GB2586255A

GB2586255A - Improvements relating to aerosol generating systems

Info

Publication number: GB2586255A
Application number: GB1911643.3A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William John McLaughlin David
Original assignee: E Breathe Ltd
Current assignee: E Breathe Ltd
Priority date: 2019-08-14
Filing date: 2019-08-14
Publication date: 2021-02-17
Also published as: GB201911643D0; WO2021028688A1

Abstract

An aerosol generating system (1, figure 1) comprising: a consumable (3, figure 3b) having a tobacco derived portion 8 and a laminate overwrap 12, the overwrap comprising at least one conductive layer (24, figure 18a) and one non-conductive layer (25), such that the overwrap has at least one electrical region 20 formed from a region of the conductive layer separated from a second electrical region by a portion 21 of the non-conductive layer; a heating device (2, figure 3a) with a receiving opening (6) for the consumable that includes at least one conductive protrusion (14, figure 8) essentially coincident with the laminate overwrap of the consumable; and an electrical circuit (figure 19a) comprising at least one of the electrical regions within the laminate overwrap, at least one of the conductive protrusions within the opening of the heating device, and electronic circuitry of the heating device. Two or more of the electrical regions may be connected by a component comprising of a resistor, a capacitor, an inductor, a diode, a memory chip or an ID tag. The circuit may provide a means of obtaining information and deciding operational parameters of said system utilising said electrical circuit.

Description

IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO AEROSOL GENERATING SYSTEMS

Statement of invention

The present invention pertains to an aerosol generating system comprising a consumable, a heating device, an electrical circuit obtained by co-joining the consumable and the device, and a means of obtaining information and deciding operational parameters of said system utilising said electrical circuit.

Description

Many alternatives to traditional combustible tobacco products have been launched in recent years. Heated Tobacco Products use various energy sources and means to heat a tobacco-containing consumable to generate an inhalable aerosol that contains some components derived from tobacco, including flavour and nicotine.

One embodiment of the present invention is an aerosol generating system comprising at least: a consumable comprising at least: a tobacco derived portion and a laminate overwrap, the laminate overwrap comprising at least one conductive layer and one non-conductive layer, such that the laminate overwrap has at least one electrical region formed from a region of conductive material separated from a second electrical region by a portion of laminate overwrap without conductive material; a heating device with a receiving opening for a consumable that includes at least one conductive protrusion coincident or essentially coincident with the laminate overwrap of a consumable; and an electrical circuit comprising at least one electrical region within the laminate overwrap of the consumable; at least one conductive protrusion within a receiving opening of a heating device and electronic circuitry of the heating device.

One aspect of the present invention is a consumable for use in a heating device wherein two or more separate electrical regions of the laminate overwrap are connected, the connection being made with at least one electronic component from the group comprising a resistor, a capacitor, an inductor, a diode, a memory chip and an ID tag.

One aspect of the present invention is a means of obtaining information about a consumable by using an electrical circuit that includes at least one electrical region of the laminate overwrap and at least one conductive protrusion of the heating device and using at least one method from the group of: measuring at least one electrical property of the circuit, the property taken from the group of voltage, current, current direction, resistance, inductance, capacitance and combinations thereof; interrogating an electronic identifier contained within an ID or memory chip; and the use of Boolean logic on responses received from interrogation of conductive protrusions taken from the group of AND, NOT, OR, XOR and NAND.

One aspect of the present invention is a method of activating a heating device by at least the steps of: forming an electrical circuit including at least one electrical region of the laminate overwrap and at least one conductive protrusion of the heating device; obtaining consumable information; comparing consumable information to a least one reference value; deciding to activate the heating device; deciding the operational parameters of the heating device.

The term aerosol shall be interpreted to include gas, vapour, droplets, condensates, particulates and combinations thereof. An inhalable aerosol shall mean an aerosol with an average particle size as measured by laser dispersion ranging from 0.1 to 10 pm, more preferably 0.1 to 1.5 pm.

