This process if fully automated, whereby the recipe to be applied during the process is selected automatically.
The processed tobacco leaves are stored in a silo for several hours to ensure that the humidity is uniform in all of them, and they are then chopped up to give the final strands.
The final mixture is processed in the secondary stage in machines to produce cigarettes. These machines process the tobacco stem and cigarette paper (cigarette machine) and place the filter and the paper around it (filter machine). The process checks and monitors the weight, diameter and length of each cigarette, which requires the expertise of the machine operator, working in harmony with a complex system of electronic control.
Other important parameters are the fall in pressure and the ventilation of the cigarette, which are monitored by machinists and the quality laboratory in the control tower. These can act as a rapid-response team in the event of any deviation in the parameters.
The secondary process also includes packing the product in two different presentation formats: soft pack and hard pack. During this process, the cigarettes are grouped together in bundles of 20 to make up the pack we all know so well. These packs will be packed in groups of 10 in the final stage to make up a carton that will be wrapped in cellophane and labelled.