Patents by Inventor Charles Ray Ashcraft

Charles Ray Ashcraft has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7677256
    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: September 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2010
    Assignee: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventors: Paul Stuart Chapman, Sara Sutton Williard, Charles Ray Ashcraft, James Herbert Ellis, Jr., James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, John Joseph Tomel, Jr., Mark Stuart Powell
  • Publication number: 20090065012
    Abstract: Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an off-line manner to a continuous paper sheet web that is later used for cigarette manufacture. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an on-line manner to continuous paper web moving through an operating cigarette making machine. The coating formulation is applied to the paper web using roll applicator techniques, ink jet printing techniques or electrostatic precipitation techniques. Liquid coating formulation are curable, and are virtually absent of solvent or liquid carrier. Radiation, such as ultraviolet or electron beam radiation, is used to solidify and fix polymerizable liquid components of the coating formulation that have been applied to the paper web.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2008
    Publication date: March 12, 2009
    Inventors: Pankaj Patel, Charles Ray Ashcraft, John Joseph Tomel, JR., Gregory Alan Holmes, Vernon Brent Barnes, Lloyd Harmon Hancock, James Herbert Ellis, JR., James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, Don Hayes White
  • Patent number: 7237559
    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. For a representative wrapping material, a pattern of applied to the wire side major surface of the wrapping material substrate as a plurality of layers, and at least one of the layers includes ethylcellulose and calcium carbonate. For that layer, the calcium carbonate is present in an amount greater than the ethylcellulose, on a weight basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    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
  • Patent number: 6976493
    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: December 20, 2005
    Assignee: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventors: Paul Stuart Chapman, Sara Sutton Williard, Charles Ray Ashcraft, James Herbert Ellis, Jr., James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, John Joseph Tomel, Jr., Mark Stuart Powell
  • 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
  • Publication number: 20040238136
    Abstract: Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an off-line manner to a continuous paper sheet web that is later used for cigarette manufacture. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an on-line manner to continuous paper web moving through an operating cigarette making machine. The coating formulation is applied to the paper web using roll applicator techniques, ink jet printing techniques or electrostatic precipitation techniques. Liquid coating formulation are curable, and are virtually absent of solvent or liquid carrier. Radiation, such as ultraviolet or electron beam radiation, is used to solidify and fix polymerizable liquid components of the coating formulation that have been applied to the paper web.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 16, 2003
    Publication date: December 2, 2004
    Inventors: Pankaj Patel, Charles Ray Ashcraft, John Joseph Tomel, Gregory Alan Holmes, Vernon Brent Barnes, Lloyd Harmon Hancock
  • Publication number: 20040231685
    Abstract: Cigarettes are manufactured using modified automated cigarette making apparatus. Those cigarettes possess smokable rods having paper wrapping materials having additive materials applied thereto as patterns. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an off-line manner to a continuous paper sheet web that is later used for cigarette manufacture. The additive material can be applied as a coating formulation in an on-line manner to continuous paper web moving through an operating cigarette making machine. The coating formulation is applied to the paper web using roll applicator techniques, ink jet printing techniques or electrostatic precipitation techniques. Liquid coating formulation are curable, and are virtually absent of solvent or liquid carrier. Radiation, such as ultraviolet or electron beam radiation, is used to solidify and fix polymerizable liquid components of the coating formulation that have been applied to the paper web.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2003
    Publication date: November 25, 2004
    Inventors: Pankaj Patel, Charles Ray Ashcraft, John Joseph Tomel, Gregory Alan Holmes, Vernon Brent Barnes, Lloyd Harmon Hancock, James Herbert Ellis, James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, Don Hayes White
  • Publication number: 20040099279
    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: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2002
    Publication date: May 27, 2004
    Inventors: Paul Stuart Chapman, Sara Sutton Williard, Charles Ray Ashcraft, James Herbert Ellis, James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, John Joseph Tomel, Mark Stuart Powell
  • Patent number: 6726006
