Cigarette paper with selected attenuator bands

Abstract

Smoke constituent reduction may be achieved by resolving from puff-to-puff analysis at which location along a tobacco rod production of a particular smoke constituent is maximized, and locally applying an attenuator at such resolved location to reduce production of the constituent. The remainder of the rod is left untreated so as to minimize impact on taste and burn characteristics of the cigarette. The attenuator material may be applied to the cigarette paper using a moving orifice device to create bands of such materials on the cigarette paper at predetermined locations along the tobacco rod.

1 . A method of manufacturing a cigarette comprising the steps of: 
 feeding banded cigarette paper along a path through a tobacco rod forming device and to a cutter;    operating said cutter to repetitively and in a predetermined phase relationship with respect to arrival of a banded region of said fed banded cigarette paper at said cutter so as to repetitively produce a tobacco rod structure, said tobacco rod structure including a feature of a banded region at a predetermined location along said tobacco rod structure;    maintaining consistency of said feature by: 
 during said feeding step, generating a first signal indicative of a passage of a banded region at a first location along said path;  
 generating a second signal indicative of an operational phase of said cutter,  
 processing said first and second signals to generate an output signal indicative of a perturbation away from said phase relationship; and  
 operating a lag-lead mechanism responsively to said output signal and counteractively to said perturbation.  
   
   
   
       2 . The method as claimed in  claim 1  further comprising the step of making a bobbin of banded paper by establishing a base web and operating a moving orifice slurry applicator to establish banded regions at spaced locations along said base web.  
   
   
       3 . A plurality of tobacco rods each including tobacco, a wrapper and a cut end formed by cutting the tobacco rods in a repeated spatial relation with respect to a band of material applied to the wrapper so that the bands are positioned at a preselected location along the rods.