I. Tobacco Cutting Equipment
(I) Conditioning Equipment
- Microwave Loosening and Conditioning Equipment for Tobacco Sheets
This is an innovative application of microwave technology in tobacco sheet conditioning within China's tobacco industry. It effectively conditions tobacco sheets and has been widely adopted by numerous domestic cigarette enterprises. Its working principle relies on the thermal and non-thermal effects of microwaves: microwaves cause water molecules inside tobacco sheets to vibrate, generating heat to achieve rapid temperature rise, sterilization, and loosening. This process enhances the softness and processability of tobacco sheets. For example, in actual production, dry and caked tobacco sheets can be processed by this equipment to become suitable for subsequent processes such as cutting.
- Vacuum Conditioning Machine
Tobacco bales are placed in a vacuum environment, and steam is injected for conditioning. This method enables uniform moisture absorption inside tobacco bales, effectively adjusting the moisture content of tobacco leaves, improving their toughness, and reducing breakage during subsequent processing. In large-scale cigarette factories, vacuum conditioning machines can process a large number of tobacco bales at one time, meeting the needs of large-scale production.
(II) Cutting Equipment
Tobacco Cutter
As a key equipment for processing treated tobacco stems or leaves into stem cuttings or tobacco cuttings, it directly affects the quality of stem cuttings or tobacco cuttings. China's SQ series tobacco cutters adopt technologies such as fieldbus, programmable control, and AC control, with a cutting capacity of up to 9600 kg/h and flexible adjustment of cutting width between 0.1 mm and 3 mm. Among them, the SQ34 tobacco cutter further adopts hierarchical industrial control network and remote communication technology, group synchronous control technology for cutting width and feed rate adjustment, and PC-based automatic control technology. These technologies greatly improve the overall performance and automation level of the equipment, ensuring cutting precision and stability.
(III) Drying Equipment
- New Airflow Drying Equipment
It is mainly used to increase the filling value of tobacco cuttings, promote rapid expansion of stem cuttings or tobacco cuttings, improve the color and aroma of tobacco cuttings, and reduce tar content. The SHg series tobacco cuttings dryer developed in China has an expansion rate of up to 30%. By drying tobacco cuttings in a low-oxygen or oxygen-free environment, it ensures good color and elasticity of tobacco cuttings, avoiding oxidative browning or hardening. For instance, the SH9611 tobacco cuttings dryer is a dual-purpose equipment for stem cuttings and leaf cuttings. It not only reduces the equipment height but also increases the length of the drying pipeline, allowing flexible adjustment of drying temperature to meet the drying needs of different tobacco cuttings.
- New Drum-Type Tobacco Cuttings Drying Equipment
It adopts a double-drum synchronous rotation structure. Under the action of a vibrating conveyor, tobacco cuttings enter the annular space of the drying drum and are continuously stirred inside the drum to achieve dehydration. This structure ensures a relatively low breakage rate of tobacco cuttings; meanwhile, the tube-sheet heating structure enhances the stability of the heating drum, ensuring the expansion effect and curl degree of tobacco cuttings, and providing high-quality and stable tobacco cuttings for subsequent rolling and forming.
II. Rolling and Connecting Equipment
(I) Cigarette Making Machine
- ZJ112 Cigarette Making Machine
It adopts data communication, drive, and control technologies, reaching an advanced level in fault diagnosis, data monitoring, and data analysis. Its technical and economic indicators are comparable to those of international similar products. It can stably and efficiently roll tobacco cuttings into cigarettes, meeting the needs of large-scale production, and is widely used in numerous domestic cigarette production lines.
- ZJ116B Cigarette Making and Connecting Unit
Developed by Changde Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd., it is designed to meet the demand for high-speed production of slim cigarettes. This unit has broken through seven core technologies, including fluidized bed tobacco feeding, stem cuttings separation, suction forming, rolling into rods, cigarette twisting connection, cigarette conveying, and laser perforation, creating a dual-flue rolling and connecting unit suitable for the production of Chinese-style slim cigarettes. It has developed a number of independent intellectual property technologies such as "independent stem cuttings sorting technology", "multi-channel electronic gluing technology for tipping paper", and "slim cigarette twisting connection technology", and has obtained 17 patent authorizations. Its overall technology and performance indicators have reached the advanced level of international similar models, making it one of the main models of slim cigarette rolling and connecting equipment in the industry.
- ZJ119 Cigarette Making and Connecting Unit
With a production speed of up to 10,000 cigarettes per minute, it provides support for the upgrading of high-speed rolling and packaging equipment in the industry. It marks a leap in China's domestic tobacco machinery from technology introduction, digestion, and absorption to the combination of integrated innovation and independent innovation, meeting the needs of cigarette enterprises for high-speed and high-efficiency production.