An aerosol generating system may comprise a reusable heating device and a consumable intended to be used within a single use occasion. A heating device may comprise a battery, at least one heater and controlling electronics. A consumable may include a tobacco-derived portion to impart flavour and nicotine to the inhalable aerosol and a filter portion.

To assist the conjoining of the consumable and the device, the heating device may have a receiving opening shaped to accommodate at least part of the consumable. Typically, the region of the consumable containing the tobacco-derived portion is inserted into the receiving opening and the mouth-end portion remains outside the device. Typically, the filter portion of the consumable remains outside the device. Hence the user can access the mouth-end to inhale the aerosol. The heater is typically positioned within the receiving opening of the device and positioned to be in close proximity to the tobacco-derived portion.

A tobacco-derived portion can include single-grade tobacco, blended tobacco grades, leaf, stem, dust, reconstituted tobacco, washed tobacco, extracted tobacco, treated tobacco, tobacco extracts and mixtures thereof A tobacco-derived portion can be produced from tobacco plants by methods including harvesting, drying, cutting, shredding, grinding, extraction, reconstitution, extrusion and combinations thereof. A tobacco-derived portion can be present in the physical form of leaf, stem, dust, reconstituted sheet, crimped, folded, shaped, beaded, granulated and mixtures thereof.

A consumable may comprise a tobacco derived portion and a filter portion held together by an overwrap. An overwrap may be one or more sheets of material that provide the outer surface of the article, act to hold the separate elements in sequence relative to each other and provides structural strength to the article sufficient for required manipulation by the user in particular during insertion and removal from an associated device. An overwrap may be composed of paper, plastic, foil, laminates and combinations thereof. An overwrap can be composed of a single layer over the entirety of the article or can have multiple layers at different points as can be required depending on the underlying construction of the article, for example multi-segment filter portions are typically held together with an outer wrapper to assist manufacturing processes.

A laminate overwrap comprises at least 2 layers of materials held together by an adhesive. Of particular relevance to the present invention are laminate overwraps comprising a nonconductive layer and a conductive layer. The non-conductive layer may be paper or plastic.

The conductive layer may be a metallic foil such as aluminium.

An electrical region is a portion of a laminate overwrap that conducts electricity. An electrical region may be a continuous portion of a conductive material within a laminate overwrap. A conductive material may be a metal such as aluminium, copper, gold, silver, tin; an alloy such as brass; derived from graphite or graphene and combinations thereof.

A device may be in electrical contact with a consumable inserted therein. A device may have one or more conductive protrusions within the receiving opening to form electrical contact with the consumable. A protrusion is a raised portion of the surface of the device. A protrusion may be a separable element or formed as part of the surface. A protrusion may be an electrode. A conductive protrusion may comprise a conductive surface on a non-conductive base or may be composed of conductive material or materials. A conductive protrusion may be fixed, rigid, movable, biased, sprung or combinations thereof The mouth end is the end of the consumable intended as the exit of the aerosol towards the user. The distal end is the opposite end of the consumable, typically intended as the inlet for air and other materials into the consumable. The longitudinal axis is taken as the major axis of the consumable and runs from the mouth end to the distal end. Other axes are taken perpendicular to this longitudinal axis. With reference to a cylindrical consumable the term radial shall be any axis orthogonal to the longitudinal axis.

An electronic component includes passive components and active components. Passive components include resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes and combinations thereof. Combinations may be in series and in parallel and combinations thereof.

Active components include microprocessors, memory systems, EEPROM, ID tags and combinations thereof. Memory systems may include stored information that can be retrieved by the system. Consumable information may include details of the consumable such as manufacturer, batch number, best before date, unique identifier, concentration, flavour, suitable device parameters for use and combinations thereof.

