Into the Void: The Fine Art of Cigarette Ventilation
Thinking recently about the perforation of cigarette tipping paper, I was reminded that Leonardo da Vinci is credited with once having said that among the great things that are found among us, the existence of nothing is the greatest. I’m sure you can see where this is leading. The perforation of tipping paper allows for the controlled dilution of tobacco smoke, so, given that in many parts of the world, controlling the deliveries of tobacco smoke constituents is the subject of government regulation, it is no overstatement to say that perforating technology plays a vital role in cigarette manufacture. And so here is a case where a vital role is played by perforations—holes if you like, and what are holes if not nothing?
Of course, this introduction is somewhat misleading because, in the case of perforations, the nothingness “created” is defined by the material in which they are made—the tipping paper, though it is still the case that some such papers are not perforated.
But in the main they are. Axel Nather, head of sales and marketing at Micro Laser Technology (MLT), told Tobacco Reporter in an email exchange early this year that a few manufacturing processes still used electrostatic perforation, which worked well where only very low levels of ventilation were required. However, he said, as government regulations and end users demanded cigarettes with increasingly lower deliveries, laser perforation was ultimately the solution. Laser perforation could be used to produce very stable low-ventilation, medium-ventilation and high-ventilation levels, and ventilation level adjustment was very simple, requiring only changing the hole sizes, track numbers and hole quantities.
With MLT systems, the operator can instigate these adjustments, and, in the case of online equipment, additional parameters can also be set, so, for example, thicker cardboards can be perforated or cut.
The use here of the word “cut” needs some explanation as does the reference to “online” equipment. When it started in business 20 years ago, MLT developed and supplied offline laser perforation machinery, but during the past 10 years, it has also been offering and supplying online equipment. This means the company has three main groups of tobacco industry customers comprising cigarette manufacturers of all sizes, paper converters and machine builders that integrate MLT’s laser equipment into their production lines.
Offline machinery, which comprises stand-alone machinery, is almost always supplied directly to customers. On the other hand, online equipment can, as stated above, be taken up by manufacturers when MLT’s equipment is fitted to OEM cigarette making machinery, and it can be retrofitted to existing manufacturing lines either by MLT or by specialist rebuilders. And finally, there are laboratory systems, which, Nather said, could be delivered with many technically exciting elements.
Finally, that is, in relation to perforation machinery and equipment. The tobacco industry also uses MLT’s systems for laser cutting and laser scribing, mainly in the production of cigarette packaging, where cardboard and foils are cut and scribed. But MLT’s laser perforating and cutting systems have come into their own with the rise of heat-not-burn (HnB) products. Mostly, HnB products are made with relatively thick materials, such as cardboard, said Nather, so for this reason, MLT had developed laser systems that could generate extremely short pulses of very high powered lasers. This allowed the creation of very small, clean holes, and it also meant that many thousands of “cardboard sticks” could be perforated per minute. And if the speed was still not sufficient, two lasers could be used simultaneously to double the speed.
All this adds up to what Nather described as a pleasing and increasing level of project inquiries and sales, despite the fact that in 2020 the coronavirus pandemic had had a significant impact on the entire tobacco industry, with projects often being delayed. Nather mentioned in particular steadily increasing inquiries in the area of online perforation and HnB products. And he said MLT’s service department was currently very busy because, in part, it now maintained older laser systems produced by other suppliers and refurbished their laser sources.
One of the reasons that Nather gave for the increasing level of interest was the innovative nature of the tobacco industry, especially in the area of new product developments, for which MLT’s laser systems were often needed. “This is, of course, very gratifying; development projects are always a great pleasure when exciting products are created,” he said. “As a medium-sized company, we are very flexible and can react relatively quickly.”
The one challenge Nather mentioned concerned the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and I asked him what difficulties MLT had faced and what steps it had been able to take to ameliorate those difficulties. Some tobacco industry projects had been postponed and others had taken longer than normally would have been the case, he said, especially during 2020 and early 2021. In addition, travel had been difficult, and, in some cases, it had not been possible to enter some countries, such as the U.S., for a relatively long time.
In response, MLT had created the circumstances whereby systems could be put into operation virtually, often by helping customers through webcam-based remote maintenance. Interestingly, Nather added that while MLT was glad traveling had become easier again, it would continue to use or even expand the possibilities offered by online maintenance and commissioning. —George Gay
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has stayed the marketing denial order (MDO) issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to Bidi Vapor in September 2021.
