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EP-4739150-A1 - CRIMPING ROLLER, CRIMPING ROLLER PAIR, CRIMPING DEVICE AND MACHINE OF THE TOBACCO PROCESSING INDUSTRY AND METHOD FOR CRIMPING A FLAT WEB AND PRODUCING A STRAND, AND ROD-LIKE ARTICLES

EP4739150A1EP 4739150 A1EP4739150 A1EP 4739150A1EP-4739150-A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a crimping roller (6), a crimping roller pair (10), a crimping device (4) and machine (2) of the tobacco processing industry and a method for crimping a flat web (14) and for producing a strand (28), and a rod-like article (68). The crimping roller (6) for a crimping device (4) of the tobacco processing industry has on the lateral surface (36), in alternation, grooves (38) and teeth (40) which extend continuously in the circumferential direction of the crimping roller (6). The crimping roller (6) is rotatable about an axis of rotation (42). The grooves (38) have a groove base (44) which is curved parallel to the axis of rotation (42), and the teeth (40) have an at least partly flat tooth head (46).

Inventors

  • Kuschel, Julian
  • Westeroth, Patrick
  • MEIS, HARTMUT

Assignees

  • Körber Technologies GmbH

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20240802

Claims (18)

  1. 1. Crimping roller (6) for a crimping device in the tobacco processing industry, on the preferably integrally formed outer surface (36) of which closed circumferential grooves (38) and teeth (40) are arranged alternately in the circumferential direction of the crimping roller (6), wherein the crimping roller (6) is designed to be rotatable about an axis of rotation (42), characterized in that the grooves (38) have a groove base (44) curved parallel to the axis of rotation (42) and the teeth (40) have a tooth head (46) which is flat at least in sections.
  2. 2. Crimping roller (6) according to claim 1, characterized in that the tooth heads (46) of the teeth (40) each have a flat section (48), wherein the flat sections (48) extend in an imaginary cylinder surface constructed around the axis of rotation (42).
  3. 3. Crimping roller (6) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the groove base (44), viewed in a plane in which the axis of rotation (42) runs, describes a curve whose slope is continuous.
  4. 4. Crimping roller (6) according to claim 3, characterized in that the groove base (44), viewed in the plane, describes a conic section, in particular a circular arc, preferably with a radius of 0.15 mm to 0.4 mm, particularly preferably from 0.18 mm to 0.35 mm, an elliptical arc or a parabola.
  5. 5. Crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that a flank angle (a) of the teeth (40) is between 15° and 40°, in particular between 16° and 22° or between 25° and 35°.
  6. 6. Crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, viewed in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation (42), the tooth head (46) has a tooth head width (52), preferably between 0.05 mm and 0.7 mm, in particular between 0.08 mm and 0.2 mm or between 0.4 mm and 0.6 mm, and the tooth head (46) together with the adjacent groove (38) has a structural width (54), wherein the tooth head width (52) is between 8% and 50%, in particular between 10% and 30% or between 25% and 38%, and in particular the structural width (54).
  7. 7. Crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the tooth head (46) is sharp-edged or has a chamfer or rounding at its edges (56) at which a surface of the crimping roller (6) passes from the tooth head (46) into the adjacent groove (38), or the number of tooth heads is greater than 150 or 200 or 250 or 300.
  8. 8. Crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that a surface (58) of the crimping roller (6) has an average roughness depth (Rz) of better than Rz=10, in particular of better than Rz=8 and furthermore in particular of better than Rz=6.
  9. 9. Crimping roller pair (10), comprising a first and a second crimping roller (6a, 6b), each according to one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the first and the second crimping roller (6a, 6b) of the crimping roller pair (10) are arranged such that the teeth (40) of the first crimping roller (6a) engage in the grooves (38) of the second crimping roller (6b) and vice versa, wherein in particular the crimping roller pair (10) with the intermeshing teeth of the first crimping roller (6a) and the second crimping roller (6b) has a crimping depth between 100 pm and 1100 pm, preferably between 150 pm and 400 pm or between 500 pm and 800 pm.
  10. 10. Crimping roller pair (10) according to claim 9, characterized in that the ratio of the structural width of the teeth minus twice the tooth width of the teeth to twice the crimping depth is greater than 1 or greater than 0.5.
