Patents Examined by Dionne A. Walls
  • Tobacco mint plant material product
    Patent number: 6953040
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to smokeless tobacco compositions, such as a chewing tobacco and/or snuff composition comprising tobacco and mint plant material, where the mint plant material is mint leaf with or without endogenous mint oil, mint stems, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2005
    Assignee: U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company
    Inventors: Frank S. Atchley, Vernie A. Due, Thomas R. Gray
  • Press device and method of using the same
    Patent number: 6942761
    Abstract: Press device and method of using the same for treating a fibrous material web that includes a shoe press unit that includes a flexible press belt that revolves around a non-rotating carrier, a counter roll that includes a deflection compensation roll with a roll jacket revolving around a second non-rotating carrier, a third roll, a roll nip formed between the counter roll and the third roll, a press nip elongated in a web travel direction and formed between the shoe press unit and the counter roll, at least one first support element where the flexible press belt is supported on the non-rotating carrier by the at least one first support element in the region of the elongated press nip, at least one second support element where the roll jacket is supported on the second non-rotating carrier by the at least one second support element in the region of the elongated press nip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2005
    Assignee: Voith Sulzer Papiertechnik Patent GmbH
    Inventors: Hans Prinzing, Rainer Bentele
  • Method for fabrication of optical element having metal ring
    Patent number: 6935136
    Abstract: A metal ring for an optical element that is served to cover a peripheral side surface of a lens and served to fix the lens to a mounting member by means of soldering is provided with a thin-wall sleeve a diameter of which is expanded toward a peripheral direction by means of pressure received from an optical material disposed inside the metal ring to thereby obtain a final peripheral side surface size, a thin-wall portion having an inside periphery near an extension of an inside peripheral surface of the thin-wall sleeve on one of apertures of the thin-wall sleeve, and a holding portion comprising a flange that projects from an edge of the aperture toward the aperture. A metal ring for an optical element, a method for fabrication of the optical element having the metal ring, and an optical element having a metal ring of the invention employ the abovementioned metal ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2005
    Assignee: ALPS Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Motohiko Otsuki, Kimihiro Kikuchi
  • Smoking article comprising a wrapper containing a ceramic material
    Patent number: 6935346
    Abstract: The invention describes a smoking article (1) comprising a wrapper (3) enwrapping a tobacco smoking material (2), the wrapper comprising a ceramic material and being capable of mechanically trapping mainly aqueous particulate phase materials in the sidestream smoke, thereby reducing sidestream smoke deliveries considerably despite the use of the wrapper with conventional tobacco materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2005
    Inventors: Alison Bushby, Kevin Gerard McAdam, Nicholas Leslie Timms
  • Method for generating small bubbles for a smoke-filled air stream
    Patent number: 6935345
    Abstract: The present invention is a small bubble generator in a water stage cleaning and cooling a smoke filled air stream. A demister is a second embodiment of the invention to remove entrained water droplets from a cleaned and cooled smoke filled air stream issuing from the water stage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2005
    Inventors: Christopher Carstens, Daniel Carstens
  • Smoking artifact
    Patent number: 6935347
    Abstract: A smoking artifact having a tobacco rod section and a prior art filter section connected to the tobacco rod section. In the preferred embodiment, the tobacco rod section containing a plurality of aloeswood seeds. The aloeswood seeds may be applied either as whole seeds or as a powder from crushed seeds. In an alternate embodiment the tobacco rod section is compartmented into first and second partitioned areas. In this embodiment, the aloeswood seeds is disposed within the first partitioned area, and tobacco is disposed within the second partitioned area. It is an object of the present invention to provide a non-poisonous alternate cigarette to reduce the hazards of smoking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2005
    Inventor: Ranchhodbhai D. Patel
  • Process for the isolation of a major harmful oxidant from cigarette smoke
    Patent number: 6929012
    Abstract: The components of cigarette smoke, known until now, do not explain the overwhelming hazardous effects of smoking; this invention describes the isolation, identification and procedures for determination of the structure, properties and assay of a relatively stable major harmful oxidant (cs-oxidant) present in the cigarette smoke, the content of which is about 190±10 ?g per cigarette; the cs-oxidant alone almost quantitatively accounts for the oxidative damage of proteins produced by the aqueous extract of whole cigarette smoke, it is also responsible for the oxidative damage of DNA; since the cs-oxidant is relatively stable, it further explains the deleterious effects of the side stream smoke and passive smoking; a number of chemical compounds/agents including vitamin C have been found to prevent the cs-oxidant induced protein oxidation in vitro.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
