CN115721040A

CN115721040A - Reconstituted tobacco and manufacturing process thereof

Info

Publication number: CN115721040A
Application number: CN202110985178.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 汪旭; 赵文涛; 杨菁; 冯奇
Original assignee: Shanghai Tobacco Group Co Ltd; Shanghai New Tobacco Products Research Institute Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Tobacco Group Co Ltd; Shanghai New Tobacco Products Research Institute Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-08-25
Filing date: 2021-08-25
Publication date: 2023-03-03
Also published as: MA61987B1; MY204446A; EP4140321A1; EP4140321C0; EP4140321B1

Abstract

The invention provides reconstituted tobacco and a manufacturing process thereof, wherein the mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco is 100-190g/m ² The thickness is 0.13-0.18mm, and the density is 700-1400mg/cm ³ Wherein the atomizing agent accounts for 15-30% of the whole reconstituted tobacco in percentage by mass. The combination of the mass per unit area, the thickness, the density and the atomization content of the reconstituted tobacco can favorably improve the heat conduction performance of the reconstituted tobacco, and can control the liquid components in the reconstituted tobacco within a reasonable range, so that the final fuming body has a more excellent fuming effect.

Description

Reconstituted tobacco and manufacturing process thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of tobacco, in particular to a reconstituted tobacco which is not combusted by heating and a manufacturing process of the reconstituted tobacco.

Background

Compared with the traditional cigarette, the tobacco smoked by the smoking and heating non-combustion type tobacco products comprises tobacco shreds, tobacco fragments, tobacco particles, tobacco powder and the like. However, since the temperature of the tobacco portion is low when smoking a non-combustible heating tobacco product, only tobacco is heated without burning the tobacco, and thus tar generation can be greatly reduced. Especially to the electrical heating type heating not burning smoking set, its temperature control that heats tobacco products is more accurate, can more effectually avoid the too high temperature of smoking products, prevents spilling over of more harmful substance.

However, smoking articles for heating non-combustion still have a problem of insufficient smoke generation when electrically heated, as compared with conventional combustion type smoking articles. In addition, the mechanical strength of smoking substrates that are not combustible by heating is currently in demand.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide reconstituted tobacco which is used for improving the problems of the smoking amount and the stability of the reconstituted tobacco.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a reconstituted tobacco, which has the mass per unit area of 100-190g/m ² The thickness is 0.13-0.18mm, and the density is 700-1400mg/cm ³ Wherein the mass percentage of the atomizing agent in the reconstituted tobacco is 15-30%.

The mass per unit area (represented by δ) of the present invention refers to the mass per unit area on the upper surface or the lower surface of the reconstituted tobacco, and can be obtained by weighing the mass of the reconstituted tobacco (represented by m) and measuring the area of the upper surface or the lower surface of the reconstituted tobacco (represented by S) under the mass, and by calculation, the calculation formula is represented by the following formula (1):

δ＝m/S (1)

the thickness of the reconstituted tobacco refers to the dimension between the upper surface and the lower surface of the reconstituted tobacco and can be obtained by measurement. The density of the reconstituted tobacco can be obtained by measuring the mass and volume of the whole reconstituted tobacco before shredding, and by calculation.

For heated non-burning smoking articles, there is often a problem of insufficient smoke generation and poor smoking perception. The reason is mainly that the reconstituted tobacco which is not burnt during heating has poor heat conduction effect when an electric heating mode is adopted. In addition, the proportion of the atomizing agent as a smoke generating component is also an important factor of the smoke generating effect.

The combination of the mass per unit area, the thickness, the density and the atomization content of the reconstituted tobacco can favorably improve the heat conduction performance of the reconstituted tobacco and control the liquid components in the reconstituted tobacco within a reasonable range. The reconstituted tobacco disclosed by the invention can slow down the increase of the water content when being rolled into a smoke body, and ensures the quality stability of the formed smoke body, so that the final smoke body has a more excellent smoke effect.

