Fleece for smokeless tobacco

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10973256-B2
Application number	US-201815886529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 1, 2018
Priority date	Jul 30, 2012
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

A fleece for a smokeless tobacco pouch is disclosed. The fleece is formed with apertures.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fleece for a smokeless tobacco pouch comprising a fleece material and a plurality of apertures formed therein, wherein the fleece is formed from fibers and comprises a first and a second direction, the second direction transverse to the direction of the fibers, and in a dry state exhibits a tensile strength of at least 9 N/5 cm in the second direction.

2. The fleece according to claim 1 , wherein the fleece material comprises viscose.

3. The fleece according to claim 1 , further comprising viscose fibers having a decitex of 1.5 or less.

4. The fleece according to claim 1 , wherein the mean aperture size ranges from 50 to 250 μm in diameter.

5. The fleece according to claim 1 , wherein the mean diameter of the apertures is 100 μm or greater.

6. The fleece according to claim 5 , wherein the fleece material comprises viscose.

7. The fleece according to claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of the apertures have a diameter of at least 100 μm.

8. The fleece according to claim 1 , which in a wet state exhibits a tensile strength of at least 5 N/5 cm in the second direction.

9. The fleece according to claim 1 , and exhibiting a bending rigidity of 0.5 μNm or less in the second direction.

10. The fleece according to claim 1 , having a mean aperture size of at least 50 μm in diameter.

11. A smokeless tobacco pouch formed from the fleece claimed in claim 1 .

12. The smokeless tobacco pouch according to claim 11 , which, if the pouch is immersed in water using a Franz diffusion cell, a colour intensity of the water in which the pouch is immersed is increased by a factor of at least 9 when comparing the colour intensity of the water after 10 seconds of the pouch being immersed in the water with the colour intensity after 30 seconds of the pouch being immersed in the water, the colour intensity measured using a spectrophotometer set at 260 nm.

13. The smokeless tobacco pouch according to claim 11 , wherein the smokeless tobacco pouch has a faster release rate of constituents compared to a pouch formed from a standard fleece, according to absorbance readings of a spectrophotometer set at 260 nm used to measure colour intensity of water in a Franz diffusion cell in which the pouches can be immersed, wherein a standard fleece is made of viscose fibers by standard fleece-making processes and does not have significant visible apertures therein.

14. The smokeless tobacco pouch according to claim 13 , having a release rate that is at least 25% faster compared to a pouch formed from a standard fleece.

15. The smokeless tobacco pouch according to claim 11 , which, if immersed in water, produces an absorbance reading of a colour intensity of the water, measured using a spectrophotometer, is at least 2 after 30 seconds of the snus pouch being immersed in water.

Assignees

• British American Tobacco Investments Ltd

Inventors

• Rushforth David
• Sommarstrom Eva
• Wormald Paul

Classifications

• A24B13/00 Primary

  Tobacco for pipes, for cigars, e.g. cigar inserts, or for cigarettes; Chewing tobacco; Snuff (reconstituted tobacco products A24B3/14) · CPC title

• A24F23/02 Primary

  Tobacco pouches · CPC title