it is determined that the third substrate (the third substrate obtained from the second substrate, hereinafter referred to as the third substrate B) in this embodiment needs to undergo a moisture conditioning process. A certain proportion of water is applied to the third substrate B to allow it to rehydrate. Then, the third substrate B is calendered and tempered. The moisture content and calendering and tempering parameters of the substrate are the same as the process parameters mentioned above, and will not be repeated here. After this calendering and tempering process, the fourth substrate is obtained.

[0040] The fourth substrate was filled with a coating, and the coating solution, coating method, and amount of coating solution were the same as those of the first filling coating. Then, it was dried in a conventional manner to obtain the fifth substrate.

[0041] The fifth substrate is then sealed with a coating to further improve its appearance. The composition of the coating liquid used in the sealing coating and the filling coating is the same, the only difference being the size of the powder particles in the coating liquid. The sealing coating process is mainly to fill small pores, so the particle size of the powder particles is between 180um and 500um, and the powder particles are tobacco powder or other non-tobacco powder.

[0042] In this embodiment and the following embodiments, if a sealing coating is involved, after the final filling coating and drying, the substrate with the sealing coating is dried at a low temperature and then conventionally conditioned and wound up.

[0043] In this embodiment, the fill coating is applied three times. This technical solution can be repeated multiple times, such as four times or three times, but is limited to at least three times. However, because describing each instance individually would result in a large amount of repetition, the following embodiments of this application all use three-times fill coating as an example. However, this does not mean that this technical solution is only suitable for three-times fill coating.

[0044] In the following embodiments, since the coating liquid, conventional drying, water addition, substrate moisture content, calendering temperature, etc. are all largely the same as in Example 1, they will not be described repeatedly in the following embodiments.

[0045] Example 2

[0046] like Figure 1As shown, after obtaining the first substrate in step S1, according to the set conditions, it is determined that no moisture adjustment process is required. Therefore, the first substrate is directly subjected to a second filling coating and then conventional drying to obtain the third substrate A (the third substrate A here is the third substrate obtained by directly performing a second filling coating on the first substrate after drying without moisture adjustment). It is determined that the third substrate A needs a moisture adjustment process, so a set proportion of water is added to the third substrate A to allow it to rehydrate. Then, calendering and conditioning are performed to obtain the fourth substrate. The amount of water added, the achieved substrate moisture content, and the calendering and conditioning parameters are the same as in Example 1.

[0047] The fourth substrate is filled with a coating and then dried in a conventional manner to obtain the fifth substrate. In this embodiment, the filling coating is repeated three times, and the parameters of the filling coating are the same as those of the previous two filling coatings.

[0048] The fifth substrate is then sealed with a coating to further improve its appearance. The composition of the coating liquid used in the sealing coating and the filling coating is the same, the only difference being the size of the powder particles in the coating liquid. The sealing coating process is mainly to fill small pores, so the particle size of the powder particles is between 180um and 500um, and the powder particles are tobacco powder or other non-tobacco powder.

[0049] Example 3

[0050] After obtaining the first substrate in step S1, according to the set conditions, a moisture conditioning process is required after step S1. A certain proportion of water is applied to the first substrate to allow it to rehydrate. Then, the rehydrated first substrate is subjected to calendering and conditioning. In all the following embodiments of this application, the application of moisture is performed after the drying process, and each time the moisture content of the rehydrated substrate is maintained between 13% and 25% before calendering and conditioning. In the technical solution of this application, calendering and conditioning adopts a soft pressing method combined with high temperature. The recommended temperature is 80-130℃. No specific temperature value is given in this embodiment and all subsequent embodiments because this temperature range can meet the requirements of calendering and conditioning, and the impact of low or high temperatures on the overall technical solution of this application is negligible. After this calendering and conditioning process, the second substrate is obtained.

[0051] The second substrate undergoes a second filler coating, with the same coating solution, method, and amount as the first filler coating. It is then dried using standard methods to obtain the third substrate. According to set conditions, a predetermined proportion of water is added to the third substrate to allow it to rehydrate. It is then calendered to obtain the fourth substrate. The fourth substrate undergoes a filler coating and is then dried using standard methods to obtain the fifth substrate.

[0052] The fifth substrate is then sealed with a coating to further improve its appearance. The composition of the coating liquid used in the sealing coating and the filling coating is the same, the only difference being the size of the powder particles in the coating liquid. The sealing coating process is mainly to fill small pores, so the particle size of the powder particles is between 180um and 500um, and the powder particles are tobacco powder or other non-tobacco powder.

