Patent Application
20240373912
The present disclosure relates to electronic atomizing devices, and in particular to an atomizer, a housing of an atomizer and an electronic atomizing apparatus with an atomizer.
Electronic atomizing devices can be used as replacement of cigarettes, and are often used for smoking cessation. Electronic atomizing devices normally do not have tar, floating micro particle or other harmful ingredients compared to cigarettes.
The housing of a traditional electronic atomizing device has to be made by different materials to acquire different light transmittances, which involves complex manufacturing processes and methods. Thus, the cost for the electronic atomizing device is high, and the productivity is low.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, an atomizer may be provided. The atomizer may include a housing and an atomizing assembly. The housing may include a nozzle and a liquid storage pipe, the nozzle may be located at an end of the liquid storage pipe and integrated with the liquid storage pipe, at least a portion of an outer surface of the nozzle away from the liquid storage pipe may include a matte surface having a first rugosity, at least a portion of an outer surface of the housing may be a polished surface through which aerosol-generating substrate in the liquid storage pipe is observed. The atomizing assembly may be configured to heat and atomize the aerosol-generating substrate to generate aerosol.
According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a housing may be provided. The housing may be adapted for an atomizer. The housing may include a side wall and an end wall connected to the side wall. A chamber, configured to receive an atomizing assembly of the atomizer and store aerosol-generating substrate, may be defined by the side wall and the end wall. A gas exiting hole may be defined in the end wall. A portion of an outer surface of the side wall, which is adjacent to the end wall and configured to contact with user when being used, may include a first matte surface. The other portion of the outer surface of the side wall may include a polished surface through which aerosol-generating substrate in the chamber is observed.
According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic atomizing apparatus may be provided. The electronic atomizing apparatus may include an atomizer and a battery assembly. The atomizer may include a housing and an atomizing assembly. The housing may include a nozzle and a liquid storage pipe, the nozzle may be located at an end of the liquid storage pipe and integrated with the liquid storage pipe, at least a portion of an outer surface of the nozzle away from the liquid storage pipe may include a matte surface having a first rugosity, at least a portion of an outer surface of the housing may be a polished surface through which aerosol-generating substrate in the liquid storage pipe is observed. The atomizing assembly may be configured to heat and atomize the aerosol-generating substrate to generate aerosol. The battery assembly may be connected to the liquid storage pipe and configured to power the atomizer.
In order to clearly explain the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are merely some embodiments of the present disclosure. For those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings may also be obtained based on these drawings without any creative work.
The disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. Apparently, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
In some embodiments, the atomizing assembly 300 may be arranged outside the housing 100. The aerosol-generating substrate stored inside the housing 100 may be transported to the atomizing assembly 300 through a liquid guiding component. The atomizing assembly 300 may then atomize the aerosol-generating substrate into aerosol.
In some embodiments, the atomizing assembly 300 may be arranged inside the housing 100. Thus, the atomizing assembly 300 may contact directly the aerosol-generating substrate, which makes the structure of the atomizer 1000 more compact and less voluminous.
Referring to
In some embodiments, the nozzle 10 may define an accommodation cavity inside. The accommodation cavity may be in fluid communicate with a reservoir of the liquid storage pipe 20 which is utilized to store aerosol-generating substrate. Therefore, aerosol-generating substrate may also be stored inside the nozzle 10, and the liquid storage capacity of the atomizer 1000 may be increased. Apparently, the nozzle 10 is not limited thereto and may alternatively be not for storing aerosol-generating substrate.
The housing 100 may be made of translucent material such that a service condition of the aerosol-generating substrate inside the liquid storage pipe 20 may be observed through the housing 100.
Since plastic products made of PCTG (an amorphous polyester) has several advantages such as high transparency, high chemical corrosion resistance and high shock proof, PCTG is widely used in packing industry, such as cosmetic containers, dust containers of vacuum cleaners, solution barrels of cleaning machines, etc.
