Electronic cigarette

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9456635-B2
Application number	US-201615051001-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 23, 2016
Priority date	Jan 31, 2012
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

An electronic smoking article includes an outer tube extending in a longitudinal direction, an inner tube within the outer tube and including a pair of opposing slots, a liquid supply comprising a liquid material, a coil heater, a wick and a mouth end insert. The coil heater is located in the inner tube. The coil heater is formed of an iron-free, nickel-chromium alloy and has substantially uniformly spaced windings. The wick is surrounded by the coil heater such that the wick delivers liquid material to the coil heater and the coil heater heats the liquid material to a temperature sufficient to vaporize the liquid material and form an aerosol in the inner tube.

First claim

We claim:

1. An electronic article comprising:
an outer tube extending in a longitudinal direction, the outer tube defining a portion of a liquid supply region configured to store a liquid material;
an inner tube within the outer tube, the inner tube including a pair of opposing slots, the liquid supply region between the outer tube and the inner tube;
a coil heater in the inner tube, end portions of the coil heater extending through the opposing slots in the inner tube;
a wick in communication with the liquid supply region and surrounded by the coil heater; and
a mouth-end insert at a mouth-end of the outer tube, the mouth-end insert including at least two outlets.

2. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein the coil heater is formed of a nickel-chromium alloy.

3. The electronic article of claim 2 , wherein the nickel-chromium alloy is essentially iron-free.

4. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein the coil heater has substantially uniformly spaced windings.

5. The electronic article of claim 4 , wherein the coil heater comprises 3 to 8 substantially uniformly spaced windings.

6. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein each of the opposing slots has dimensions sufficient to provide clearance between inner peripheries of the slots and the end portions of the coil heater.

7. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein the inner tube has a diameter of about 4 mm and each of the opposing slots has major and minor dimensions of about 2 mm by about 4 mm.

8. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein the electronic article comprises a single outer tube.

9. The electronic article of claim 1 , further comprising:
a power supply electrically connected to the coil heater.

10. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein the inner tube is formed of a woven fiberglass material.

11. The electronic article of claim 1 , wherein the wick includes a plurality of filaments.

12. The electronic article of claim 1 , further comprising:
a closure ring including an edge at an end thereof, the closure ring being positioned such that the edge is proximate to portions of the wick outside the inner tube.

Assignees

• Altria Client Services Llc

Inventors

• Tucker Christopher S
• Jordan Geoffrey Brandon
• Smith Barry S
• Rostami Ali A
• Mullins Michael J

Classifications

• A61M11/001

  Particle size control · CPC title

• A61M2205/8206

  battery-operated · CPC title

• H05B2203/021

  Heaters specially adapted for heating liquids · CPC title

• Y10T29/49083

  Heater type · CPC title

• A61M2209/02

  Equipment for testing the apparatus · CPC title