[0053] Example 4

[0054] like Figure 2 As shown, after obtaining the first substrate in step S1, according to the set conditions, a moisture conditioning process is required after step S1. A certain proportion of water is applied to the first substrate to allow it to rehydrate. Then, the rehydrated first substrate is subjected to calendering and conditioning. In all the following embodiments of this application, the application of moisture is performed after the drying process, and the moisture content of the rehydrated substrate is maintained between 13% and 25% each time before calendering and conditioning. In the technical solution of this application, calendering and conditioning adopts a soft pressing method combined with high temperature. The recommended temperature is 80-130℃. In this embodiment and all the following embodiments, no specific temperature value is given because this temperature range can meet the requirements of calendering and conditioning, and the impact of low or high temperature on the overall technical solution of this application is negligible. After this calendering and conditioning, the second substrate is obtained.

[0055] The second substrate is then subjected to a second filler coating, with the same coating solution, coating method, and amount of coating solution as the first filler coating. After that, it is dried in a conventional manner to obtain the third substrate.

[0056] The third substrate is then sealed with a coating to further improve its appearance. The composition of the coating liquid used in the sealing coating and the filling coating is the same, the only difference being the size of the powder particles in the coating liquid. The sealing coating process is mainly to fill small pores, so the particle size of the powder particles is between 180um and 500um, and the powder particles are tobacco powder or other non-tobacco powder.

[0057] According to the set conditions, water of a set proportion is added to the third substrate to rehydrate it, and then calendering is performed to obtain the fourth substrate. The fourth substrate is then filled and coated, and then dried in a conventional manner to obtain the fifth substrate.

[0058] In the above embodiments of this application, the moisture conditioning and calendering process can be performed after one filling, coating and drying, or after two filling, coating and drying, or after three filling, coating and drying, as required. However, this process must be added to the intermediate process. That is, if the whole process is three times, this process needs to be added after one or two times.

[0059] The sealing coating mainly limits the particle size of the powder in the coating solution. This process is mainly to fill small pores, so the particle size of the powder is between 180um and 500um; the powder is tobacco powder or other plant powder.

[0060] The sealing coating is applied primarily after the final filler coating and drying. After the sealing-coated substrate is dried at a low temperature, it is then conventionally conditioned and wound up. The sealing coating method is conventional roller coating.

[0061] There are many ways to apply the sealing coating: such as flowing the slurry to the front and back of the substrate, spraying it to the front and back of the substrate, extruding it to the front and back of the substrate, or bonding it to the front and back of the substrate.

[0062] Although the invention has been described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments, it should be understood that many other modifications and implementations can be devised by those skilled in the art, which will fall within the scope and spirit of the principles disclosed herein. More specifically, various variations and modifications can be made to the components and / or layout of the subject matter combination within the scope of this disclosure. Besides variations and modifications to the components and / or layout, other uses will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials, characterized in that, The following steps are used: S1. Filling and coating are applied to the substrate after fiber debonding and molding, and then the substrate is dried in a conventional manner to obtain the first substrate. S2. Based on the set conditions, determine whether a moisture adjustment process is required after step S1. If not, proceed to step S3. If yes, add a set proportion of water to the film base dried in step S1 to allow the film base to rehydrate, then perform calendering and conditioning to obtain the second film base, and then proceed to step S3. S3. Fill and coat the first substrate from step S1 or the second substrate from step S2, and then perform conventional drying to obtain the third substrate. S4. For the third substrate obtained in step S3, make a judgment. If the third substrate is obtained from the first substrate, perform a moisture adjustment process and proceed to step S5. If the third substrate is obtained from the second substrate, determine whether a moisture adjustment process is required. If not, proceed to step S6. If yes, proceed to step S5. S5. Add a set proportion of water to the third film base to allow it to rehydrate, and then perform calendering and conditioning to obtain the fourth film base; S6. Fill and coat the third substrate that does not require moisture adjustment in step S4 or the fourth substrate obtained in step S5, and then perform conventional drying to obtain the fifth substrate. S7. Repeat steps S4 to S6 until the substrate after defiberization and molding in step S1 is filled and coated, and then dried three or more times in a conventional manner to complete the conditioning of the dry aroma-producing material. The powder particle size range in the coating liquid for filler coating is 75um-180um; The moisture conditioning process involves applying water mist to maintain the substrate moisture content between 13% and 25%. The light-adjusting process uses a soft pressing method, combined with a high temperature of 80-130℃.

2. The method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials according to claim 1, characterized in that, The filler coating is applied by spray coating.

3. The method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials according to claim 1, characterized in that, The moisture conditioning and calendering process must be added as an intermediate step between the two filling coating processes.

4. The method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials according to claim 1, characterized in that, After step S7, a sealing coating process is also included, which is achieved by limiting the powder particles in the coating liquid, with the particle size of the powder particles being between 180um and 500um.

5. The method for conditioning dry-process aroma-producing materials according to claim 4, characterized in that, The powder particles are tobacco powder or non-tobacco plant powder.

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