The density of the reconstituted tobacco represents the compactness of the fuming component of the reconstituted tobacco in a three-dimensional space, and the influence on the thermodynamic performance is large. An increase in mass per unit volume means that the sheet has fewer pores inside it and contains less air. The heat conductivity coefficient of air is far lower than that of common solid, so that the sheet with fewer pores has higher heat conductivity coefficient and fast heat conduction, and the reconstituted tobacco is favorable for absorbing and transferring more heat when being heated. However, the reconstituted tobacco with too high density can increase the specific heat capacity, namely, after absorbing more heat, the temperature of the sheet rises to a smaller extent, and the smoke is difficult to release. Therefore, the invention controls the density of the reconstituted tobacco leaves to be 700-1400mg/cm ³ 。

The thickness of the reconstituted tobacco directly influences the processing resistance of the reconstituted tobacco in the subsequent cigarette processing process. When the reconstituted tobacco with large thickness is stressed and bent, the folding resistance of the reconstituted tobacco is reduced due to the large difference of stress changes of the two surfaces of the reconstituted tobacco. Especially in the roller-pressing method reconstituted tobacco with low fiber content or the thick pulp method reconstituted tobacco, if the thickness is too large, when the sheet is processed into a filament shape or the reconstituted tobacco shreds are rolled into cigarettes, the fracture of the reconstituted tobacco shreds is easily caused, the length of the reconstituted tobacco shreds is influenced, the broken shreds and the broken powder are more, the filling performance of the reconstituted tobacco shreds and the integrity of the end surfaces of the tobacco shreds of the cigarettes are further influenced, the stability of the reconstituted tobacco is reduced, and meanwhile, the smoking effect of the whole rolled smoking body is also influenced because the filling performance cannot be ensured. In addition, the thickness of the reconstituted tobacco also influences the curling degree of the reconstituted tobacco after the tobacco is cut, and further influences the filling performance of the reconstituted tobacco. The smaller the thickness is, the more easily the tobacco is curled after being shredded, the elasticity is increased, the filling force is improved during rolling, the filling weight in unit volume is reduced, so that the weight of the fuming substrate in the cigarette is reduced, the corresponding cigarette has too small suction resistance, the smoking feeling is hollow, the feeling is poor, the absolute contents of tobacco substances and atomizing agents are insufficient, the fuming amount of the cigarette is influenced, and the thick aroma is not favorably presented. The thickness of the reconstituted tobacco is set to be 0.13-0.18mm according to the requirement of density, so that the bending degree of the reconstituted tobacco after being cut into shreds can be prevented from rising, and the folding resistance is ensured.

When the reconstituted tobacco is manufactured, the moisture content of the reconstituted tobacco is controlled. This is because moisture can adversely affect the formation of smoke and the formation of mist by the aerosol is affected by the formation of water in the form of gas from the heated reconstituted tobacco. Although the moisture content of reconstituted tobacco is controlled within a reasonable range before the reconstituted tobacco is rolled by the current manufacturing method, the reconstituted tobacco can absorb certain moisture in a short time before being packaged, so that the smoke body has excessive moisture content when the smoke body is rolled.

The mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco represents the tightness of the components of the reconstituted tobacco which are fuming on a plane. The inventor researches and finds that the mass per unit area on the flat surface has a large influence on the water absorption rate. If the reconstituted tobacco has a low mass per unit area, the in-plane bulk and roughness are high, the water absorption capacity is high, and the water absorption rate is affected. And the atomizing agent contained in the reconstituted tobacco further increases the water absorption capacity in the plane of the tobacco leaf. On the other hand, if the mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco is too large, the effect of reducing the water absorption rate is weakened, and the release of nicotine and smoke is also not facilitated. Through a plurality of experiments and researches of the inventor, the quality per unit area is controlled to be 100-190g/m under the ranges of the density and the thickness of the invention ² The reconstituted tobacco has obvious smoking effect and good stability.

