Method and apparatus for making rod-shaped smokers' products with soft cores

摘要

A rod-like filler for the making of a cigarette rod is obtained by showering particles of tobacco onto a foraminous belt conveyor which is located in front of a suction chamber and is flanked by two additional foraminous belt conveyors or by two stationary sidewalls so that the particles form a thin layer having a substantially U-shaped cross-sectional outline with a centrally located web and two legs. The legs are thereupon moved toward each other to convert the layer into a tube having a relatively soft core or a centrally located channel which is devoid of tobacco, and the filler is then draped into a web of cigarette paper and simultaneously densified to reduce its cross section to that of a cigarette before the resulting cigarette rod is subdivided into discrete cigarettes of desired length. The thickness of the layer is a fraction of its width. The sidewalls and/or a mandrel which keeps the center of the filler free of tobacco particles can admit into the layer hot air, moisture-laden air and/or volatile flavoring agents prior to conversion of the layer into a rod-like filler.