Manufacturing method of sheet for smoking article

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for producing a sheet for smoking articles, more specifically, the method includes the steps of: putting tobacco material into an aqueous solvent, softening and pressurizing the material, and separating the material into a solid part and a liquid part in step S1; removing the liquid part, forming a sheet from the solid part, drying and pulverizing the sheet in step S2; mixing the pulverized sheet with pulp to produce a slurry; and forming a sheet from the slurry in step S4, the specific components include at least one selected from the group consisting of nicotine and nitrates. Smoking articles containing a sheet produced by the method are characterized by having excellent flavor due to the reduced content of the specific components.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for producing a sheet for smoking articles, a sheet for smoking articles produced by the method, and a smoking article including the sheet. [Background technology]

[0002] During the production and processing of tobacco products, tobacco by-products such as tobacco stems, flakes, and tobacco dust produced during the manufacturing process (i.e., stemming, curing, blending, cutting, drying, cooling, screening, forming, and packaging) can be recycled to reconstitute their useful tobacco content. Such tobacco by-products can be manufactured into reconstituted tobacco sheet.

[0003] The reconstituted tobacco sheets may be cut in a manner similar to whole leaf tobacco and utilized as suitable tobacco filler in cigarettes and other smoking articles, or the tobacco sheets may be used by themselves. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Korean Patent Publication No. 2020-0032505 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] The present invention provides a method for producing a sheet for smoking articles that has an excellent flavor while not containing any specific components, by utilizing part of a papermaking process to separate solid and liquid portions from tobacco material, removing the liquid portion, and then using the solid portion (cellulose) to produce a sheet.

[0006] Another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet for smoking articles produced by the production method of the present invention.

[0007] Additionally, the present invention provides a smoking article including the sheet for smoking articles according to the present invention.

[0008] However, the problems that the present invention aims to solve are not limited to those mentioned above, and other problems not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method for manufacturing a sheet for smoking articles includes the steps of: (a) putting a tobacco material into an aqueous solvent, softening and pressurizing the tobacco material, and separating the tobacco material into a solid part and a liquid part; (b) removing the liquid part, forming a sheet from the solid part, and then drying and grinding the sheet; (c) mixing the ground tobacco material with pulp to prepare a slurry; and (d) extracting the slurry to form a sheet.

[0010] The present invention relates to a method for producing a sheet for smoking articles, wherein the specific component comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of nicotine and nitrates.

[0011] According to one embodiment of the present invention, step S1 can be carried out by a method including step S1-1 of placing the tobacco material in an aqueous solvent and heating it at 50°C to 90°C for 20 to 40 minutes, and step S1-2 of applying pressure after the heating to separate it into a solid part and a liquid part.

[0012] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tobacco material may include one or more selected from the group consisting of tobacco leaves, tobacco leaf pieces, tobacco stems, and tobacco dust.

[0013] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method may further include a step of drying the sheet after step S4.

[0014] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tobacco material can be ground to an average powder size of 0.03 mm to 0.30 mm.

[0015] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method may further include adding an aerosol generating material to the sheet.

[0016] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the nicotine content of the sheet for smoking articles may be 1.0% or less.

[0017] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the sheet for smoking articles may have a nitrate content of 0.1% or less.

[0018] According to one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a sheet for smoking articles manufactured by the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

[0019] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the present invention relates to a smoking article comprising a sheet according to the present invention. Effect of the Invention

[0020] The present invention relates to a method for producing a sheet for a smoking article using tobacco material, which involves separating the tobacco material into a solid and a liquid, as in a paper-making tobacco leaf sheet process, and then producing a sheet from the separated solid, which is then dried, crushed, and mixed with pulp to produce a slurry to produce a tobacco leaf sheet. The sheet is characterized by its excellent flavor retention despite the removal of certain components. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0021] [Figure 1] 1 shows a flow chart of a manufacturing method according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0022] Hereinafter, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the description of the present invention, if a detailed description of related known functions or configurations is deemed to unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description will be omitted. In addition, the terms used in this specification are used to appropriately express preferred embodiments of the present invention, and may vary depending on the intention of a user or operator, or the practice of the field to which the present invention belongs. Therefore, the definition of the terms should be based on the overall content of this specification. The same reference numerals presented in each drawing indicate the same members.