In addition, in order to match the mass per unit area, the density and the thickness of the reconstituted tobacco, the mass percentage of the atomizing agent in the reconstituted tobacco needs to be controlled to be 15-30%. The smoke quantity is insufficient due to too low content, the specific heat capacity of the cigarette is high due to too high content, the temperature rises slowly, and the larger smoke quantity cannot be realized. In addition, too high content of the atomizing agent can accelerate the water absorption rate of the reconstituted tobacco.

In addition, the mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco is set to be 100-190g/m ² The thickness is 0.13-0.18mm, and the density is 700-1400mg/cm ³ It is also advantageous for the tensile strength to be improved, so that the generation of broken filaments can be reduced.

Preferably, the reconstituted tobacco has a density of 900-1100mg/cm ³ The smoking effect is better.

Preferably, the mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco is 150-190g/m ² The reconstituted tobacco within the range has a low water absorption rate, and the water content of the tobacco leaves before rolling does not change obviously in the production process, so that sufficient time is left for the rolling process of cigarettes. In addition, the nicotine release rate of the reconstituted tobacco in the unit area mass range is obviously improved.

For the reconstituted tobacco of the invention, the control of the moisture content of the reconstituted tobacco to 4-8% is more appropriate. Researches show that the smoke visual effect of the formed aerosol is weaker when the moisture content of the smoke formed by the reconstituted tobacco after being heated is higher. And the brittleness of the reconstituted tobacco is enhanced and the folding endurance is reduced due to the fact that the water content of the reconstituted tobacco is too low, and the reconstituted tobacco is easy to break when being subjected to a force vertical to the plane direction of the sheet material in the processing process, so that the broken tobacco content is increased.

Preferably, the mass percentage of the fogging agent in the reconstituted tobacco is 20-25%. The reconstituted tobacco within the range can keep sufficient smoking amount, and can still maintain obvious smoking amount after a plurality of mouths are smoked, and the cigarettes cannot be excessively wet. The atomizing agent includes but is not limited to one or more of glycerol and propylene glycol, and more preferably, glycerol is used as the atomizing agent. Glycerol is less odorous as a nebulant.

Preferably, the mass percent of the tobacco material in the reconstituted tobacco is 65-80%. The quality percentage of the tobacco substances in the reconstituted tobacco directly influences the sensory quality of the reconstituted tobacco during smoking, and the content of the tobacco substances is between 65 and 80 percent, which is beneficial to forming smoke with strong tobacco fragrance. The tobacco material can be different types of tobacco raw materials such as flue-cured tobacco, air-cured tobacco, sun-cured tobacco, naked fire flue-cured tobacco, aromatic tobacco and the like.

Preferably, the tobacco material used may be the lamina, stem of tobacco. More preferably, the used tobacco material is preferably the stem-removed leaf, the lignin content in the leaf is less, the fragrant substances are more, and the improvement of the taste absorption of the reconstituted tobacco is facilitated.

In addition, the reconstituted tobacco may also contain flavors or fragrances. The essence and the spice can be used as the supplement of the flavor substances and can be added according to the design target of sensory quality, generally between 0 and 15 percent, so as to increase the flavor of the tobacco or endow other flavor characteristics to the reconstituted tobacco.

The reconstituted tobacco of the invention has tensile strength of 0.4kN/m or more. In addition, under the environment of 22 ℃ and 65RH%, the increment of the water content for 1h is less than 0.6 percent. The tensile strength is ensured to be 0.4kN/m or more, and the generation of broken filaments can be obviously reduced. Furthermore, the tensile strength of the reconstituted tobacco is 0.4-0.5kN/m. Generally, more than one hour is needed from the unpacking and feeding of tobacco shreds to the completion of rolling cigarettes, but the reconstituted tobacco has the moisture content increment less than 0.6 percent within one hour of unpacking in the environment of temperature and humidity (22 ℃,65 RH%) of a common cigarette production workshop, and is very favorable for controlling the moisture content of the cigarettes.

