Patent Application
20250064102
As is well known, official regulations and health concerns have promoted the existence of a series of products that somehow replace cigarettes. The goal is that they do not pose a threat to health and yet still allow enjoying the pleasure of feeling the aroma of tobacco.
These new products have, as expected, their own problems. One of them relates to refilling complications of “Heat-Not-Burn” devices; another is hygiene, and yet another is the difficulty of always achieving an even unit dose when refilling.
Indeed, when refilling a “Heat-Not-Burn” (HnB) type of device it is difficult or nearly impossible to always put the same amount of reconstituted tobacco strands in the receptacle (heater) of the HnB product, to keep at least some of those strands from falling on the floor or other surface, and to clean the receptacle afterwards achieving a similar hygiene.
One factor that aids these three objectives is to present a self-contained refill that is easy to introduce in and remove from the receptacle without affecting the organoleptic properties of the reconstituted tobacco for refill. Obviously, an additional advantage is the ease of transport of these refills and their insertion into the receptacle, as well as the residue disposal.
All of these factors represent a perceived need, and it is with the intention of satisfying such need that this invention is hereby presented.
The present invention relates to the field of the production of aerosols derived from the heating of reconstituted plant-sourced material, either with or without additives. In particular, by way of example and without limitation, the basic approach of the invention is directed to the production of such aerosols for uses of a sensory nature.
A technical-bibliographic search of applications consistent with the basic approach mentioned above shows that in most cases similar uses refer to aromatherapy, therapeutic or psychoactive purposes and to traditional recipes of non-scientifically proven efficiency. Even in such cases, what is usually used is not the plant itself but its components or products, such as essential oils, oleoresins, alcoholic extracts, etc. One of the systems being notably used currently is that made up of a matrix of tobacco residues or other plant residues from, for example, cocoa shells, residues of plant materials subjected to extraction to the point of exhaustion of components of nutritional interest (e.g. residual grains from beer production), residual husk from coffee curing, etc. The plant matrix that has been reconstituted and eventually treated with additives is hereinafter referred to as Prepared Plant Material (PPM).
According to the literature, the usual procedure consists of processing the plant components of the matrix through reconstitution techniques (papermaking methods (U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,012) or castleaf methods (U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,998)) converting the starting materials into a homogeneous sheet with chemical and physical characteristics conditioned by those characteristics of the starting materials and by the incorporation of additives from the reconstitution process that benefit the subsequent behavior. The plant matrix receives an aerosol-generating chemical agent that can be included in the reconstitution process itself or after it. It is also usual to add different types of flavors that give the product its distinctive sensory features. The final material is then handled in its format and presentation according to the intended application.
The search included, among others, the terms “plug”, “bundle”, “reload”, “replacement”, “heat stick”, and “bullet”. Both at the beginning and at the end, an in-depth investigation of the commercial supply was performed as an essential way to complement the existing patents or applications.
The search covered “bullets” of both tobacco and any other plant substances.
It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the supply for HnB devices consists of short, filtered cigarettes called “plugs”.
First, we would like to mention the IUOC 2.0 and IUOC 4.0 devices from Yukan Technology Company. They use a normal cigarette with filter, from which the filter is removed. The unfiltered cigarette is introduced at one end of the device, and the filter is introduced at the opposite end of the device. What is striking is that the filter is introduced in a manner, and into a receptacle, similar to the present invention, with the obvious and substantial difference that what is introduced at the mouth end is a filter and not a tobacco “bullet”. This completely reverses the invention from a physical and conceptual point of view.