[0023] Throughout the specification, when an element is referred to as being "on" another element, this includes not only when the element is in contact with the other element, but also when there is a further element between the two elements.

[0024] Throughout the specification, when any part is referred to as "comprising" any element, this does not mean to exclude other elements, but rather to include further other elements.

[0025] Hereinafter, the method for producing a sheet for smoking articles of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and drawings.

[0026] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a sheet for smoking articles, comprising step S1 of placing tobacco material in an aqueous solvent, softening and pressurizing the material, and separating the material into a solid portion and a liquid portion, step S2 of removing the liquid portion, forming a sheet from the solid portion, and then drying and pulverizing the sheet, step S3 of mixing pulp with the pulverized sheet to produce a slurry, and step S4 of extracting the slurry to form a sheet, the sheet being characterized in that specific components have been reduced, and the specific components include one or more selected from the group consisting of nicotine and nitrates.

[0027] In the present invention, the term "smoking article" refers to any product that can be smoked or that can provide a smoking experience, regardless of whether it is based on tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, reconstituted tobacco, or tobacco substitutes. For example, the smoking article refers to a smokable article that can generate aerosol, such as cigarettes, cigars, small cigars, electronic cigarettes (e.g., heating type), etc., and can be used in particular for non-combustion heating type smoking articles.

[0028] According to one embodiment of the present invention, step S1 is a part of a tobacco leaf sheet manufacturing method using paper, and step S1 is carried out based on a method including step S1-1 of putting tobacco material into an aqueous solvent and heating it at 50°C to 90°C for 20 to 40 minutes, and step S1-2 of applying pressure after heating to separate it into a solid part and a liquid part. The present invention is a sheet for smoking articles, which is produced by crushing the sheet produced only in the solid part after separating it into the solid part and the liquid part as described above, and then performing a slurry process.

[0029] Conventionally, tobacco leaf sheets for smoking articles have been manufactured by a papermaking or slurry-type manufacturing process. In the papermaking manufacturing process, tobacco material is pulverized and mixed with an aqueous solvent to separate a solid portion containing cellulose from a liquid (extract) containing a large amount of a specific component, the fibers are manufactured into a sheet form by a papermaking method, the separated extract is concentrated, and the concentrated extract is added to the sheet.

[0030] However, in the present invention, the step of adding the concentrated extract is omitted, and only the separated solid portion is used to prepare a sheet, which is then used to prepare a sheet for smoking articles.

[0031] That is, the sheet for smoking articles produced by the above-mentioned production method is able to retain an excellent flavor despite the reduced content of specific components.

[0032] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the tobacco material may be one or more selected from the group consisting of tobacco leaves, tobacco leaf pieces, tobacco stems, and tobacco dust, and preferably tobacco leaves.

[0033] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the grinding in step S2 may be performed to grind the tobacco material to an average powder size of 0.03 mm to 0.30 mm. The grinding may be performed using equipment such as a hammer mill, a cutter head, an air control mill, etc. The tobacco material to be ground may be ground when the moisture content is less than about 15% by weight to less than about 5% by weight.

[0034] According to an embodiment of the present invention, in step S3, water is added to the pulverized sheet to be beaten and disaggregated, and the pulp is mixed to produce a slurry.

[0035] According to an embodiment of the present invention, in step S4, the process of adding a concentrated solution obtained by concentrating the liquid portion separated in step S1 is omitted, and the slurry is directly formed into a sheet.

[0036] The sheet is prepared by pouring out the slurry, but the method of pouring out the slurry is not limited to the above, and may be any method that can produce the sheet.

[0037] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method may further include a step of drying the sheet after step S4. The moisture content of the sheet made from the slurry is reduced to less than 50% by weight. After drying, a humectant may be added, and the humectant content may be more than 5% by weight and less than 40% by weight.

[0038] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method may further include adding an aerosol generating material to the sheet. For example, the aerosol generating material may include at least one of glycerin, propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, and oleyl alcohol. The aerosol generating material may be heated by combustion or heating to generate an aerosol.

[0039] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the sheet produced by the above-mentioned method may have a nicotine content of 1.0% or less and a nitrate content of 0.1% or less.

[0040] The present invention also provides a sheet for smoking articles produced by the above-mentioned production method, and can provide a smoking article including the sheet.