(II) Filter Connecting Machine
YJ21 Filter Connecting Machine and Similar Models
It is responsible for connecting filters with cigarettes, ensuring the firmness and stability of the connection. With the development of technology, new-type filter connecting machines have continuously improved in automation level, connection precision, and adaptability to filters and cigarettes of different specifications. For example, they can accurately control the amount of glue applied, ensuring tight connection between filters and cigarettes and smooth appearance, thus improving product quality and production efficiency.
III. Packaging Equipment
(I) Hard Pack Packaging Machine
- ZB45 Hard Pack and Hard Carton Packaging Unit
With a packaging speed of up to 400 packs per minute, it is widely used in the hard pack packaging field of domestic cigarettes. It features a reasonable structural design and stable operation, and can efficiently complete a series of packaging processes such as pack forming, filling, and sealing.
- ZB47 Packaging Unit
It absorbs advanced technologies from Italy's G.D Company, with further optimized equipment structure and improved production speed. It can realize high-quality packaging of hard pack cigarettes, and performs excellently in terms of packaging quality, efficiency, and equipment stability, meeting the packaging needs of modern cigarette production enterprises.
- ZB416A Slim Cigarette Packaging Unit
Developed by Shanghai Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd., it has overcome key technologies such as cigarette jamming during slim cigarette feeding and pioneered a precisely heated cigarette pack output system. It greatly improves packaging quality, realizes the leap from medium-speed to high-speed slim cigarette packaging, with a packaging speed of up to 500 packs per minute, effectively meeting the packaging needs of slim cigarettes.
(II) Soft Pack Packaging Machine
- ZB25 Soft Pack Packaging Unit
It has laid the foundation for the horizontal packaging method, and many of its structures are similar to those of the ZB45 unit. This unit can complete the packaging process of soft pack cigarettes. Although it was launched relatively early, it still plays an important role in some cigarette factories after continuous improvement and maintenance.
- ZB28 Soft Pack and Hard Carton Packaging Unit
With a packaging speed of up to 600 packs per minute, it has significantly improved in packaging speed and efficiency compared with early soft pack packaging machines. At the same time, it has also been optimized in terms of packaging quality and equipment stability, making it suitable for large-scale soft pack cigarette packaging production.
IV. Filter Rod Forming Equipment
- YL32 Filter Rod Forming Machine and Similar Models
As representative of early domestic filter rod forming machines, they can process tow and other raw materials into filter rods that meet standards, providing supporting filter rods for cigarette production. With technological progress, their filter rod forming precision, production efficiency, and adaptability to different raw materials have been continuously improved.
- ZL29 Filter Rod Forming Unit (600 m/min) and ZL28 Filter Rod Forming Unit (1000 m/min)
They have high production speeds and can efficiently produce a large number of high-quality filter rods. The forming process has been continuously optimized to ensure that indicators such as filter rod circumference, length, and hardness meet strict standards, satisfying the large-scale demand for filter rods in cigarette enterprises.
- 400 m/min Slim Filter Rod Forming Machine
Developed by Xuchang Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd., it has mastered the opening and forming technologies that are directly related to the production quality of slim filter rods. It has broken the market monopoly of imported equipment in this field at one stroke, providing key equipment support for the production of slim cigarettes.
V. Threshing and Redrying Equipment
- Environmentally Friendly and Energy-Saving Threshing and Air Separation Equipment
It overcomes the shortcomings of traditional threshing and redrying equipment, such as dust and noise generation and high raw material consumption. By in-depth exploration of the structural principles of air separation and threshing, it adopts split-type air separation technology and blow-type threshing technology to achieve noise reduction and energy saving. A fully enclosed conveyor is installed between the threshing equipment and the air separator, replacing traditional pneumatic conveying equipment. It implements gentle threshing and fine separation, reducing noise and energy consumption while improving threshing efficiency and air separation performance.
- High-Capacity Redrying Equipment
It improves the working efficiency and level of threshing and redrying equipment, developing towards large-scale and intensive production. This equipment has dual functions; it increases the length of the conditioning area and drying area, extends the residence time of tobacco sheets in the drying equipment, realizes low-temperature slow drying, and reduces the shrinkage rate of tobacco sheets. It also introduces a humidity control link, enabling the dryer to achieve separate control and independent moisture exhaust functions, ensuring the processing quality of tobacco products.
- Tobacco Sheet Structure Detection Equipment
It uses computer image recognition technology to automatically calculate the area of tobacco sheets, detect their shape, and compare them with pre-stored data to obtain tobacco sheet structure data. When installed after threshing equipment, the detection results can be timely fed back to the control system to adjust relevant parameters and correct structural deviations. When installed after redrying equipment, it can realize real-time storage of monitoring data, facilitating system inspection and data analysis, and providing data support for quality control in the threshing and redrying process.