One invention that should be discussed is Ploom TECH, which, although it is for a vapor-operated cigarette, it includes a tobacco bullet. This cigarette produces vapor from an unspecified liquid, passing the vapor through the tobacco and dragging its aroma, literally being a tobacco infusion in a gaseous phase. It is not an HnB system, so it does not fall into the same category, and at the mouth end there is a tobacco bullet of an uncertain composition, which is apparently self-contained in its rigid capsule; it is not tobacco placed in a cavity. See https://www.jti.com/about-us/what-we-do/our-reduced-risk-products #element--4392. At minute 00:18 of the video played at https://www.jti.com/about-us/what-we-do/our-reduced-risk-products #element--4392, the way in which a capsule is inserted in a manner similar to the Monte Paz bullet, can be observed. Both products are not the same, although their use has certain parallels. The invention is known as PLOOM, by JTI, a member of the Japan Tobacco Group of Companies (JT).
TW201536196, which refers to the insertion in an HnB device of an aroma-generating element, should be mentioned in the first place. It is from Japan Tobacco and there is no translation except for its abstract. They are not devices belonging to the same family, and therefore we estimate that they are not a hindering antecedent.
Other patents that resulted from the search are:
Patents that deserve further analysis are:
1. An aerosol-forming article comprising an aerosol-forming substrate wherein said substrate at least partly comprises a rod of extruded plant material with a cylindrical cavity in the center having an axial bore adapted to receive an external heating element.
2. The article according to claim 1 wherein the aerosol-forming substrate comprises a rod of extruded tobacco.
The extruded tobacco may be produced by forming a liquid mixture of powdered tobacco and a binding agent. The liquid mixture is heated and then extruded in a mold to form the cylindrical-shaped extrudate with a hollow central pipe.
According to claim 12 the invention is indeed a refill element for a heat producing device, it being inferred that the invention may not be considered without the filter element or the paper wrapping the substrate and filter.
Therefore, beyond the extruded material or not, the presence of a hollow cylinder in the center entails an important difference with respect to the present invention. So is the statement in the text that the “consumable” may be wrapped with paper and may or may not include a filter. For the reasons above, such substrate is substantially different.
2=extruded material; 13=hollow pipe
It is not considered to be a hindering antecedent.
There is nothing that allows drawing any conclusions about the conformation of the volatilizable material, “which may contain tobacco”, and the replaceable end is simply another “heat stick” with no other particularity than the hollow pipe in about half of its length. It is therefore not a hindering antecedent.
US2014/373856: Invention similar to the invention mentioned hereinabove, wherein its first 12 claims have been cancelled and claim No. 13 became the main claim. It clearly states that the tobacco plug or bullet has cavities or slots for the heating element to be inserted, and in the Figure (No. 5) it informs that the tobacco is wrapped in paper, all of which would mean that it is not agglomerated or extruded, and in addition, it is slotted.
/These paragraphs in the original description written in Spanish include the translation into Spanish of Claim 13 shown hereinabove/
There are no elements to assume that the tobacco is in an agglomerated form. It certainly is not claimed. In addition, there is the central pipe. Therefore, we estimate that it is not an inhibitory antecedent.
We have found no elements that make it possible to assume that the invention proposed herein exists. This includes the world of patents and the commercial field.
We have already seen the state of the art and the commercial situation. We now address the general situation within which our invention will be introduced, as well as its basic characteristics; in other words, its raison-d'êstre as regards to time taken for refill, homogeneity, hygiene, ease of transport, etc.
The use of PPM (Prepared Plant Material) for a heating inhalation operation (vaping) requires a device consisting of an adjustable temperature heater, which implies that the user manually handles the product and performs the necessary handling to introduce it properly into the heater with a minimum of waste. These operations generally constitute a waste of time, affect hygiene, they are a source of variability in the sensory appreciation and entail variable time in the consumption of an amount of the product that is necessarily variable given the manual way in which it is taken from its container. Indeed, despite the experience and skill with which the user performs the operation, either by estimating the amount of material introduced into the heater, or by pressing it more or less to adapt it to the heater's geometry, there will always be a certain variation in the inhalation parameters that is transmitted to the variability of flavor, often associated with variations in temperature that can sometimes reach to aggressiveness.
