Aerosol-generating system and method of dispensing liquid aerosol-forming substrate with pumped air

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10653185-B2
Application number	US-201715825584-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2017
Priority date	Nov 29, 2016
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

An aerosol-generating system may include a liquid storage portion, a vaporizer, and a pump. The liquid storage portion may be configured to store a liquid aerosol-forming substrate. The vaporizer may be configured to volatilize the liquid aerosol-forming substrate. The pump may be configured to pump air into the liquid storage portion so as to push out a volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate from the liquid storage portion and to supply the volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate to the vaporizer. A method for generating an aerosol may be performed with the system.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An aerosol-generating system, comprising:
a liquid storage portion configured to store a liquid aerosol-forming substrate;
a vaporizer configured to volatilize the liquid aerosol-forming substrate; and
a pump configured to pump an incoming volume of air into the liquid storage portion so as to displace an outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate from the liquid storage portion and to supply the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate to the vaporizer.

2. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 1 , wherein the pump is arranged upstream from the liquid storage portion.

3. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 1 , wherein the pump is a micro-pump configured to pump the incoming volume of the air and to displace the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate per pump activation.

4. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 3 , wherein the pump is configured such that only air enters the pump during the pump activation.

5. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 1 , wherein the vaporizer includes a heater configured to heat the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate.

6. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a main body defining a chamber into which the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate is supplied,
wherein the heater is arranged inside the chamber downstream from an outlet of the liquid storage portion.

7. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an outlet tube in fluidic communication with the liquid storage portion, the outlet tube having an open end configured to direct the supply of the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate from the liquid storage portion to the vaporizer.

8. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid storage portion includes a collecting section and an inhibiting section, the collecting section configured to collect the incoming volume of the air from the pump, the inhibiting section configured to inhibit the incoming volume of the air from passing to the vaporizer.

9. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 8 , wherein the collecting section and the inhibiting section are in a form of a separating unit configured to separate the liquid storage portion into a first storage volume and a second storage volume, the first storage volume being coupled to the pump, the second storage volume being coupled to the vaporizer, the separating unit configured to permit a passage of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate and to inhibit a passage of the incoming volume of the air from the first storage volume to the second storage volume.

10. The aerosol-generating system according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid storage portion is configured to be coupled to at least one of the pump and the vaporizer by a coupling so as to be hermetically sealed.

11. A method for generating an aerosol, comprising:
storing a liquid aerosol-forming substrate in a liquid storage portion of an aerosol-generating system;
pumping an incoming volume of air into the liquid storage portion to displace an outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate from the liquid storage portion to a vaporizer of the aerosol-generating system; and
volatilizing the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate with the vaporizer.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pumping of the incoming volume of the air to displace the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate is performed per pump activation with a micro-pump.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the pumping is performed such that the outgoing volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate is free of air bubbles.

Assignees

• Altria Client Services Llc

Inventors

• Mazur Ben
• Latorre Eva Saade
• Tabasso Alain

Classifications

• A61M2016/0024

  with an on-off output signal, e.g. from a switch · CPC title

• A61M15/06

  Inhaling appliances shaped like cigars, cigarettes or pipes · CPC title

• A61M2205/50

  with microprocessors or computers · CPC title

• F04B19/006

  Micropumps (F04B43/043 and F04B43/095 take precedence) · CPC title

• A61M11/042

  electrical · CPC title