By Allen Liao
Along with continued progress in the development of new technologies for enhancing functionality of cigarette filters and lowering the tar content, some amazing new types of filters are emerging, some of which have been utilized in new cigarette products in China over recent years.
High-end cigarette manufacturers are using some uniquely functional and creative filters with powerful utilities, including the vertical multiple circular column filter, the Taiji composite filter and the multi-layer network filter, all effective in reducing the content of tar and other harmful substances in cigarette smoke, also contribute to anti-counterfeiting efforts and delivering more fragrance cigarette smoke.
With a cross section of concentric circles, the vertical multiple circular column filter’s inner core has a lower draw resistance, the outer core higher. The vertical multiple circular column filter design is effective at reducing tar and carbon monoxide content to varying degrees. This flexibility is noticeable in the changing pressure drops, the perceivable effects of varying back ventilation and control of the smoke’s route. The smoker can tell that the filter clearly lowers the content of carbon monoxide and other harmful substances in cigarette smoke. Plus, the vertical multiple circular column filter has a novel and unique appearance, which can add to the anti-counterfeiting efforts.. Presently, Hubei Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation uses this type of filter in its Yellow Crane Tower (Limitless Roam) cigarettes.
Adjustable filtrationTo produce a unique new cigarette product, China Tobacco Hubei Industrial Corporation turned to a new-type composite filter with a cross section of concentric circles. When the outer ring of the filter is kneaded anticlockwise, its inner core will curve outward, contributing to changing the taste of the smoke. The more the inner core curves outward, the more stimulative the cigarette smoke will be. On the contrary, the less the inner core curves outward, the milder the cigarette smoke will become. This filter design certainly makes smoking a cigarette a more amazing experience.
Hongyun-Honghe Tobacco Group in southwest China’s tobacco-producing Yunnan province has developed a new cigarette product named Yunyan-Win, designed for young consumers. Yunyan-Win cigarettes each have a novel, unique type of filter, "the filter with a visible fragrance-leading line". The so-called fragrance-leading line refers to a visible line put inside the cigarette filter from the beginning to the end. This line will enable cigarette smokers to experience the inhalation of fragrant smoke more directly while experiencing a unique physical sensation.
Multifunction filtersClearly the Chinese tobacco industry is shifting away from the use of a single material to produce filters with a single function and a single structure to the use of composite materials and developing new types of multifunction filters with complicated structures.
Mudanjiang Cigarette Factory in northeast China has developed a new-type composite filter with a porous granular material added. Recently, the State Intellectual Property Office granted a patent of utility model to this new-type filter. With a good filtration effect, this new filter is capable of absorbing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, thereby lowering the content of carcinogenic substances in the smoke. Plus, it is also capable of improving the cigarette’s taste. This new filter can be made in the form of a general acetate fiber filter, or a dual, tertiary or dual three-stage composite filter with corrugated paper. Although it has been granted a patent, the filter has so far not been used to produce any cigarette products.
In May 2009, the State Intellectual Property Office made public an application of Wuhan Tobacco Group in central China’s Hubei province for a patent right to its invention of a new filter designed to remove smoke spots. The uniqueness of this invention lies in the addition of a phytic acid in the form of a faint yellow liquid or a yellow brown syrupy liquid into the firming agent in the filter. The phytic acid added mixes with the firming agent in the filter which then acquires smoke spot removal properties. Meanwhile, the phytic acid harmonizes well with the cigarette’s flavor, imparting no negative sensory impacts.
But although there have been some excitingly innovative new products introduced in the field of filter design over recent years, some new filter products have not been extensively applied in actual cigarette production because of cost and technological limitations.
Acetate fiber remains continues to be the standard material used in cigarette filter production. Along with continued increase in the output of cigarettes in China, the supply of acetate fiber in the country will increasingly fall short of demand. This provides a great incentive for manufacturers to reduce the use of acetate fiber in the production of cigarette filters and to find new substitute materials.
As consumer demand for cigarette products with "reduced content of tar and other harmful substances" increases, the filter – which is an inalienable part of tobacco products – will assume a greater role and continue to develop rapidly.
