Products
Tobacco products represent rather widespread spectrum of goods consumed practically in all regions of the world, including the following types: cigarettes and cigarets, cigars and cigarillos, pipe, smoking, snuffing and chewing tobaccos.
The cigarette group of products is the most numerous in volume of release and various in quantities of types, classes and names.
According to the international classification the cigarettes are subdivided into three basic types, irrespective of their size, packing type and presence of the filtering mouthpiece.
East type of cigarettes is made on the basis of "Oriental Blend" tobacco mixes, containing east aromatic and semieast skeletal tobaccos from various regions of growth. It is typical for the countries of the former Union and the Eastern Europe.
The English type ("Virginia Blend") contains a mix high-quality tobaccos type of Virginia type, with using occasionally limited quantities of east tobaccos not more than 5-10 %, the volume-expanded tobacco stems and aromatic additives.
The American type ("American Blend") contains the tobacco mix of Burley, Maryland, Virginia and Oriental type, and also the reconstituted tobacco, the volume-expanded tobacco and tobacco stems which pass through special by each separate type, with the adding of casings and flavores, containing natural and synthetic additives, substances and ingredients, which improve tasting and qualitative characteristics of product. In the tobacco mixes of the popular brands are used more than 10-20 of commercial grades and types of tobacco raw materials from various regions of the world.
Besides, rather small amounts so-called, local types of cigarettes are produced, typical for the certain concrete countries or regions, for example the type "Kretek" (Indonesia) in which structure the carnation is used impacting specific original taste and aroma on these cigarettes; "Maryland cigarettes" is the type of the cigarettes containing exclusively Maryland tobaccos, it is popular in Switzerland; the cigarettes made from dark, cigar tobaccos, widespread on Cuba, France, Spain.
According to the maintenance of harmful substances in the tobacco smoke the cigarettes are conditionally subdivided into four basic types (segments):
- With the high maintenance of TAR more than 15 mg/sig. and nicotine over 1,3 mg/sig.
- With the normal maintenance TAR from 15 to 10 mg/sig. and nicotine from 1,3 to 1,0 mg/sig.
- Light cigarettes with the lowered maintenance of TAR from 10,0 to 6,0 mg/sig. and nicotine from 1,0 to 0,6 mg/sig.
- Ultra light cigarettes (Ultra and Super Lights) with the maintenance of TAR less than 6,0 mg/sig and nicotine less than 0,6 mg/sig.
New cigarettes elaborations with extra lowered maintenance of harmful substances, TAR no more than 1,0 mg/sig. and nicotine no more than 0,1 mg/sig, also belong to this segment.
According to the cigarette design parameters they are divided in round and oval, with the filtering mouthpiece and without the filter. Oval cigarettes are produced and are in demand basically only in the countries of the former Union.
The filtering mouthpieces are made usually from full-creped papers or acetate fibres, in other cases other materials are used as well. According to the design there are unary (mono) or combined (double, triple) not ventilated and ventilated filters of various types and configurations. In the combined filters, as a rule, are applied additionally powder-like or the granulated materials, with the high adsorbing ability, as for example, activated coal, which allows selectively to keep the harmful substances that are found in the tobacco smoke.
The “light” and “ultra lights” cigarettes, as a rule, are equipped with the ventilated filters. Ventilation allows reducing effectively the maintenance of harmful substances in the tobacco smoke, at the expense of its dilution by the stream of the fresh air while puffing flowing in through the zone visible or invisible by an unaided sight perforation which specially made on the filtering mouthpiece by laser, electrospark or mechanically method.
According to the geometrical dimensions the cigarette are subdivided into normal with the total length of 70 mm; long - 80, 85 mm ("King size") and very long 95, 100 ("100's") and 120 ("120's") mm; and according to the diameter there are thin ("Slims") - 4,5-6,0 mm, normal - 7,5-8,0 mm and thick - over 8,0 mm cigarettes.
Depending on the type of packaging the cigarette are produced in two or three-layer hard or soft packs which are packed within the sleeves (blocks) from the paperboard or packages from the paper or polypropylene film, with the capacity of 5, 10, 15 and 20 packs. The quantity of cigarettes in packs constitutes, as a rule, 10, 20 or 25 pieces.
On the consumer markets of the majority countries the greatest popularity and demand belong to the cigarette of "American Blend" type. In spite of the fact that recently in some countries of the world certain reduction of demand for tobacco products is felt, because of the actively spent large-scale antitobacco company. Nevertheless, generally, annual growth of world consumption of these kinds of products is observed. The basic share of this growth belongs to the markets of developing countries, as Asian, African, southern and Latin American continents, and also the states of the Eastern Europe and the CIS.