Abstract: A lamina/air separator for use atop apparatus for removing tobacco lamina from a lamina/stem mixture includes a horizontally disposed perforated cylindrical drum rotatively secured within a housing having sidewalls containing air exit ports adjacent the extremities of the drum. A sealing assembly interactive between each extremity of the drum and associated sidewall utilizes two flexed sealing strips to create a stagnant zone, bounded in part by the sidewall, that envelopes the extremity of the drum.

Abstract: A modular pneumatic type tobacco separator apparatus employs a separation chamber which receives a threshed tobacco mixture at a feed trough at an upper elevation, and receives an upwardly directed air stream at a lower elevation. The air stream separates the mixture into lamina material, which is blown upwardly and removed by way of a screening separator, and stem material which falls to the bottom of the chamber, and is removed by an upwardly inclined conveyor belt. The configuration of the apparatus is such that, when two units of the apparatus are placed interactively together, the stem material emergent from a first unit drops by gravity into the feed trough of the next successive downstream unit of the apparatus.