    Inventor: Indu Bhusan Chatterjee
  • Wrapping materials for smoking articles
    Patent number: 6929013
    Abstract: Smokable rods of cigarettes are manufactured using wrapping materials that incorporate at least one fibrous material (e.g., flax fibers, hardwood pulp fibers and/or softwood pulp fibers) at least one filler material (e.g., calcium carbonate in particulate form). The wrapping materials possess multi-layer coatings. The wrapping materials possess coatings in the form of series of spaced apart bands, each band possessing a series of layers. At least one of the coating layers can have a filler material dispersed or suspended within a film-forming material of that layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventors: Charles Ray Ashcraft, James Herbert Ellis, Jr., James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, John Joseph Tomel, Jr., Don Hayes White, Sara Sutton Williard, Paul Stuart Chapman, Mark Stuart Powell
  • Device for filling a cigarette tube with a metered amount of tobacco
    Patent number: 6913022
    Abstract: Devices for filling a cigarette tube with tobacco are disclosed. In one aspect, the devices contain separate metering, compression, and injection mechanisms, which may be manual, partially automatic, or fully automatic. The metering mechanisms move a proper amount of tobacco to a compression chamber, where the tobacco is thereafter compressed for eventual injection. In some embodiments, means are provided for assessing whether a sufficient quantity of tobacco has been metered into the compression chamber, and if not, further metering is accomplished prior to injection. In another aspect, the metering and compression mechanisms are combined into a single mechanism to the same effect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2005
    Assignee: Cousins Distributing, Inc.
    Inventors: Larry E. Moser, Robert J. Daily
  • Device and process for introducing gases into a hot medium
    Patent number: 6912874
    Abstract: This invention relates to a device and a process for introducing gases into a hot medium, whereby device (1) contains a pipe (2) for introducing gas and a cooling jacket (3) that encases pipe (2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2005
    Assignee: Schott Glas
    Inventors: Christian Kunert, Werner Kiefer, Hildegard Roemer, Uwe Kolberg
  • Filter attaching apparatus
    Patent number: 6913023
    Abstract: A filter attaching apparatus comprises a drum 20 for conveying an intermediate product of a filter cigarette and a receiving drum 36 for feeding a tip paper piece, and winds the tip paper piece around the intermediate product while rotating these drums with the tip paper piece adhered to the intermediate product. Suction chambers 48 and 50 are disposed in the vicinity of the drum 20 that conveys the intermediate product, and suction openings of the suction chambers extend in a conveying direction of the intermediate product along an outer periphery of the drum 20. Fine particles of shredded tobacco and the like that are scattered by rotation of the drum 20 are sucked through the suction openings into the suction chambers 48 and 50 and the like, so that the intermediate product is completely isolated from an atmosphere of the fine particles of the shredded tobacco and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2005
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Okamoto, Takayuki Irikura, Hiroshi Sakuma
  • Cigar tip plug cutter
    Patent number: 6907886
    Abstract: A cigar tip plug cutter uses a cylindrical cutting blade to cut a round plug from the sealed end of a cigar. The cylindrical blade has a beveled upper edge tapering from the outer diameter to the inner diameter to better retain the cut plug. The blade is secured upright to a support platform and a cigar plug ejector rod projects upwardly through the blade. The ejector rod is secured to a base portion, as are at least two supports that attach to the underside of a cigar tip receiving plate. The plate has a central orifice to permit passage of the blade. The receiving plate is urged away from the support platform by compression springs that also cause the ejector rod to project into the blade. A platform cover fits slidably over the receiving plate and includes spring-loaded balls that maintain the receiving plate in upper and lower positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2005
    Assignee: Belasco Jacobs & Townsley, LLP
    Inventor: Gary K. Kemanjian
  • Modifying nicotine and nitrosamine levels in tobacco
    Patent number: 6907887
    Abstract: The present invention generally relates to tobacco and tobacco products having a reduced amount of nicotine and/or tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNA). More specifically, several ways to make tobacco plants that have reduced nicotine and TSNA levels have been discovered. Embodiments include tobacco harvested from said tobacco plants, cured tobacco from said tobacco plants, tobacco products made with said cured tobacco and methods of making these compositions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2005
    Assignee: Vector Tobacco Ltd.