What we propose in the present document is to introduce the PPM into the heater in the form of a porous tablet or capsule with a specific material content of a given weight, calculated based on the desired inhalation profile. The intention is to achieve a consistency in properties similar to that shown by other inhalation systems such as cigarettes, sticks, etc.
The discharge and subsequent cleaning of the heater is also a messy, delicate and time consuming operation. The intention with the present invention is to make that operation simpler, quick and clean.
In this part of the document we intend to better define the invention from a quantitative, qualitative, and manufacturing point of view.
The present invention consists of a manufacturing process of a fast refill tablet for a “Heat-Not-Burn” device composed of plant source material, processed or not, capable of emitting an inhalable (vapable) aerosol by heating in a suitable device, taking into consideration the requirements mentioned in the introduction of this document for HnB-type products, hereinafter for these purposes referred to as vapable composite (VC). Thus, “vapable composite” and “tablet” can be used interchangeably.
The plant source material may be tobacco covering all the usual types of tobacco (virginia or flue-cured, oriental or sun cured, burley or air-cured, dark-cured, american blend, etc.), and their blends and varieties, subjected to reconstitution, roasting, expansion or other processes. The physical form of these tobaccos may be strands with a width between 0.1 mm and 5.0 mm and an average length between 0.2 cm and 4.0 cm, as well as, optionally, polygonal particle shapes sized between 5 and 8 US mesh.
The plant source material should contain one or more aerosol-generating agents, including but not limited to glycerol (G) and propylene glycol (PG) alone or mixed, but maintaining a total percentage in the range of 5% to 40%, more preferably between 10% and 25% (percentages expressed with respect to the plant material). The management of the percentage ratio of G/PG will allow optimizing the aerolization temperature in the range of 120° C. to 350° C.
It is therefore pertinent to clarify the formula of the composition of the PPM, i.e. the prepared plant material. This includes as plant material all types of tobaccos, their blends and varieties including reconstituted tobacco, as well as the usual processes that these tobaccos undergo in the industry to achieve their final characteristics. It also includes aerolizing agents such as the mixture of PG and G in the proportion of 5% to 40% or preferably 10% to 25% with respect to the weight of the plant material. If other additives are added (flavors, etc.) which in general are included in small quantities, their weight would be deducted from the weight of plant material and not from the aerosol formers. In summary, the prepared plant material (PPM) consists of:
PPM=Prepared Plant Material (tobaccos, including reconst.)+G/PG+possible additives (flavors, etc.).
Additives may be added to modify flavor or achieve special effects (chemostats, pH modifiers, coolers, etc.).
The final product (VC) may contain binding agents (BA) including but not limited to magnesium stearate, colloidal silicon dioxide (e.g. Aerosil 200), microcrystalline cellulose (e.g. Avicel 200 and/or Adesil PH102), or other similar products known in the pharmaceutical industry. It is worth noting that the binding agents used are of known performance in the pharmaceutical industry, but they have never been used in tablets that are not really tablets, but in a tobacco lattice in strands, permeable, as in this case. This results in a product that provides practicality, ease of use, hygiene, fast and controllable refill, satisfying a need perceived by users of HnB devices.
Some ranges of successful use of binders include proportions of e.g.:
The preparation of the vapable composite itself follows the following equation:
The vapable composite (VC) is produced by intimately mixing the prepared plant material (PPM) with the binding agents, whereby the ratio to be mixed may include the ranges from 2% BA+98% PPM to 40% BA+60% PPM, including all intermediate percentage ratios, but in particular from 20% BA+80% PPM to 30% BA+70% PPM. It is understood that the chosen ratio will be one of the determining factors of the amount of plant material (tobacco in our case) that our refill will deliver to the heater of the vaping instrument. This amount of plant material whose vape properties will depend both on the combination of the amounts of Glycerol (G) and Propylene Glycol (PG) and on the ratio between the two, will have a great influence on the time that the refill proposed herein will last to the smoker.
