SMOKING ARTICLE AND AEROSOL-GENERATING SYSTEM

Abstract

A smoking article according to an example embodiment includes a medium receiver filled with a plurality of medium granules, a humectant receiver on one side of the medium receiver and configured to generate an aerosol and a filter on the other side of the medium receiver. The plurality of medium granules have an atypical shape.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The following example embodiments relate to a smoking article and an aerosol-generating system.

BACKGROUND ART

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for alternative methods that overcome the disadvantages of conventional cigarettes. For example, there is an increasing demand for a method of generating an aerosol by heating an aerosol-generating material in a cigarette rather than a method of generating the aerosol by burning a cigarette. For example, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2004-0077711 discloses a smoking article with cigarette beads.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

Technical Goals

One or more example embodiments provide a smoking article and an aerosol-generating system with improved stay stability and dispersibility of medium granules.

One or more example embodiments provide a smoking article and an aerosol-generating system for providing a uniform cigarette taste to consumers.

Technical Solutions

According to an aspect, there is provided a smoking article including a medium receiver filled with a plurality of medium granules. The plurality of medium granules may have an atypical shape. The smoking article may further include a humectant receiver located on one side of the medium receiver and configured to generate an aerosol and a filter located on the other side of the medium receiver.

The medium receiver may be configured by folding a flat sheet, to which the plurality of medium granules is applied, a plurality of times.

A humectant may be applied to one surface of the flat sheet.

The plurality of medium granules may have a roundness of 30% or more and 90% or less.

The roundness may be 60% or more and 90% or less.

The plurality of medium granules may be manufactured by a fluidized bed granulation process.

The fluidized bed granulation process may be a process in which a spraying direction of a liquid binder and a flow direction of fluidized air face each other.

The medium receiver may be formed by a method comprising applying a humectant to one surface of a flat sheet, disposing the plurality of medium granules on the one surface of the flat sheet, to which the humectant is applied, folding the one surface of the flat sheet to face each other, additionally folding the flat sheet a plurality of times, and wrapping, with a wrapper, the flat sheet folded a plurality of times.

The plurality of medium granules not applied to the one surface of the flat sheet may be reused in a process of manufacturing the smoking article.

The filter may include a first filter having a cavity therein and a second filter fully filled with a filtration material.

According to another aspect, there is provided an aerosol-generating system, which may include a smoking article, an aerosol-generating device, wherein the smoking article may include a medium receiver filled with a plurality of medium granules, a humectant receiver located on one side of the medium receiver and configured to generate an aerosol, and a filter located on the other side of the medium receiver, and the aerosol-generating device may include an elongate cavity configured to accommodate the smoking article, a heater configured to heat at least a portion of the medium receiver and the humectant receiver in the smoking article, and a controller electrically connecting to the heater, wherein the plurality of medium granules may have a roundness of 90% or less.

The plurality of medium granules may have a roundness of 60% or more.

The plurality of medium granules may be manufactured by a process in which a spraying direction of a liquid binder and a flow direction of fluidized air face each other.

Advantageous Effects

A smoking article and an aerosol-generating system according to an example embodiment may improve stay stability and dispersibility of medium granules.

A smoking article and an aerosol-generating system according to an example embodiment may provide one example embodiment providing a uniform tobacco taste to consumers.

The effects of a smoking article and an aerosol-generating system, according to an example embodiment, are not limited to the foregoing effects and other unmentioned effects may be clearly understood from the above description by those having ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present disclosure pertains.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of a smoking article.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams schematically illustrating a state in which a plurality of medium granules are applied on a flat sheet according to an example embodiment.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams schematically illustrating dispersibility of a plurality of medium granules when a flat sheet, on which a plurality of medium granules are disposed, is folded.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the roundness of medium granules, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating an aerosol-generating device according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating an aerosol-generating system when a smoking article and an aerosol-generating device are combined according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically illustrating a fluidized bed granulation process of a top-spraying method among fluidized bed granulation processes.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating granules manufactured by various fluidized bed granulation processes.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, example embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, various alterations and modifications may be made to the example embodiments. Here, the example embodiments are not construed as limited to the disclosure. The example embodiments should be understood to include all changes, equivalents, and replacements within the idea and the technical scope of the disclosure.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not to be limiting of the example embodiments. The singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises/comprising” and/or “includes/including” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which examples belong. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly-used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

When describing the examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, like reference numerals refer to like components and a repeated description related thereto will be omitted. In the description of the example embodiments, a detailed description of well-known related structures or functions will be omitted when it is deemed that such description will cause ambiguous interpretation of the present disclosure.