The invention provides a smoke body, which comprises the reconstituted tobacco, has better smoke amount when in use, is not easy to drop scraps at the end part of the smoke body, and has good smoking experience.

The invention also provides a manufacturing process of the reconstituted tobacco, which comprises the following steps: preparing tobacco raw materials into tobacco powder; mixing water, an atomizing agent and an adhesive to prepare a wet material; mixing said tobacco powder with said wet material to produce a formed sheet; and drying the formed sheet to obtain the reconstituted tobacco. Wherein the preparation of the tobacco raw material into the tobacco powder comprises the steps of raw material mixing, impurity removal, moisture regulation, coarse crushing and fine grinding.

The incoming material mixing means that the incoming materials are mixed uniformly according to the proportion of the formula, and the quantitative feeding and stirring can be realized by adopting a belt weigher. The impurity removal means that non-tobacco substances such as metal, plastic and the like in the raw materials are removed, and the impurity removal can be realized by a metal detector or air separation. The moisture regulation means that the superfine tobacco powder has the moisture content of below 12 percent before being crushed, the moisture content is too high, the tobacco is not brittle and is not beneficial to crushing, if the crushing time is too long, the tobacco material is easy to generate heat, the original flavor of the tobacco is further changed, for example, burnt flavor can appear, and the sensory quality of reconstituted tobacco prepared by the tobacco is poor. When the moisture content of tobacco flakes or tobacco stems is above 12%, the tobacco flakes or tobacco stems are dried by drying equipment such as an oven and a drying barrel to reduce the moisture content to below 12%, and then crushed. The pulverizing step includes coarse crushing and fine grinding to obtain superfine tobacco powder.

The preparation of the wet material refers to uniformly mixing the raw materials necessary for the forming of the reconstituted tobacco according to a certain proportion, and mainly comprises the mixing of water, an atomizing agent and an adhesive. The three components can be mixed well by strong stirring in a stirring tank with strong stirring function.

And stirring the dry material and the wet material by a stirrer to ensure uniform mixing, and then preparing into a formed sheet. Generally, if the forming process adopts a rolling method, the dry and wet materials are mixed and then present a solid bulk or granular shape, and then the rolling forming is carried out. If the forming process adopts a tape casting method, the dry-wet mixed material is required to be in a fluid state, so that tape casting is facilitated.

And further drying the formed sheet after tape casting or rolling to obtain the reconstituted tobacco serving as the fuming substrate of the electrically heated cigarette.

The manufacturing process can manufacture the reconstituted tobacco which meets the parameter requirements of the invention such as density, mass per unit area, thickness and the like by selecting the tobacco raw materials, adjusting the proportion of the raw materials, adjusting the process parameters and the like, and can adjust the corresponding process parameters according to the actual production condition.

Detailed Description

The following description is given for illustrative embodiments of the invention and other advantages and effects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure of the invention. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, it is not intended that features of the invention be limited to these embodiments. Rather, the description of the invention in connection with the embodiments is intended to cover alternatives or modifications which may be included within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. The invention may be practiced without these particulars. Moreover, some of the specific details have been left out of the description in order to avoid obscuring or obscuring the focus of the present invention. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, embodiments of the present invention are described in further detail below.

In the following examples and comparative examples, reconstituted tobacco was prepared using a similar process, including: preparing dry materials, preparing wet materials, mixing the dry materials and the wet materials, forming and drying.

The specific details include:

the preparation of the dry material comprises the steps of incoming material mixing, impurity removal, moisture regulation, coarse crushing and fine grinding.

The incoming material mixing refers to mixing and evenly mixing incoming materials according to the formula proportion, and can be realized by quantitative feeding and stirring of a belt weigher. The tobacco materials used in the following examples and comparative examples were the same.

The impurity removal means that non-tobacco substances such as metal, plastic and the like in the raw materials are removed, and the impurity removal can be realized through a metal detector or air separation.