In some embodiments, the housing 100 may be made of PCTG such that the housing 100 may have high transparency for facilitating observation. Moreover, potential chemical reaction between the material of the housing 100 and the aerosol-generating substrate stored in the liquid storage pipe 20 which may generate harmful matters can be avoided. Furthermore, the electronic atomizer 100 may be prevented from being damaged under external impact.
The color of the housing 100 may vary in different embodiments, e.g., red, golden, grey, brown, or the housing 100 may have more than one colors.
In some embodiments, color powders may be added in PCTG such that the color powders may be evenly mixed in injection material and the formed housing 100 may have uniform color. By forming the housing 100 with a certain color, the appearance of the electronic atomizer 1000 may be improved.
In some embodiments, at least a portion of the outer surface of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 may be a matte surface having a first rugosity. By setting this portion of the outer surface of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 as a matte surface, on one hand, the concern of the user that the aerosol-generating substrate in the translucent nozzle 10 seems to lean to his or her mouth can be released (in fact, the aerosol-generating substrate does not enter the user's mouth), and on the other hand, lip or saliva prints can be prevented from occurring on the outer surface of the nozzle 10 during utilization, which may improve the user's experience.
In some embodiments, the light transmittance of the matte surface having a first rugosity may be from 10% to 80% such as 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70% or 80%. In other embodiments, it can be flexibly selected based on actual requirements. The light transmittance of the matte surface may be achieved by at least one of: (1) controlling the surface rugosity of the matte surface; and (2) controlling the color or component proportion of the color powders in the modeling materials.
In some embodiments, at least a portion of the outer surface of the housing 100 may be a polished surface. An observing window may be formed by the polished surface such that a user may easily observe the use condition of the aerosol-generating substrate inside the housing 100 through the observing window. Therefore, it can be avoided that the atomizer is dry and burned after the aerosol-generating substrate is used up. Burning may generate burnt smell and damage the atomizer.
The light transmittance of the polished surface may be from 30% to 100%, such as 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90% or 100%, which may facilitate the observation of use condition of the aerosol-generating substrate inside the housing 100. The light transmittance of the polished surface may be achieved by at least one of: (1) controlling the thickness of the wall of the housing 100 corresponding to the location of the polished surface; and (2) controlling the color or the component proportion of color powders in the modeling materials. For instance, the portion of the housing 100 corresponding to the polished surface may be thinner than the portion corresponding to the matte surface so that the polished surface may have a higher light transmittance and have better light transmission.
It should be understood, the light transmittance of the polished surface should be larger than the light transmittance of the matte surface in a same housing 100. That is, for a same housing 100, if the light transmittance of the matte surface is equal to 30%, the light transmittance of the polished surface should be larger than 30% (e.g., the light transmittance of the polished surface may be equal to 40%, 60%, or 100%).
In the embodiment shown in
In another embodiment shown in
The second rugosity of the second surface 22 may be same as or different from the first rugosity of the outer surface of the nozzle 10. Surface rugosities may be selected based on actual design requirements such as light transmittance requirements, which is not limited in the present disclosure.
Referring to
In some embodiments, the first rugosity may be substantially equal to the second rugosity. That is, the surface rugosity of the second surface 22 may be substantially equal to the surface rugosity of the outer surface of the nozzle 10, which may reduce the manufacturing complexity of the forming die of the housing 100.
In some embodiments, the outer surface of the liquid storage pipe 20 may further include a third surface. The third surface may be arranged on a side of the second surface 22 away from the first surface 21. The third surface may similarly be either a polished surface or a matte surface.
Referring to
In all the embodiments shown in
Referring to
In one embodiment, as shown in
In other embodiments, the polished surface may be arranged on two opposite sides of the matte surface. That is, the nozzle 10 may include two main surfaces and two side surfaces located on two opposite sides of the two main surfaces. The main surfaces are the main contact surfaces between a user's lip and the nozzle 10 when the user uses the smoking device. Setting the main surfaces as a matte surface and setting the side surfaces as polished surfaces can not only allow observation of the aerosol-generating substrate in the housing through the side surfaces, but also enlarge area of the matte surface which can void lip print on the device.
In other embodiments, the polished surface may be set on only one side of the matte surface to maximize area of the matte surface.