The vapable composite may contain in addition to tobacco, or instead of it, a different plant material such as, but not limited to, cocoa, coffee, eucalyptus, marcela, mint, linden, cannabis, reconstituted tobacco, etc., pre-processed or not. The presence of these plants can be found in any mixture thereof.
The tablet formed by the vapable composite should be easily introduced into a HnB vape device, for which it should have, by way of example but not as limitation, a cylindrical, truncated cone or even spherical shape, with a diameter similar to that of the HnB device and removable by simple gravity from the vape device after having been consumed, having a solid residue of about 80% of the initial weight.
Not to the detriment of the final product itself, it is essential to address the novelty and inventive step of the production process of the Prepared Plant Material (PPM) and how the same is integrated into the final product, vapable composite (VC), which is the result of a very specific method.
Said method to produce a porous tablet of vapable material with a constant constitution, shape, size and weight, suitable to be a fast refill of a Heat-Not-Burn (HnB) device, further ensuring a fast discharge and leaving the vape device clean, said tablet containing a plant part of virginia or flue-cured, oriental or sun cured, burley or air-cured, dark-cured, american blend tobaccos, etc., and their blends and varieties, where the physical form of these tobaccos may be preferably of strands with a width of 0.2 mm to 3.0 mm and an average length of 0.2 cm to 4.0 cm, as well as optionally of particles of polygonal shapes (“scraps” of between 5 and 8 US mesh), includes the following stages:
The fast refill is characterized by the fact that the VC (vapable composite) thus obtained has a cylindrical, truncated cone or truncated cone shape with a diameter of between 0.5 and 1.5 cm, a length of 4 to 15 mm and a weight of between 0.2 g and 1.4 g, or any other shape and size that is adaptable to the relevant HnB device.
Another possibility is that the dimensions of these units may be defined according to their final destination, taking into account factors of use such as the size of the heater of the HnB device, the duration time of the tablet, amount of plant material, etc.
It must be pointed out that step 1, carried out in a deveining machine, is not usually used for this type of material, since it is not necessary to devein it as it comes in sheets or plates. The goal is to cause a fragmentation that optimizes the absorption of the treatment and a better size for passing it through the cutting machine (steps 3 and 8).
Step 8, in turn, is in some ways a reprocessing of step 3, unusual in that the already processed material is not usually passed through the cutting machine.
Step 8 provides an optimum strand size for the formation of a tablet according to the use for which the present is designed. Each of these steps is inventive, since it is unknown for this particular purpose and used in other processes and for other products, and a person skilled in the art would not ordinarily be inclined to apply them, much less in that order and at that stage of the process. Even less would a person skilled in the art be inclined to combine such steps.
The general dimensions of the refill tablet include a diameter corresponding with the diameter of the HnB device and a length of 4 to 10 mm, which may be more.
Thus, in a generic formula for our HnB refill products, the VC vapable compound (composite) will be within the following ranges:
In an automatic process, the length and dimensions of the tablet may vary and more than one tablet can be used if the user so prefers, and if the tablets fit in the heater of the device.
Example of a manufactured tablet: it has a cylindrical shape with a diameter of 0.9+/−0.2 cm and a height of 0.6+/−0.2 cm and a weight of 0.30+/−0.15 g, which after consumption leaves a residue of 0.24+/−0.1 g. It is understood that the described modus operandi will ensure the constancy of the VC that the user will deliver to the vape device for each smoking cycle. Moreover, the refill of the vape device will constitute a smooth operation without loss of vapable material.
Also, the post-vape residue will be discharged compactly from the heater by the simple action of gravity, discharging easily from the heater without the need for special cleaning procedures at the end of each vape/session, much less the use of instruments such as, for example, those used for emptying/cleaning a pipe. This residue is about 80+/−15% of the initial weight of the tablet, depending logically on the physical and chemical constitution of the tablet.
It is worth pointing out the convenience of each individual refill being presented in its own container, which in turn further facilitates refilling.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2022/054189 | May 2022 | WO | international |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2023/054720 | 5/5/2023 | WO |