The incoming material moisture regulation means that the superfine tobacco powder has the moisture content of below 12% before being crushed, and the moisture is reduced to below 12% by drying through drying equipment such as an oven, a drying barrel and the like.

The preparation of the wet material refers to uniformly mixing the raw materials necessary for forming the reconstituted tobacco according to a set proportion, and mainly comprises the mixing of water, an atomizing agent and an adhesive. The three components can be mixed well by strong stirring in a stirring tank with strong stirring function. The content of the atomizing agent was adjusted according to the design of the different examples and comparative examples.

The dry and wet material mixing means that the dry material and the wet material are stirred by a stirrer until the dry cloth is uniform, and the uniform mixing is ensured. Generally, if the forming process adopts a rolling method, the dry and wet materials are mixed to form solid lumps or particles, and then rolling forming is carried out. If the casting method is adopted in the forming process, the dry and wet mixture is required to be in a fluid state, so that the casting forming is facilitated. The mass per unit area, thickness, density and moisture content parameters of the reconstituted tobacco in the following examples and comparative examples can be adjusted according to the specific forming process.

The molded sheets formed by casting or rolling were further dried to obtain reconstituted tobacco according to the following examples and comparative examples. And then, rolling the reconstituted tobacco by adopting the same process to form a smoke body, and then connecting the smoke body with a filter tip to form the cigarette which is not burnt by heating. In the following examples and comparative examples, the reconstituted tobacco was manufactured by the same rolling process, and the cigarette was formed by the same rolling process without burning. The length of the smoke body is 13.5mm, and the diameter is 7.8mm.

In the following examples and comparative examples, the mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco can be obtained by measuring the mass of the reconstituted tobacco before it is cut into shreds, calculating the area of the upper surface or the lower surface thereof, and calculating using the above formula (1); the density of the reconstituted tobacco can be obtained by measuring the mass and calculating the volume of the reconstituted tobacco before the reconstituted tobacco is cut into shreds and then calculating according to a density formula; the thickness of the reconstituted tobacco can be obtained by measurement.

The water content of the reconstituted tobacco in the following examples and comparative examples was measured by a conventionally known gas chromatography. The method for measuring the increment of the water content of 1h in the environment of 22 ℃ and 65RH percent comprises the following steps: weighing reconstituted tobacco with a certain weight, putting the reconstituted tobacco into a glass dish, placing the glass dish in a constant temperature and humidity box at the temperature of 22 ℃ and the RH% of 65 for moisture absorption, weighing the weight after 1h, wherein the weight gain part is the weight of absorbed moisture, calculating the moisture content after moisture absorption, and subtracting the moisture content before moisture absorption to obtain the moisture content increment. The proportion of short filaments of 4mm or less produced in the production of the filaments was determined by the sieving method.

The total particulate matter of smoke, the migration rate of nicotine, the resistance to smoking and the amount of smoke were measured by electrically heating the non-burning tobacco rod in the following examples and comparative examples and measuring the time required for the tobacco rod to reach 300 ℃. The method for measuring the total particulate matters in the smoke comprises the following steps: the weighing method adopts a Cambridge filter disc to capture the particulate matter of each cigarette, and the weight difference value of the Cambridge filter disc is the total particulate matter weight. The method for measuring the nicotine mobility comprises the following steps: respectively detecting the nicotine content in the smoke gas captured by the Cambridge filter disc and the nicotine content in reconstituted tobacco shreds of each cigarette by adopting a gas chromatography, wherein the ratio of the nicotine content to the nicotine content in the reconstituted tobacco shreds is the nicotine migration rate; the method for measuring the suction resistance comprises the following steps: measuring the physical properties of the YC/T28.5 cigarette; the measuring method of the smoke amount comprises the following steps: the same smoking set and the same heating condition are adopted to perform motor heating on cigarettes made by the smoke body, and professional smoke evaluation personnel are organized to evaluate and summarize the smoke effect of mouth by mouth.