Moreover, the polished surface and the matte surface on the outer surface of the nozzle 10 may be symmetric about the central plan of the nozzle 10.
In some embodiments, as shown in
Further, the shape of the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 may be rectangular, oval, circular etc.
For example, in the embodiment shown in
By providing different options of shapes of the nozzle 10, a user may choose the nozzle 10 with a suitable shape based on the shape of his or her lip to acquire more comfortable use experience.
Referring to
Conventionally, when a user uses an electronic atomizer, the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 abuts the teeth of the user. According to researches, the distance between the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 and the portion of the nozzle 10 contacting the user's lip ranges usually from 10 to 15 mm, such as 10 mm, 12 mm, 14 mm, 15 mm etc. Accordingly, smoking experience of the nozzle 10 is related to the sizes of the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 and the sizes of the portion of the nozzle 10 located 10-15 mm from the end. In some embodiments, a predefined distance from the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pope 10 may be 12 mm. In the following examples, the predefined distance of 12 mm will be used to explain in detail the shape and size of this portion of the nozzle 10.
Referring to
Specifically, the first direction may be taken as the length direction of the nozzle 10, and the second direction may be taken as the width direction of the nozzle 10. The largest sizes L1 and W1 of the nozzle 10 in the length and width directions are the length and width of the cross-section of the portion of the nozzle 10 which is located 12 mm from the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20. The smallest sizes L2 and W2 of the nozzle 10 in the length and width directions are the length and width of the nozzle at the end surface of the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20. In this embodiment, L1=17.1 to 26.1 mm, L2=8.8 to 18.2 mm, W1=8.1 to 11.3 mm, W2=4.4 to 7.7 mm.
Furthermore, the size of the nozzle 10 may be also relative to the shape of the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20.
In the embodiments shown in
For example, in some embodiments, at the portion of the nozzle which is 12 mm from the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20, the length of the nozzle 10 is 17.4 mm, and the width of the nozzle 10 is 8.1 mm. The length and the width of the nozzle at the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 are respectively 13.1 mm and 6.2 mm.
In the embodiments shown in
For example, in some embodiments, at the portion of the nozzle which is 12 mm from the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20, the length of the nozzle 10 is 19.1 mm, and the width of the nozzle 10 is 10.4 mm. The length and the width of the nozzle at the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 are respectively 16.8 mm and 6.9 mm. Alternatively, in other embodiments, at the portion of the nozzle which is 12 mm from the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20, the length of the nozzle 10 is 19.5 mm, and the width of the nozzle 10 is 9.0 mm. The length and the width of the nozzle at the end of the nozzle 10 away from the liquid storage pipe 20 are respectively 18.2 mm and 7.4 mm.
Continuing to refer to
In some embodiments, the number of the gas exiting hole(s) 12 on the nozzle 10 may be one or more, which is not limited in the present embodiments. When there is one gas exiting hole 12, the single gas exiting hole 12 may be arranged at the center of the nozzle 10. When there are two gas exiting holes 12, the two gas exiting holes 12 may be symmetrically arranged on the nozzle 10 such that smoke may evenly exit from the gas exiting holes 12.
The gas exiting pipe 30 may be connected to the fringe of the gas exiting hole 12, and be integrated with the nozzle 10 and the liquid storage pipe 20. Thus, the housing 100 may be formed of in one single piece, which may simplify the manufacturing process and improve productivity.
Furthermore, the inner wall of the gas exiting pipe 30 may be coated with oleophobic material, in other words, an oleophobic layer may be provided on the inner wall of the gas exiting pipe 30, so as to prevent aerosol-generating substrate which has not been vaporized from exiting from the gas exiting pipe 30.
Since the gas exiting pipe 30 is located inside the liquid storage pipe 20 and may reach the aerosol-generating substrate in the liquid storage pipe 20, the aerosol-generating substrate may possibly flow out of the gas exiting hole 12 with the smoke, which may affect taste and smell. In this embodiment, by coating the inner wall of the gas exiting pipe 30 with oleophobic material, the aerosol-generating substrate will flow back to the liquid storage pipe 20 when flowing with smoke and attaching to the inner wall of the gas exiting pipe 30. Thus, leakage of the aerosol-generating substrate can be prevented.
