Slim Cigarette Filter With Local Ventilation Zone
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing slim cigarettes face challenges in achieving low smoke and nicotine yields without the need for expanded tobacco, while maintaining high packing densities and ease of ignition, and providing adequate taste per puff.
Innovation Solution
A slim cigarette design featuring a tobacco rod wrapped in air-permeable paper with a filter comprising a tobacco-side and mouth-side filter element, where the tobacco-side filter element includes a ventilation zone and has a total length of 25-40 mm, allowing for high packing densities and low smoke and nicotine yields, with optional use of expanded tobacco in limited amounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the filter length is increased to reduce smoke and nicotine yields, then the smoke yield and nicotine yield decrease, but the cigarette ignition difficulty increases and taste per puff decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The filter is divided into two distinct elements: a tobacco-side filter element (10-25 mm) and a mouth-side filter element (10-20 mm), with the ventilation zone specifically located in the tobacco-side element. This segmentation allows the ventilation function to be separated from the filtration function, enabling low smoke/nicotine yields while maintaining adequate ignition and taste through optimized air mixing location
Solution Approach 2:
The ventilation zone is locally positioned within the tobacco-side filter element at a specific distance (1-10 mm) from the tobacco rod end, rather than uniformly distributing ventilation throughout the entire filter. This localized ventilation approach allows precise control over air mixing location, ensuring adequate ignition while achieving low smoke and nicotine yields
2Quantity of substance
If expanded tobacco is added to achieve low smoke yield, then the smoke yield decreases, but the device complexity and manufacturing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and removes expanded tobacco from the cigarette composition entirely, achieving low smoke yield (≤1 mg condensate) through the filter design alone. This eliminates the need for complex manufacturing processes required to incorporate and distribute expanded tobacco, simplifying production while maintaining the desired low smoke yield
3Volume of moving object
If the packing density is increased to reduce cigarette size, then the cigarette diameter decreases, but the ignition difficulty increases and taste per puff decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The high packing density (≥200 mg/cm³) is maintained in the tobacco rod while the ventilation zone is locally positioned in the filter to provide adequate air mixing. This local optimization of air supply compensates for the reduced tobacco mass in the compact cigarette, ensuring adequate ignition and taste per puff despite the small size (4-7 mm diameter)
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves a smoke yield of at most 1 mg condensate and a nicotine yield of at most 0.2 mg, with a high degree of ventilation, making the cigarettes easier to ignite and providing more taste per puff, while allowing for high packing densities without the need for expanded tobacco.
Implementation Method 1
the tobacco-side filter element comprises a ventilation zone... The degree of ventilation is, as a rule, above about 60 percent and preferably above 70 percent
Implementation Method 2
said filter cigarette having a diameter of from about 4 mm to about 7 mm, yielding (from the main stream smoke) a smoke yield of about 1 mg condensate (tar) or less
Data Source
AI summary
A filter cigarette comprising a tobacco rod which is circumscribed by a cigarette paper and a filter, said filter comprising a tobacco-side filter element and a mouth-side filter element, said filter cigarette having a diameter of about 4 mm to about 7 mm, yielding a smoke yield of 1 mg condensate or less and yielding a nicotine yield of 0.2 mg or less. The filter cigarette is characterized in that the overall length of the filter is about 25 mm to about 40 mm, the length of the tobacco-side filter element is about 10 mm to about 25 mm and the tobacco-side filter element comprises a ventilation zone.