[0041] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the smoking article may include a cooling part and a filter part, and may be composed of a smoking material part to which the sheet for smoking articles according to the present invention is applied. The smoking article has the smoking material part, the cooling part, and the filter part aligned in the longitudinal direction, but the order may be freely changed.

[0042] For example, the length of the smoking material portion may be approximately 15 mm to 35 mm. The smoking material portion may include other tobacco materials in addition to the sheet for smoking articles. The other tobacco materials may be tobacco leaves, tobacco ribs, expanded tobacco, cut shreds, etc., and the smoking material portion may be disposed by being wrapped with a thermally conductive wrapper and a wrapping paper, etc. The thermally conductive wrapper may be made of aluminum (Al), gold (Au), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), conductive carbon (C), graphite, mild steel, stainless steel, copper (Cu), or bronze. The thermally conductive wrapper may have a thickness of several μm to several hundred μm, but is not necessarily limited thereto. The thermally conductive wrapper can uniformly transfer heat generated by a heating means to the smoking material portion.

[0043] For example, the cooling unit can cool the airflow formed by the aerosol generated in the smoking material unit, and can be made of a polymeric material or a biodegradable polymeric material to have a cooling function. For example, the cooling unit can be made of, but is not limited to, polylactic acid (PLA) fiber. Alternatively, the cooling unit can be made of a cellulose acetate filter having a plurality of holes. However, the cooling unit is not limited to the above examples, and is not limited to any material that functions to cool the aerosol. For example, the cooling unit can be a tube filter or a paper tube filter that includes a hollow space.

[0044] For example, the filter unit may be a mono-filter, a double filter, or a triple filter. The filter unit may include at least one of a porous matrix structure, a tube structure, and a paper tube structure. The length of the filter unit is selected within a range of 5 mm to 20 mm or 10 mm to 15 mm.

[0045] The filter may be constructed from filter tow as known in the art, including, but not limited to, polymer, paper, cellulose acetate, activated carbon, and carbon-containing fibers, filaments, or both.

[0046] Additionally, there may be included a mouth-contact tipping paper encasing the filter material, the tipping paper may be formed with one or more perforations.

[0047] The filter unit may be manufactured to generate a flavor. For example, a fragrant liquid may be sprayed onto the filter material, or separate fibers coated with the fragrant liquid may be inserted into the filter unit.

[0048] The cooling section and the filter section may include an aerosol modifier. For example, one or more of the cooling section, the filter section, and the tipping paper of the smoking article of the present invention may include one or more aerosol modifiers. Suitable aerosol modifiers may include, but are not limited to, flavoring agents and chemesthetic agents. The flavoring agent is used to describe any substance that imparts one or all of a taste or aroma to the aerosol generated by the tobacco substance and the aerosol-generating substance of the smoking article during use.

[0049] The cigarette paper may be made of cellulose fibers obtained from wood, flax, or other materials, and may wrap the medium portion, wrap the smoking article including the medium portion, or wrap the smoking article except for the filter portion. The thickness of the base paper of the cigarette paper may be about 30 μm to about 100 μm, and the basis weight of the base paper may be about 15 g / m2. 2 ~about 80g / m 2 may be also possible.

[0050] Smoking articles according to the present invention may include one or more aerosol modifiers downstream that are both flavorants and object-sensing agents. For example, one or more of the cooling and filter sections of a smoking article according to the present invention may include menthol or other flavoring agents that provide the effect of a cooling object-sensing agent.

[0051] The smoking article may have a diameter of 4 mm to 10 mm, a circumference of 14 mm to 29 mm, and a length of 45 mm to 100 mm.

[0052] Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, various modifications may be made to the embodiments, and the scope of the patent application is not limited or restricted by these embodiments. It should be understood that all modifications, equivalents, or alternatives to the embodiments are included in the scope of the patent.

[0053] The terms used in the embodiments are merely used for the purpose of explanation and are not to be construed as being limiting. A singular expression includes a plural expression unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In this specification, the terms "include" or "have" indicate the presence of features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof described in the specification, and should be understood as not precluding the presence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

[0054] Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. Commonly used predefined terms should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning they have in the context of the relevant art, and should not be interpreted as ideal or overly formal unless expressly defined in this specification.