Apparently, in other embodiments, an oil absorption device may be set in the gas exiting pipe 30 for removing aerosol-generating substrate from smoke, which may improve taste and smell.
In the embodiments shown in
It should be noted that, the term “integral structure” mentioned in the present disclosure refers to a structure made by only one material and formed in a die within one forming process, and the structure does not include any other material. Furthermore, the outer surface of the nozzle 10 and the outer surface of the liquid storage pipe 20 are the outer surface (especially the side outer surface) of the housing 100. The inner surface of the housing 100 is an inner surface of a cavity which is configured to accommodate aerosol-generating substrate, and this inner surface can be a polished surface.
A housing 100 adapted for an atomizer may be further provided. As shown in
In some embodiments, the other portion of the outer surface of the side wall 32 may further include a second matte surface 22. The polished surface 21 may be between the first matte surface 311 and the second matte surface 22 (as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
Referring also to
In some embodiments, the entire outer side wall of the second die cavity 220 may be a polished surface such that the entire outer surface of the liquid storage pipe 20 formed by injection with the second die cavity 220 may be a polished surface.
In other embodiments, as shown in
The first and second rugosities may be either same or different, which may be determined based on design requirements of the housing 100.
The surfaces with the first and second rugosities may be formed by texturing. Specifically, a specific die cleaning solution may be utilized to clean the first die cavity 210 and the outer side wall 230 of the second die cavity 220 so as to remove oil and impurities on the surface of the die. Then, proof fabrics may be attached to the surfaces which do not need texturing, and the boundary between the regions which need texturing and the regions which do not need texturing may be sealed. A sequence of operations such as film printing down, film attaching, painting, corrosion, cleaning and post-processing may then be performed to form the matte surface having a certain rugosity on the outer side walls of the first die cavity 210 and the second die cavity 220.
In some embodiments, the first and second rugosities may be the same, which may facilitate the film printing down process.
In other embodiments, referring to
This polished surface may be around three sides, on two opposite sides, or only on one side of the surface having the first rugosity, which is not limited in the present embodiment.
In some embodiments, the inner side wall 240 of the forming die 200 may be a polished surface. That is, the inner side walls of the first die cavity 210 and the second die cavity 220 may both be a polished surface such that the entire inner surface of the formed housing 100 may be a polished surface.
In some embodiments, the forming die 200 may include a first die 250 and a second die 260. When the first die 250 is flush with the second die 260, the first die cavity 210 and the second die cavity 220 communicating with each other may be formed. After injection, the first die 250 and the second die 260 may be moved away from each other such that the housing 100 may be separated from the forming die 200.
In other embodiments, it is possible to move only one of the dies to demold. For example, the first die 250 may be fixed and the second die 260 may be moved away from the first die 250. Alternatively, the second die 260 may be fixed and the first die 250 may be moved away from the second die 260.
Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand, in the present disclosure, the nozzle 10 and the liquid storage pipe 20 are an integrated structure consisting of only one material, that is, the nozzle 10 and the liquid storage pipe 20 consist of only one material and are an integrated structure by the only one material, and the surface rugosity of the housing 100 may be achieved by controlling the surface rugosity of the forming die 200 such that different portions may have different light transmittances. Therefore, only one injection process is needed to manufacture the housing 100, which may simplify the manufacturing process and augment productivity.
The foregoing is merely embodiments of the present disclosure, and is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Any transformation of equivalent structure or equivalent process which uses the specification and the accompanying drawings of the present disclosure, or directly or indirectly application in other related technical fields, are likewise included within the scope of the protection of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201811400517.4 | Nov 2018 | CN | national |
The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/680,501 filed on Nov. 12, 2019, which claims foreign priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 201811400517.4, filed on Nov. 22, 2018, in the National Intellectual Property Administration of China, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16680501 | Nov 2019 | US |
| Child | 18774982 | US |
