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Bull. Spec. CORESTA Congress, Jerez de la Frontera, 1992, p. 96, ST22, ISSN.0525-6240

Study of air-flow effects on ignition propensity

PINION D.O.; JUPE R.; POWELL J.E.; WANNA J.T.
American Tobacco Company, Hopewell, VA, USA
The objective of this study was to determine whether ignition results, similar to those observed under conditions of low air-flow at Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation Laboratory, could be produced in our laboratory. An air-flow channel and a range of potassium treated denim fabrics were provided by B&W. An identical channel was constructed in our laboratory. The cigarettes, G and J, were used in CORESTA Ignition Propensity Task Force Collaborative II, and were constructed to have projected ignition propensities at opposite poles. The lit cigarettes were placed on denim/foam mockups in the air channels and allowed to smolder under conditions of 0, 5 and 10 cm/s air-flows. In addition, an air-flow of 1.4 cm/s was included. This study supports B&W findings that low air-flows can cause significant changes in results of ignition propensity testing. A cigarette constructed with low density and low permeability paper can be more ignition prone than a conventional cigarette under conditions of extremely low air-flow.