Tobacco Products, Manufacture of

the aggregate of the processes involved in making tobacco products.

The main tobacco products are cigarettes and papirosy (Russian-type cigarettes with a long cardboard mouthpiece). The operations involved in the manufacture of these products may be regarded as making up three continuous sequences. First, various classes of leaf tobacco are blended to form batches in accordance with the formula for a given product. Tobacco that has a low moisture content is moistened and then, together with the remaining tobacco of a given batch, is fed onto a conveyor belt for plucking, mixing, and further moistening (if needed). After mixing, the tobacco is transported through the air duct to the feeders of tobacco-cutting machines. In order to convert the cut tobacco into a fluffy mass, the tobacco is fed into pneumatic opening machines, where it is broken up into fibers, and mineral and tobacco dust is removed (that is, the tobacco is made less dense). Then the mixture undergoes drying; this procedure makes the tobacco fiber easier to handle, improves its aroma and taste, and ensures that the tobacco has the required amount of moisture for the manufacture of cigarettes (about 14 percent) and papirosy (about 15.5 percent). Then the tobacco fiber is rapidly cooled in pneumatic conveyors, which supply it to the feeders of production lines for papirosy and cigarettes.

The production line for papirosy, as a rule, includes ten pairs of tube-assembly and stuffing machines; these pairs are connected by a conveyor belt to a packaging machine. The productivity of the line is about 2,800 papirosy per minute. The production line for cigarettes consists of a cigarette-making machine combined with a filter-tip attachment machine—if filter-tip cigarettes are being made—and a packaging unit. The productivity of the line is 1,600 to 2,500 cigarettes per minute.

Tobacco factories in the USSR are equipped with cigarette-making units that manufacture 3,600 to 4,000 filter-tip cigarettes per minute; some lines have two such units, a packaging machine, a cellophane-wrapping machine, and machines for putting the packs or boxes of cigarettes into cartons. These lines produce 36 packs or boxes, containing 20 cigarettes each, per minute and are provided with electronic and other devices for quality control. (See also)