The following is a detailed description of the examples and comparative examples in tables 1 and 2:

in the following examples and comparative examples, the smoke amounts in the evaluation of the smoke amount are arranged from large to small: greater > smaller.

The reconstituted tobacco is made into cigarettes for testing, and as can be seen from table 2, relatively large smoke amount is obtained in the examples 1 to 6, the content of particulate matter in the smoke is high, and the nicotine mobility is also high. In contrast, the comparative examples 1 to 5 have lower total particulate matter in smoke, nicotine migration rate and smoke amount due to the combination of the parameters thereof not meeting the requirements.

In the comparative example 1, the mass per unit area is too large, the thickness is thick, and the total surface area of the reconstituted tobacco shred is too small under the same filling weight, namely the release surface of the atomizing agent is small, so that the smoke quantity of the cigarette is small; comparative example 2 because its thickness is less, reconstituted tobacco silk elasticity is poor, and the support capacity is not enough, leads to filling too closely easily in the process of rolling up a cigarette, and the suction resistance is too big, and the suction is not smooth and easy, causes total particulate matter of flue gas, nicotine mobility, smog volume etc. to be lower. Comparative example 3 the reconstituted tobacco is loose inside due to too low density, and the capacity of forming smoke is insufficient due to less tobacco material filled in the fixed volume of the cigarette smoking section when the cigarettes are rolled. Comparative example 4 has a large specific surface area of tobacco shreds due to low mass and thickness per unit area, and is easy to absorb moisture in the rolling process, the moisture content of cigarettes rises to influence the amount of smoke, and the content of the atomizing agent is low, so that the amount of smoke is finally small. Comparative example 5 has low thickness, large surface area, easy moisture absorption, too large density, poor tobacco shred toughness, large resistance to processing, easy breakage to form broken shreds, unsmooth suction, too high content of atomizing agent, slow heating rate when the cigarette is heated due to high specific heat capacity of the atomizing agent, and low smoke quantity of the cigarette due to multiple reasons.

While the invention has been described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiments disclosed. Various changes in form and detail, including simple deductions or substitutions, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. The reconstituted tobacco is characterized in that the mass per unit area of the reconstituted tobacco is 100-190g/m ² The thickness is 0.13-0.18mm, and the density is 700-1400mg/cm ³ Wherein the mass percent of the atomizing agent in the reconstituted tobacco is 15-30%.

2. The reconstituted tobacco of claim 1, wherein the reconstituted tobacco has a density of 900-1100mg/cm ³ 。

3. The reconstituted tobacco of claim 1, wherein the reconstituted tobacco has a mass per unit area of 150 to 190g/m ² 。

4. The reconstituted tobacco of claim 1, wherein the reconstituted tobacco has a moisture content of 4-8%.

5. The reconstituted tobacco of claim 1, wherein the mass percentage of the fogging agent in the reconstituted tobacco is 20-25%.

6. The reconstituted tobacco of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the mass percentage of tobacco material in the reconstituted tobacco is between 65% and 80%.

7. The reconstituted tobacco of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the reconstituted tobacco has a tensile strength of 0.4kN/m or more.

8. The reconstituted tobacco of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the reconstituted tobacco has a water content increase of less than 0.6% at 22 ℃ and 65RH% for 1 hour.

9. A smoke producing body comprising the reconstituted tobacco according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A process of manufacturing reconstituted tobacco according to any one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the steps of:

preparing tobacco raw materials into tobacco powder;

mixing water, an atomizing agent and an adhesive to prepare a wet material;

mixing said tobacco powder with said wet material to produce a formed sheet;

and drying the formed sheet to obtain the reconstituted tobacco.

11. The process of manufacturing reconstituted tobacco according to claim 10, wherein preparing the tobacco powder comprises adjusting the moisture content of the tobacco material to below 12% followed by comminution.