Boolean logic encompasses a range of considerations between multiple inputs with at least two states: true and false. AND returns a positive result when two or more inputs are aligned; OR returns a positive result when one or more inputs are aligned; NOT returns a positive result when inputs are not aligned. It shall also encompass derived logic functions such as exclusive OR (XOR) and negative AND (NAND).

Boolean logic may be used between conductive protrusions for example with 3 protrusions: the presence of a circuit between #1 and #2 but NOT between #1 and #3 and NOT between #2 and #3. With 4 protrusions: the presence of a circuit between #1 and #2 and between #3 and #4 but NOT between #1 and #3 OR #4 and NOT between #2 and #3 OR #4. Circuits being characterised as having electrical connection, resistance, capacitance, inductance, directional current flow and combinations thereof. For example, the system may check for resistance between #1 and #2 and capacitance between #3 and #4.

Although the invention has been described in detail for the purpose of illustration based on what is considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, it is intended to cover modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the scope of the appended claims. For example, it is to be understood that the present invention contemplates that, to the extent possible, one or more features of any embodiment can be combined with one or more features of any other embodiment.

Drawings Figure 1 shows an aerosol generating system 1 and longitudinal axis 100. Figure 2a shows a heating device 2.

Figure 2b shows a consumable 3 for use in a heating device.

Figure 3a show a cross-section through a heating device 2, including battery 4, control electronics 5, receiving opening 6 and heaters 7.

Figure 3b shows a cross-section through a consumable 3, including tobacco-derived portion 8, filter portion 9 and mouth-end 10.

Figure 4 shows a cross-section through an aerosol generating system 1 consisting of a consumable 3 inserted into the receiving opening 6 of a heating device 2.

Figure 5 shows a cross-section through a consumable in greater detail. The tobacco-derived portion comprises a tobacco-derived material 13 surrounded by a laminate overwrap 12. The tobacco-derived portion is held adjacent to the filter portion 9 by the outer overwrap 11. Figure 6a shows a detailed view of the receiving opening 6 of the heating device 2 according to the present invention. At the distal end of the receiving opening 6 are positioned multiple conductive protrusions 14.

Figure 7 and figure 8 show alternative arrangements of conductive protrusions 14 within the receiving opening 6.

Figure 9 shows a view down the receiving opening from the mouth end towards the distal end.

The conductive protrusions 14 are arranged towards the periphery of the receiving opening with essentially equal circumferential spacing "X" 15.

Figure 10 shows a cross-section through a conductive protrusion 14, highlighting the tip 19 and the base 18. Arrow 16 shows the direction of insertion of the consumable into the receiving opening and arrow 17 show the radial direction.

Figure 11 shows an alternate cross-section through a conductive protrusion 14 where the size increases in a curvilinear fashion from tip 19 to base 18.

Figure 12 shows a cross-section through a consumable being introduced into the receiving opening. In this embodiment, during the insertion process the tip 19 of a least one conductive protrusion enters the tobacco-derived material 13.

Figure 13 shows a cross-section through a consumable fully inserted into the receiving opening. The conductive protrusion 14 is in contact with the laminate overwrap 12 of the consumable.

Figure 14 shows a perspective view of the tobacco-derived portion 8. The tobacco derived material 13 is surrounded by a laminate overwrap 12 which has electrical regions 20 separated by a non-conductive region 21 An electronic component 22 may be used to connect two separate electrical regions.

Figure 15 shows the laminate overwrap of figure 14 flattened out as it would be prior to manufacturing the tobacco derived portion The electrical region 20 has a circumferential length "L" 23.

Figure 16 and 17 show an alternate arrangement of electrical regions within the laminate overwrap in essentially a helical direction relative to the longitudinal axis 100.

Figure 18a shows a cross-section through a laminate overwrap comprised of a base layer of non-conductive material 25 and a conductive layer 24. Electrical regions 20 are separated by non-conductive regions 21 of the laminate overwrap without the conductive layer.