  11. 11. Crimping device (4) of the tobacco processing industry for processing a flat web (14) of the tobacco processing industry, comprising a flat web feed device (12), at least one crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 8, a counter bearing (8) interacting with the crimping roller (6) and a transfer device (24), wherein the flat web feed device (12) is designed to feed the flat web (14) into an active region (16) between the at least one crimping roller (6) and the counter bearing (8) interacting with the crimping roller (6), and the transfer device (24) is designed to feed the crimped flat web (22) from the active region (16) to a downstream processing device, in particular a strand forming device (26).
  12. 12. Crimping device (4) according to claim 11, characterized in that the counter bearing (8) is a crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 8 or that the crimping device (4) has a pair of crimping rollers according to claim 9 or 10.
  13. 13. Machine (2) of the tobacco processing industry, comprising: a crimping device (4) with at least one crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 8 and with a counter bearing (8) interacting with the crimping roller (6) or with a pair of crimping rollers according to claim 9 or 10, a flat web feed device (12) which is designed to feed a flat web (14) of the tobacco processing industry to an active area (16) between the crimping roller (6) and the counter bearing (8) interacting with the crimping roller (6), a transfer device (24) and a strand forming device (26) arranged downstream, wherein the transfer device (24) is designed to remove the crimped flat web (22) from the active area (16) and feed it to the strand forming device (26) and the strand forming device (26) is designed to form a strand (28) of the tobacco processing industry from the crimped flat web (22). to form.
  14. 14. Machine (2) according to claim 13, characterized in that the counter bearing (8) is a crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 8 and the crimping roller (6) and the counter bearing (8) are arranged such that the teeth (40) of the crimping roller (6) engage in the grooves (38) of the counter bearing (8) with a crimping depth (60) and vice versa, wherein the crimping device (4) has a crimping depth control device (64) which is designed and configured to change the crimping depth (60), wherein the crimping depth control device (64) is further configured to determine a value of a tensile resistance of a rod (28) produced from the tobacco processing industry. segment (34) of the tobacco processing industry and to vary the crimping depth (60) according to a linear relationship depending on the value for the draw resistance.
  15. 15. A method for crimping a flat sheet (14) of the tobacco processing industry, comprising the following steps: Feeding a flat web (14) of the tobacco processing industry into an active region (16) between a crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 8 and a counter bearing (8) cooperating with the crimping roller (6), crimping the flat web (14) in the active region (16) and removing the crimped flat web (22) from the active region (16) and transferring the crimped flat web (22) to a downstream processing device, in particular to a strand forming device (26).
  16. 16. A method for producing a rod (28) of the tobacco processing industry, comprising the following steps: Feeding a flat web (14) of the tobacco processing industry into an active region (16) between a crimping roller (6), in particular according to one of claims 1 to 8, and a counter bearing (8) interacting with the crimping roller (6), crimping the flat web (14) in the active region (16), removing the crimped flat web (22) from the active region (16) and transferring the crimped flat web (22) to a strand forming device (26) arranged downstream, forming a strand (28) of the tobacco processing industry in the strand forming device (26) from the crimped flat web (22), wherein the flat web has a width B1 before the active region and a width B2 after the active region and wherein the ratio B1/B2 is greater than 1.2 or 1.3.
  17. 17. Method according to claim 16, characterized in that the Counter bearing (8) is a crimping roller (6) according to one of claims 1 to 8 and the crimping roller (6) and the counter bearing (8) are arranged such that the teeth (40) of the crimping roller (6) engage in the grooves (38) of the counter bearing (8) with a crimping depth (60) and vice versa, wherein the crimping depth (60) is variable and/or is changed according to a linear relationship depending on a value for the tensile resistance of a segment (34) of the tobacco processing industry produced from the strand (28) of the tobacco processing industry.
  18. 18. Rod-shaped article (68) of the tobacco processing industry comprising at least one rod-shaped segment (34) which is produced by cutting a strand (28) produced according to a method according to claim 16 or 17.

