Smoking article comprising a segmented rod of smokable material

Abstract

A smoking article comprises: a rod of smokable material having a mouth-end and a distal-end remote from the mouth-end; an outer wrapper circumscribing the rod; and a mouthpiece abutting and attached to the mouth-end of the rod, the rod includes at least two segments (in abutting end-to-end relation, each of the at least two segments) comprises a charge of smokable material contained within an inner wrapper, the diameter of a downstream segment at the mouth-end of the rod is between 0.2 mm and 0.6 mm smaller than the diameter of an upstream segment at the distal end of the rod. In a preferred embodiment, the abutting ends of the at least two segments, which may comprise different tobacco blends, are oriented at an acute or an obtuse angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the rod.

1 . A smoking article comprising: 
 a rod of smokable material having a mouth-end and a distal-end remote from the mouth-end;    an outer wrapper circumscribing the rod; and    a mouthpiece abutting and attached to the mouth-end of the rod, the rod including at least two segments in abutting end-to-end relation, each of the at least two segments comprising a charge of smokable material contained within an inner wrapper,    characterised in that the diameter of a downstream segment at the mouth-end of the rod is between 0.2 mm and 0.6 mm smaller than the diameter of an upstream segment at the distal end of the rod.    
   
   
       2 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the diameter of the downstream segment is between 0.3 mm and 0.6 mm, smaller than the diameter of the upstream segment.  
   
   
       3 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the downstream segment and the upstream segment comprise different tobacco blends.  
   
   
       4 . A smoking article according to  claim 3  wherein the upstream segment comprises a stronger tobacco blend than the downstream segment.  
   
   
       5 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the abutting ends of the at least two segments are oriented at an acute or an obtuse angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the rod.  
   
   
       6 . A smoking article according to  claim 5  wherein the abutting ends of the at least two segments are oriented at an angle of between 10° and 80°, relative to the longitudinal axis of the rod.  
   
   
       7 . A smoking article according to  claim 5  wherein the abutting ends of the at least two segments are oriented at an angleof about 45° relative to the longitudinal axis of the rod.  
   
   
       8 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the at least two segments are coaxially aligned.  
   
   
       9 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the inner wrapper is a porous plug wrap.  
   
   
       10 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the mouthpiece comprises at least one filter element.  
   
   
       11 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the rod includes two segments and the length of the downstream segment corresponds to about two thirds of the overall length of the rod.  
   
   
       12 . A smoking article according  claim 1  wherein the rod includes three segments and the length of each segment corresponds to about one third of the overall length of the rod.  
   
   
       13 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  further comprising at least one elongate stabilising element extending longitudinally along the rod between an adjacent pair of the at least two segments.  
   
   
       14 . A smoking article according to  claim 1  wherein the diameter of the downstream segment is between 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm, smaller than the diameter of the upstream segment.  
   
   
       15 . A smoking article according to  claim 5  wherein the abutting ends of the at least two segments are oriented at an angle of between 30° and 60°, relative to the longitudinal axis of the rod.  
   
   
       16 . A smoking article according to  claim 5  wherein the abutting ends of the at least two segments are oriented at an angle of between 40° and 50°, relative to the longitudinal axis of the rod.