Figure 18b shows a cross-section through an alternate laminate overwrap comprised of multiple layers of non-conductive material 25 and multiple conductive layer 24.

Figure 19a shows a circuit diagram comprising the control electronics 5 of the heating device, two conductive protrusions 14 and one electrical region 20 of the laminate overwrap of the consumable.

Figure 19b shows an alternate circuit diagram comprising the control electronics 5 of the heating device, two conductive protrusions 14, two electrical regions 20 of the laminate overwrap of the consumable and an electronic component 22.

Figure 20 shows the operational sequence of the aerosol generating system as a flow diagram.

Claims

Claims 5 An aerosol generating system comprising at least: a. A consumable comprising at least: a tobacco derived portion and a laminate overwrap, the laminate overwrap comprising at least one conductive layer and one non-conductive layer, such that the laminate overwrap has at least one electrical region formed from a region of conductive material separated from a second electrical region by a portion of laminate overwrap without conductive material.b. A heating device with a receiving opening for a consumable that includes at least one conductive protrusion coincident or essentially coincident with the laminate overwrap of a consumable.c. An electrical circuit comprising at least one electrical region within the laminate overwrap of the consumable; at least one conductive protrusion within a receiving opening of a heating device and electronic circuitry of the heating device.
A laminate overwrap according to claim 1 wherein the separate electrical regions are formed by the absence of a continuous portion of the conductive material in the longitudinal direction of the consumable.
A laminate overwrap according to any preceding claim wherein the separate electrical regions are formed by the absence of a continuous portion of conductive material in a spiral direction of the consumable.
A laminate overwrap according to an any preceding claim wherein the laminate has at least two conductive layers electrically isolated from each other by at least one nonconductive layer.
A laminate overwrap according to any preceding claim wherein the circumferential length L of an electrical region is related to the circumferential spacing X between conductive protrusions of the heating device such that aX < L < bX, where a and b are integers.
A consumable for use in a heating device according to claim 1 wherein two or more separate electrical regions of the laminate overwrap are connected, the connection being made with at least one electronic component from the group comprising a resistor, a capacitor, an inductor, a diode, a memory chip and an ID tag.
A consumable for use in a heating device according to claim 1 wherein the distal end of laminate overwrap forms at least two electrical connections when inserted into said heating device.
A conductive protrusion according to claim 1 that increases in size in essentially a radial direction in a linear or curvilinear fashion.
9. A conductive protrusion according to any preceding claim that exerts radial pressure on the laminate overwrap of a consumable.
10. A conductive protrusion according to any preceding claim that cuts into the conductive layer of the laminate overwrap when the consumable is inserted the receiving opening.
11. An arrangement of conductive protrusions within a receiving opening of a heating device according to claim 1 that is essentially circular with similar or equal diameter to the laminate overwrap of the consumable.
12. An arrangement of conductive protrusions within a receiving opening of a heating device according to claim 1 with essentially equal or equal circumferential spacing "X" between protrusions.
13. An arrangement of conductive protrusions within a receiving opening of a heating device according to any preceding claim such that during insertion of the consumable into the receiving opening, the tip of at least one conductive protrusion enters the tobacco portion of the consumable.
14. A means of obtaining information about a consumable by using the electrical circuit according to claim 1 and at least one method from the group of: a. measuring at least one electrical property of the circuit, the property taken from the group of voltage, current, current direction, resistance, inductance, capacitance and combinations thereof; b. interrogating an electronic identifier contained within an ID or memory chip; c. the use of Boolean logic on responses received from interrogation of conductive protrusions taken from the group of AND, NOT, OR, XOR and NAND.
15. A method of activating a heating device by at least the steps of: a. Forming an electrical circuit according to claim 1; b. Obtaining consumable information according to claim 14; c. Comparing consumable information to a least one reference value; d. Deciding to activate the heating device; e. Deciding the operational parameters of the heating device 30