Description

Crimping roller, pair of crimping rollers, crimping device and machine of the tobacco processing industry as well as method for crimping a flat strip and producing a strand, rod-shaped articles Description The invention relates to a crimping roller for a crimping device in the tobacco processing industry, on the outer surface of which grooves and teeth are arranged alternately in the circumferential direction of the crimping roller. The invention further relates to a pair of crimping rollers and a crimping device in the tobacco processing industry. The invention also relates to a machine in the tobacco processing industry, having a crimping device. The invention further relates to a method for crimping a flat strip and a method for producing a strand in the tobacco processing industry. Finally, the invention relates to a rod-shaped article in the tobacco processing industry. Flat strips are used for various purposes in the tobacco processing industry and are often processed in a continuous process to form an infinitely long strand. From such a strand rod-shaped segments or articles from the tobacco processing industry can be produced. For example, the flat web can be a paper web, and the segments made from a corresponding strand are paper filters or paper filter segments. Other examples of a strand being used to produce a rod-shaped segment from the tobacco processing industry are the processing of a flat web made from reconstituted tobacco material (RECON) or from PLA film. The rod-shaped segments cut from a corresponding strand can be used or employed as a tobacco segment or as a cooling segment in so-called HNB articles (for “Heat-Not-Burn”), which are also known as THP articles (for “Tobacco-Heated-Product”). Such products from the tobacco processing industry are heated and not burned. As a result of the heating, the ingredients of the tobacco material are released and made available for consumption with an air stream. Important process steps in processing the flat sheet into a strand from which, for example, one of the rod-shaped articles mentioned above can be cut to length are the transformation of the flat sheet from a flat, spread-out state into a folded or gathered intermediate state and the subsequent compression into a strand with an essentially round cross-section. In order to facilitate the gathering of the flat sheet from the flat, spread-out state into the gathered intermediate state and also the further processing into a strand, it is known to crimp the flat sheet. During crimping, the material of the flat sheet is deliberately weakened, deformed or even separated in sections along crimp lines. The crimp lines can run in the lengthwise direction of the flat sheet (longitudinal crimping) or in a direction transverse to the lengthwise direction (transverse crimping). The flat web is processed, i.e. crimped, in an effective area between a pair of intermeshing crimping rollers. The crimping rollers, for example, bring out longitudinally extending Crimp lines in the endless web. The material of the flat web can be stretched along the crimp lines, for example to achieve a targeted weakening of the material along the crimp lines. The flat web can also be given a three-dimensional structure in a plane perpendicular to its longitudinal direction, i.e. deformed, for example in a wave-like or zigzag shape. The three-dimensional structure makes it easier to gather the flat web transversely to its longitudinal direction and also to subsequently form the strand. A crimping device is known, for example, from EP 3 624 615 B1. Another crimping device is known from WO 2021/136612 A1. In this device, properties of the crimped flat strip are evaluated and, depending on these properties, a crimping depth, which is a measure of how far or deeply the crimping rollers engage with each other, is changed. It is an object of the invention to provide a crimping roller for a crimping device, a pair of crimping rollers, a crimping device and a machine in the tobacco processing industry as well as a method for crimping a flat sheet, a method for producing a strand and a rod-shaped article in the tobacco processing industry, wherein a quality of the crimping of the flat sheet is to be improved with regard to the product properties of a rod-shaped article in the tobacco processing industry produced from a flat sheet. The object is achieved by a crimping roller for a crimping device in the tobacco processing industry, on whose jacket surface, preferably formed in one piece, grooves and teeth are arranged alternately in the circumferential direction of the crimping roller, wherein the crimping roller is designed to be rotatable about an axis of rotation, wherein this crimping roller is further developed in that the grooves have a groove base curved parallel to the axis of rotation and the teeth have a tooth head that is flat at least in sections. The grooves and teeth of the crimping roller are arranged alternately in an