Banded cigarette wrapper with opened-area bands

1. A method of achieving ignition propensity performance in a smoking article together with statistically fewer self-extinguishments in such smoking articles, comprising:

including a banded region of add-on material at a location along a wrapper of a smokeable rod of a smoking article;

establishing a predetermined, nominal opened-area within said banded region by including a pattern of add-on material-free openings between a leading edge and a trailing edge of said banded region, the nominal opened-area in the range of about 4% to about 9% of a total nominal area of said banded region;

wherein the add-on material is formed from an aqueous starch solution containing an anti-wrinklinq agent, calcium carbonate and starch.

2. A smoking article comprising:

a rod of smokeable material, said rod comprising a filler and a wrapper;

said wrapper comprising:

a base web; and

a banded region of add-on material applied to said base web, said banded region comprising a leading edge and a trailing edge and a plurality of add-on material-free openings between said leading edge and said trailing edge, said plurality of add-on material-free openings establishing a predetermined, nominal opened-area within said banded region in the range of about 4% to about 9% of a total nominal area of said banded region;

wherein the add-on material is formed from an aqueous starch solution containing an anti-wrinkling agent, calcium carbonate and starch.

3. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein said plurality of add-on material-free openings comprises a pattern of rows of openings wherein the openings are circular shaped openings, square shaped openings, diamond shaped openings, rectangular shaped openings, polygonal shaped openings, or oval shaped openings.

4. The smoking article of claim 3 , wherein openings of at least two of said rows of openings are mutually offset from one another.

5. The smoking article of claim 3 , wherein said plurality of add-on material-free openings comprise a first plurality of openings disposed adjacent an edge portion of said banded region and a second plurality of openings disposed more intermediately of said leading and trailing edge portions of said banded region, said first and second pluralities differing in size, number or both.

6. The smoking article of claim 3 , wherein the add-on material is a single layer.

7. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein said plurality of add-on material-free openings comprises a pattern linear openings.

8. The smoking article of claim 7 , wherein one or more linear openings of said pattern of linear openings are crisscrossed linear openings.

9. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein said plurality of add-on material-free openings comprises about 6 to about 8% of the total nominal area of the banded region.

10. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein the add-on material is a single layer.

11. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein the anti-wrinkling agent is selected from the group consisting of propylene glycol; 1,2 propylene glycol; and glycerin.

12. The smoking article of claim 11 , wherein said plurality of add-on material-free openings are circular shaped openings, square shaped openings, diamond shaped openings, rectangular shaped openings, polygonal shaped openings, or oval shaped openings and arranged in a first row of openings and a second row of openings.

13. The smoking article of claim 12 , wherein respective openings of said first and second rows are mutually offset from one another.

14. The smoking article of claim 13 , wherein a center of each opening is about 5.0 mm to about 6.0 mm from a center of an adjacent opening the same row; and a center of each opening of said first row is located about 1.5 mm to about 2.0 mm diagonally from an adjacent opening of said second row.

15. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein the banded region is about 5.0 mm to about 9 mm in width and about 26.0 mm to about 28.0 mm in circumferential length.

16. The smoking article of claim 2 , wherein the base web has a permeability of greater than about 20 CORESTA.

17. The smoking article of claim 16 , wherein the base web has a permeability of less than about 100 CORESTA.

18. The smoking article set forth in claim 2 , wherein the anti-wrinkling agent is selected from the group consisting of 1,2 propylene glycol, propylene glycol, glycerin, glycerol, polyethylene glycol, glucose, sucrose, isomalt, maltilol, sorbitol and xylitol.

19. A process of making wrapper of a smoking article comprising:

applying an add-on material to a base web in the form of at least one banded region;

controlling diffusivity at said banded region by establishing a nominal opened-area within said banded region by establishing a plurality of add-on material-free regions within said band during said applying;

wherein the diffusivity at said banded region is controlled such that said banded region exhibits a diffusivity value in the range of about 0.12 to about 0.15 cm/sec.

20. The process of claim 19 , further including slitting the base web into strips and winding the strips to form bobbins.

21. The process of claim 19 , wherein the at least one banded region is applied using a gravure roller having a plurality of cells and spaced apart cell-free areas on a surface thereof.

22. The process of claim 21 , wherein the at least one banded region is applied to the base web in a chevron pattern.

23. The process of claim 22 , wherein at least two banded regions are applied to the base web in a chevron pattern such that an apex of a second banded region is co-linear with substantially symmetrically spaced points on trailing, outer edges of a first banded region.

24. A smoking article comprising:

a rod of smokeable material, said rod comprising a filler and a wrapper;

said wrapper comprising:

a base web; and

a banded region of add-on material applied to said base web, said banded region comprising a leading edge and a trailing edge and a plurality of add-on material-free openings between said leading edge and said trailing edge, said plurality of add-on material-free openings establishing a predetermined, nominal opened-area within said banded region in the range of about 4% to about 9% of a total nominal area of said banded region;

wherein said banded region exhibits a diffusivity value in the range of about 0.12 to about 0.15 cm/sec.

25. A process of making wrapper of a smoking article comprising:

applying an add-on material to a base web in the form of at least two banded regions;

controlling diffusivity at said at least two banded regions by establishing a nominal opened-area within the respective banded regions by establishing a plurality of add-on material-free regions within each respective banded region during said applying;

wherein the at least two banded regions include a first banded region and a second banded region that are applied using a gravure roller having a plurality of cells and spaced apart cell-free areas on a surface thereof, and the at least two banded regions are applied to the base web in a chevron pattern such that an apex of the second banded region is co-linear with substantially symmetrically spaced points on trailing, outer edges of the first banded region.