Also, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), (b) or the like may be used herein when describing components of example embodiments. These terms are used only for the purpose of discriminating one component from another component, and the nature, the sequences, or the orders of the components are not limited by the terms. When one component is described as being “connected”, “coupled”, or “attached” to another component, it should be understood that one component can be connected or attached directly to another component, and an intervening component can also be “connected”, “coupled”, or “attached” to the components.

A component, which has the same common function as a component included in any one example embodiment, will be described by using the same name in other example embodiments. Unless disclosed to the contrary, the configuration disclosed in any one example embodiment may be applied to other example embodiments, and the specific description of the repeated configuration will be omitted.

As used herein, the term “granule dispersibility” refers to a degree of how evenly medium granules or tobacco granules are dispersed in a flat sheet.

In a process of manufacturing a medium receiver, fine powder generated by some of broken medium granules may contaminate the appearance of a filter containing granules. As used herein, the term “granule filter workability” refers to a degree of how cleanly the filter may be manufactured without such contamination.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a smoking article according to an example embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, a smoking article 100, according to an example embodiment, may include a medium receiver 110, a humectant receiver 120 on one side of the medium receiver 110 to generate an aerosol, and a filter 130 on the other side of the medium receiver 110. The segments of the smoking article 100, that is, the medium receiver 110, the humectant receiver 120, and the filter unit 130, may each be wrapped with a segment wrapper 140, and the segments wrapped by the segment wrapper 140 may be wrapped with a total wrapper 150 to form one smoking article.

The medium receiver 110 may be filled with a plurality of medium granules 114, and the plurality of medium granules 114 may have an atypical shape. When the plurality of medium granules 114 is in a general spherical shape, fine powders are less likely to be generated in the process of manufacturing the medium receiver 110, and accordingly, the granular filter workability may be excellent. However, when the plurality of medium granules 114 is in a perfectly spherical shape, the dispersibility of the granules decreases in the process of manufacturing the medium receiver 110, which may deteriorate the taste of the smoking article. Accordingly, it is desirable that the medium granules 114 are basically in a spherical shape but also in a shape atypical enough to maintain the granule dispersibility.

The filter 130 may include a first filter 132 having a cavity therein and a second filter 134 with the internal fully filled with a filtration material. The filtration material may include a cellulose-based material (e.g., acetate, paper, etc.).

As described above, when a filter containing a granular medium is manufactured, the shape of the granules may affect the workability on manufacturing the medium receiver in the smoking article. Accordingly, there is a need to define an appropriate shape of the medium granules during manufacturing a smoking article or an aerosol-generating system.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams schematically illustrating when medium granules are applied on a flat sheet, according to an example embodiment. FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating a state of bad granule dispersibility when a flat sheet 112, to which spherical granules 114′ are applied, is folded, and FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a state of good granule dispersibility when the flat sheet 112, to which atypical granules 114 are applied, is folded

