Oblique Filter Geometry for Cigarette Extraction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Filter-tipped cigarettes are difficult to remove from soft packages without deforming the filter, especially when the package is soft, requiring excessive force or manual manipulation to extract subsequent cigarettes.

Innovation Solution

A filter-tipped cigarette design featuring a filter with an obliquely cut cylindrical shape, where the oblique surface is inclined between 28° and 72°, allowing easier extraction by aligning with the cigarette rod's axis, and having a distance between maximum and minimum lengths of 2.5 to 12.5 mm, facilitating easier handling and smoking.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Volume of moving object

If filter-tipped cigarettes are closely filled into the package, then the package can be compact and portable, but it becomes difficult to take out the cigarette without deforming the filter

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepackage compactnessVSAvoidcigarette extraction ease
Core Design Contradiction:
Volume of moving objectVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The filter is designed with an asymmetric oblique surface instead of a symmetric cylindrical shape. This asymmetric geometry creates a protruding effect that allows the cigarette to be easily grasped and extracted from the compact package without deforming the filter, resolving the contradiction between package compactness and extraction ease.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #4Asymmetry

2Ease of operation

If a knob is provided on the filter to make extraction easier, then cigarette removal becomes simpler, but the structure becomes more complex

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecigarette extraction easeVSAvoidfilter structure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of adding a separate knob component, the invention modifies the local geometry of the filter surface itself. The oblique surface creates a localized protruding effect that provides grip without requiring an additional structural element, thus improving extraction ease while maintaining structural simplicity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The functional element for easy extraction (the protruding feature) is merged directly into the filter structure itself rather than being a separate component. The oblique surface of the filter body serves both as the filter medium and as the extraction aid, combining multiple functions into a single integrated structure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Data Source

PatentEP2554061B1Filter-tipped cigarette
Publication Date: 2019.05.08 JAPAN TOBACCO INC
  • EP2554061B1 patent drawingFigure 1~3
  • EP2554061B1 patent drawingFigure 4~6
  • EP2554061B1 patent drawingFigure 7~9

AI summary

A filter-tipped cigarette, comprising a cylindrical cigarette rod (110) which includes a circular distal end surface (111) and a circular proximal end surface (112), and a filter (120) which is connected to the cigarette rod (110), wherein the filter (120) has a shape of a slant cut cylinder which has a lower bottom surface (122) that has a circular shape equal to the proximal end surface (112) of the cigarette rod (110), and an oblique surface (121) that is inclined with respect to a line that is extended from an axis of the cigarette rod (110), and the filter (120) is connected at the lower bottom surface (122) to the cigarette rod (110).