New Tobacco Cutting Line for Making Pride Cigarettes Goes Into Operation

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 09/13/2010

The technologically transformed leaf tobacco cutting line for producing the famous Pride brand cigarettes officially went into operation on September 1 at the Chengdu branch of Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation in southwest China's Sichuan Province and the neighboring Chongqing City, after successful adaptive test runs. The technological transformation of the leaf tobacco cutting line for making Pride cigarettes was conducted in four stages over a period of one and a half years, with a total investment of nearly 200 million yuan (30 million U.S. dollars). It was reported that this leaf tobacco cutting line has been the most advanced one of China's tobacco industry so far. Its entry into operation contributes to providing a reliable hardware support to Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation in realizing its "126" Pride brand family development target. This leaf tobacco cutting line is advanced because of the following three major reasons: Firstly, the leaf tobacco cutting line is the first in China to have in it a TOBSPIN leaf tobacco cutting machine, which is the most advanced in the world. The use of such a machine has resulted in a fundamental change of the way of leaf tobacco cutting adopted by the corporation, with an average accuracy rate of 99 percent, more than 10 percentage points higher than that of homemade machines. Secondly, the leaf tobacco cutting line is the first in China to have in it a high-flow KLD-2Z sectional-type thin-plate cut tobacco drying machine, which is of the highest flow and is the most advanced among all types of equipment in the same category. The use of such a machine has resulted in a fundamental shift of the way of cut tobacco drying adopted by the corporation from extensive processing onto intensive processing, which can guarantee the quality of cut tobacco in a maximum way. And thirdly, the leaf tobacco cutting line is the first in China to use a double-inlet and double-outlet bulking system, which is the most adaptive among all types of similar systems in use by China's tobacco industry. With application of such a system, the leaf tobacco cutting line can meet the demand for producing all specifications and all grades of Pride brand cigarettes. Pride is the No. 1 cigarette brand owned by Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation. It ranks the third among all Chinese cigarette brands in terms of market shares in China. Besides, it is also one of the 20 leading cigarette brands of China's tobacco industry. In accordance with specific instructions of China's tobacco industry and local government leaders, and in accordance with the general planning of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration for promoting cigarette production to a higher level, Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation has set a "126" Pride brand family development target, under which the annual sales volume of Heavenly Pride - a key member of the Pride brand family - will have exceeded 100,000 cases (5 billion cigarettes), the annual sales volume of Pride will have exceeded 2 million cases (100 billion cigarettes) and the annual sales volume of Pride will have exceeded 60 billion yuan (8.8 billion U.S. dollars) by the year 2015. In efforts to realize the technological characteristics and development requirements of the Pride brand family, and upgrade the production capacity and technological quality assurance capacity of the Pride brand family, Sichuan-Chongqing Regional China Tobacco Industry Corporation, on the premise of fully meeting the market demand, started in March 2009 technological transformation of the leaf tobacco cutting line for producing Pride brand cigarettes at its Chengdu branch in Sichuan Province to make it more adaptive, which was conducted in four stages. Through the technological transformation, the leaf tobacco cutting line for producing Pride brand cigarettes at the Chengdu branch has realized modular production, and has become the most adaptive leaf tobacco cutting line for all tobacco manufacturing enterprises in China. Today, this leaf tobacco cutting line cannot only be used to slice and moisturize leaf tobacco, but can also make vacuum conditioning. It boasts two forms of thin-plate-type leaf tobacco drying machines and a form of air leaf tobacco drying machines. It can conduct both overlapping operations and separate operations. This leaf tobacco cutting line cannot only be used to conduct precision processing of high-grade products, but can also make mass or individual production. According to a leader of the Chengdu branch, after the technological transformation, the leading processing equipment installed at the leaf tobacco cutting line has almost all been imported from foreign countries, with the equipment guarantee capacity and production efficiency significantly strengthened. The technological transformation of this leaf tobacco cutting line has provided an important guarantee for increasing the technological content of the Pride brand family. It is capable of fully meeting the demand for future development of Pride, the leader said. Enditem