    Inventor: Mark A. Conkling
  • High efficiency cigarette filters having shaped micro cavity fibers impregnated with adsorbent or absorbent materials
    Patent number: 6907885
    Abstract: This invention is a highly efficient filter containing fibers that contain small particle size adsorbents/absorbents such as carbon and/or silica to selectively reduce targeted components in mainstream cigarette smoke. The invention relates to a novel class of highly efficient cigarette smoke filters made from much smaller solid fine particles (preferably 1-50 micrometers in diameter) impregnated in shaped fibers that possess open or semi-opened micro-cavity. The invention further relates to a cigarette having a plug/space/plug or plug/space configuration and having the impregnated filters resided in the space in bonded non-woven or freely unbounded manner to allow controlled TPM delivery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2005
    Assignee: Philip Morris USA Inc.
    Inventors: Lixin Luke Xue, Kent B. Koller, Qiong Gao
  • Low sidestream smoke cigarette with non-combustible treatment material
    Patent number: 6904918
    Abstract: A low sidestream smoke cigarette comprises a conventional tobacco rod and a non-combustible treatment material for the rod. The treatment material has a porosity less than about 200 Coresta units and a sidestream smoke treatment composition. The treatment composition comprises, in combination, an oxygen storage and donor metal oxide oxidation catalyst and an essentially non-combustible finely divided porous particulate adjunct for said catalyst. In addition, the invention provides a low sidestream smoke cigarette unit that comprises a cigarette with conventional cigarette paper surrounding a conventional tobacco rod and a non-combustible treatment material surrounding and being substantially in contact with the conventional cigarette paper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2005
    Assignee: Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc.
    Inventors: Stanislav M. Snaidr, E. Robert Becker
  • Method of manufacturing cigarette suppressing spread of burn and apparatus for manufacturing cigarette suppressing spread of burn
    Patent number: 6904917
    Abstract: An apparatus includes a unit which forms burn control agent coated regions on a web of a wrapping paper transferred by a wrapping paper transfer unit at a plurality of positions separated from each other in the longitudinal or in the width direction of the web, a unit which supplies chopped tobacco leaves to the wrapping paper after formation of the coated regions, a roll-up unit which rolls up the wrapping paper on which the chopped tobacco leaves are supplied, and a cigarette cutting unit which cuts the rolled-up wrapping paper together with the chopped tobacco leaves in a predetermined length of the cigarette in the longitudinal direction thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2005
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco, Inc.
    Inventors: Satoshi Kitao, Keigo Miura, Sadayoshi Matsuura, Fumio Sashide, Tsuyoshi Futamura
  • Tobacco processing
    Patent number: 6895974
    Abstract: Tobaccos are cured in a manner so as to provide tobaccos having extremely low tobacco specific nitrosamine (TSNA) contents. Harvested Virginia tobacco is subjected to flue-curing so as to provide flue-cured tobacco. During the curing processing steps, contact of the tobacco with nitric oxide gases, such as those produced as combustion products of propane burning heating units, is avoided. Tobacco in curing barns is not subjected to direct-fire curing techniques, but rather, heat for tobacco curing can be provided by heat exchange or electrical heating methods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2005
    Assignee: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventor: David McCray Peele
  • Liquid cooling system for production machines of the tobacco-processing industry
    Patent number: 6892735
    Abstract: A liquid cooling arrangement is provided for machine components of production machines of the tobacco-processing industry. The arrangement includes a closed liquid cooling system having at least two liquid loops.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2005
    Assignee: Hauni Maschinenbau AG
    Inventor: Joachim Schicke
  • Cigarette having porous heat transfer tube
    Patent number: 6883523
    Abstract: A smoking article includes a cylinder of smoking material, a filter attached to the cylinder of smoking material, and a tube of preferably porous and/or perforated material adapted to collapse at an open end upon exposure to thermal energy and preferably extending from one end portion of the smoking material to the junction of the filter and the cylinder of smoking material. Thermal energy generated by a burning portion of the tobacco filler material within the cylinder of smoking material is transferred by convection through the open portion of the tube after the end portion of the tube has collapsed closed by the heat from the burning portion of the tobacco.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2005
    Assignee: Philip Morris USA Inc.
    Inventor: Henry M. Dante
  • Wrapper paper for smoking articles
    Patent number: 6883524
    Abstract: Wrapper paper for a smoking article carries 1 g/m2 to 15 g/m2 of a burn adjusting agent and 1 g/m2 to 30 g/m2 of a calcium phosphate-based compound in the wrapper paper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2005
    Assignee: Japan Tobacco Inc.
    Inventors: Satoshi Ishikawa, Takeo Tsutsumi, Makoto Sato, Kaoru Inoue