[0055] In addition, when describing the present embodiment with reference to the drawings, the same reference numerals are used for the same components regardless of the reference numerals, and duplicated descriptions thereof will be omitted. In the description of the present embodiment, if a detailed description of related prior art is determined to unnecessarily obscure the gist of the embodiment, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. EXAMPLES

[0056] <Embodiment 1> The tobacco material was placed in an aqueous solvent at a temperature of about 70°C, soaked for about 30 minutes, and squeezed to separate it into a solid (cellulose) and a liquid (extract). The separated solid was formed into a sheet, dried, and then chopped into small pieces. The chopped material was crushed, and the crushed material was put into water to pulp it to produce a slurry. The slurry was extracted and formed into a sheet, which was then dried to complete the sheet for the smoking article.

[0057] <Comparative Example 1> Flue-cured tobacco <Comparative Example 2> Tobacco sheet produced using the slurry method <Comparative Example 3> Tobacco leaf sheets produced using the papermaking method <Ingredients>

[0058] The produced sheets were analyzed for content by chromatography. The analysis results are shown in Table 1 below. Comparative Examples 1, 2, 3, and Example 1 were produced using the same shredded herb. [Table 1]

[0059] From the results in Table 1, it can be seen that the tobacco leaf sheet produced by the method of the present invention had significantly reduced nicotine and nitrate contents compared to the comparative example. <Check the flavor>

[0060] The sheets produced were used to produce non-combustion smoking articles including a cooling element and a filter portion.

[0061] A panel of 20 people evaluated the taste of the cigarettes produced in the above-mentioned embodiment 1 and comparative examples 1 to 3, and the results are shown in Table 2 below. [Table 2]

[0062] The results in Table 2 show that there is almost no difference in the abundant smoking amount between the smoking article of embodiment 1, in which specific components are reduced, and the smoking article of comparative example 1, which contains shredded grass. In addition, comparative examples 2 and 3 showed similar results in terms of tobacco taste.

[0063] Compared to Comparative Example 1, the tobacco taste was insufficient, but the results were significantly superior in terms of unpleasant odor and irritation.

[0064] Therefore, it was confirmed that the smoking article of embodiment 1 exhibits similar and superior results to existing smoking articles in terms of overall tobacco taste, even if certain components are reduced.

[0065] Although the embodiments have been described above based on the drawings and even limited embodiments, various modifications and variations are possible from the above description if one skilled in the art. For example, the described techniques may be performed in a different order than described, and / or the described components may be combined or combined in a different manner than described, or may be replaced or substituted with other components or equivalents to achieve suitable results. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but is defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1. A method for producing a sheet for smoking articles, comprising: Step S1: putting a tobacco material into an aqueous solvent, softening and pressurizing the tobacco material, and separating the tobacco material into a solid part and a liquid part; Step S2 of removing the liquid portion, forming a sheet from the solid portion, and then drying and pulverizing the sheet; Step S3: mixing the ground tobacco material with pulp to produce a slurry; Step S4 of dispersing the slurry to form the sheet; Including, The sheet has a reduced content of specific components, and the specific components include one or more selected from the group consisting of nicotine and nitrates.

2. The step S1 includes a step S1-1 of placing the tobacco material in an aqueous solvent and heating it at 50°C to 90°C for 20 to 40 minutes; The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1, which is carried out by a method including a step S1-2 of applying pressure after step S1-1 to separate the sheet into the solid portion and the liquid portion.

3. The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1, wherein the tobacco material comprises at least one material selected from the group consisting of tobacco leaves, tobacco leaf pieces, tobacco stems, and tobacco dust.

4. The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1 , further comprising a step of drying the sheet after step S4.

5. The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1, wherein the tobacco material is ground to an average powder size of 0.03 mm to 0.30 mm.

6. The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding an aerosol-generating substance to the sheet.

7. The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet for smoking articles has a nicotine content of 1.0% or less.

8. The method for producing a sheet for smoking articles according to claim 1 , wherein the sheet for smoking articles has a nitrate content of 0.1% or less.

9. A sheet for smoking articles comprising ground tobacco material and pulp, The sheet for smoking articles has a reduced content of specific components, the specific components including one or more selected from the group consisting of nicotine and nitrates.

10. A smoking article comprising the sheet for smoking articles according to claim 9.

Images