    Abstract: A flask-shaped package or container for packaging smoking articles, such as cigarettes, has a generally parallelepiped shape with slightly curved front and back body panels. The container comprises a body and a lid integrally molded in one-piece of a plastic material with an open bottom having an internal peripheral shoulder and a base made of a separate plastic/metal foil laminate that is bonded to the shoulder by induction heating a heat-activated adhesive covering the metal foil of the base. The body has a central internal front-to-back stiffening rib and an access opening in its top and front panels with a surrounding ledge to which is adhesively bonded a removable foil closure. After the access opening is closed with the foil closure, cigarettes are inserted into the container body through the open bottom thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2004
    Inventors: Douglas Amon Funderburk, Charles Ray Ashcraft, Walter Bohdan, Ellen Strickland Gossett, Nancy Harmon Hawley, Jane Cottrell Henson, William Edward Hazlett, Daniel Klaus Self
  • Publication number: 20030131860
    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: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2002
    Publication date: July 17, 2003
    Inventors: Charles Ray Ashcraft, James Herbert Ellis, James Ray Hutchens, Gregory Scott Pierce, John Joseph Tomel, Don Hayes White, Sara Sutton Williard, Paul Stuart Chapman, Mark Stuart Powell
  • Patent number: 6413644
    Abstract: A sealing film and a method of sealing the film to glass is disclosed. The film comprises a layer of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) or a laminate comprising an outermost ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) layer for adhering to a glass surface, particularly the rim of a glass container, using heat and pressure. The laminate may include in addition to the EVOH layer an adhesive layer, polymeric layer, optional adhesive layer and stock layer. The film has excellent adhesive properties, is food safe and is suitable as a sealing material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2002
    Assignee: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventor: Charles Ray Ashcraft
  • Publication number: 20010010864
    Abstract: A sealing film and a method of sealing the film to glass is disclosed. The film comprises a layer of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) or a laminate comprising an outermost ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) layer for adhering to a glass surface, particularly the rim of a glass container, using heat and pressure. The laminate may include in addition to the EVOH layer an adhesive layer, polymeric layer, optional adhesive layer and stock layer. The film has excellent adhesive properties, is food safe and is suitable as a sealing material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 1997
    Publication date: August 2, 2001
    Inventor: CHARLES RAY ASHCRAFT
  • Patent number: 6155273
    Abstract: A beauty coil that is in the form of a rod which is comprised of a mass of elongated fibers which run the length of the rod. The fibers are held in a compressed state by an outer sheathing having a pair of longitudinal slits at one end of the rod to form a tab to permit easy removal of the sheath which allows the fiber mass to expand or blossom prior to use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2000
    Assignee: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventors: Mickey Lee Smith, Charles Ray Ashcraft, Carl Carlton Greene, Jr.
  • Patent number: 5762860
    Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for cooling or quenching a tube extruded from a water soluble polymer includes a plurality of cooling rings with bores through which the extruded tube passes. A gaseous cooling medium, such as compressed air, is supplied to each cooling ring and is directed immediately downstream of the bore thereof to impinge upon and cool the tubing passing therethrough. The cooling medium is supplied annularly so as to maintain the just-extruded tubing concentric and keep it centered in the bore.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 9, 1998
    Assignee: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventor: Charles Ray Ashcraft
  • Patent number: 5709227
    Abstract: A degradable smoking article comprises a tobacco rod and a filter component made of a gathered web of moisture disintegrative sheet material wrapped with a moisture disintegrative plug wrap bonded along a longitudinal seam with a water soluble adhesive. A moisture disintegrative tipping paper coated on one side with a water soluble adhesive secures the tobacco, rod and filter component together. The combination of moisture and other natural elements such as sunlight, mechanical abrasion, etc., dissociates the components of the smoking article over a relatively short period of time. Other embodiments of the filter component include a hollow degradable tube and a monolithic extruded starch filter rod.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: January 20, 1998
    Assignee: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
    Inventors: Barbara Walker Arzonico, Michael Francis Dube, Glenn Edward Creamer, Robert Leslie Oglesby, Charles Ray Ashcraft, Robin Kent Wilson