Referring to FIG. 2A, the spherical granules 114′ have low stability of staying on the flat sheet 112 so that the spherical granules 114′ may flow in all directions even with a small shock. Accordingly, the granule dispersibility may deteriorate when the flat sheet with the spherical granules 114′ disposed thereon is being unfolded, and in the process of manufacturing a medium receiver 110 including the spherical granules 114′ by folding the flat sheet 112. On the other hand, referring to FIG. 2B, the atypical granules 114 do not flow easily due to relatively high stability of staying on the flat sheet 112. Therefore, the granule dispersibility may be well maintained in the process of manufacturing the medium receiver 110 including the atypical granules 114 by folding the flat sheet 112 with the atypical granules 114 disposed thereon. The stability of the plurality of medium granules 114 on the flat sheet 112 may be improved by applying a binder material having an adhesive component to the flat sheet 112, but the binder material inhaled together with a heated aerosol during smoking may deteriorate the taste of the smoking article. A humectant, not the binder material, is applied to one surface of the flat sheet 112 before disposing the plurality of medium granules 114 on the flat sheet 112 so that the humectant may temporarily improve adhesion between the flat sheet 112 and the plurality of medium granules 114. The humectant is a substance for generating an aerosol in the smoking article and does not adversely affect the taste of the smoking article. That is, after a humectant is applied to one surface of the flat sheet 112 and the medium granules 114 are disposed on the one surface of the flat sheet 112, to which the humectant is applied, the medium receiver 110 of the smoking article 100 may be formed by folding one surface of the flat sheet 112 to face each other and additionally folding the flat sheet a plurality of times, and then wrapping the flat sheet 112 folded a plurality of times with a wrapper 140.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams schematically illustrating dispersibility of a plurality of medium granules when a flat sheet, to which the plurality of medium granules are disposed, is folded, according to an example embodiment.

Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B, when spherical medium granules 114′ are disposed on a flat sheet 112, which then is folded a plurality of times, the granule dispersibility in a medium receiver 110 may be maintained in a bad state (see FIG. 3A) and when atypical medium granules 114 are disposed on the flat sheet 112, which then is folded a plurality of times, the granule dispersibility in the medium receiver 110 may be maintained in a good state (see FIG. 3B).

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of roundness of medium granules, according to an example embodiment.

A roundness may be a numerical value indicating the degree of how round spherical materials, such as particles, beads, and granules, are. Herein, the roundness may be calculated based on a Maximum Inscribed Circle (MIC) method. Referring to FIG. 4, in the maximum inscribed circle method, a ratio of Rmax to Rmin represented in percentage is defined as a roundness, in which a radius of a maximum circumscribed circle Cc refers to Rmax and a radius of a maximum inscribed circle Ci refers to Rmin. The ratio may be calculated when a circle with the largest radius is drawn among the circles circumscribed to a measured contour, that is, the maximum circumscribed circle Cc, at the center of a circle with the largest radius when an inscribed circle is drawn in the measured contour, such as a granule, that is, the maximum inscribed circle Ci.

As the roundness of the plurality of the medium granules 114 increases, the granular filter workability improves, but the granule dispersibility may be poor. Conversely, as the roundness of the medium granules 114 decreases, the granule dispersibility improves but the granular filter workability may be poor. Accordingly, when the medium granules 114 constituting the medium receiver 110 have roundness in an appropriate range, both the granular dispersibility and the granular filter workability may be improved, thus having greater taste of the smoking article.

The relevant schematic experimental results are shown in Table 1 below.

TABLE 1
			Tobacco taste
Granule roundness	Granule	Granular filter	(smoking taste)
(%)	dispersibility	workability	evaluation
Less than 30	Good	Very bad	Bad
30~60	Good	Poor	Good
60~90	Good	Good	Very good
90~100	Bad	Good	Bad

Referring to Table 1, when the roundness of the granules exceeds 90%, the dispersibility of the granules is generally poor, but when the roundness of the granules is 90% or less, it may be identified that the plurality of medium granules are relatively evenly dispersed when the medium receiver is configured by disposing granules on a flat sheet and then folding the flat sheet a plurality of times.

In addition, when the roundness of the granules is less than 30%, the shape of the granules becomes so atypical that fine powders, which are generated due to some of ruptured granules during manufacturing the granules or the medium receiver, may contaminate filters and the like. When the granules have the roundness of 30% or more, the rate of fine powders to be generated due to the ruptured granules significantly drops, compared to the granules having the lower roundness. When the granules have a roundness of 60% or more, the hardness of the granules is high enough to significantly decrease the contamination of filters of smoking articles due to the ruptured granules. That is, when the medium granules included in the smoking article have a roundness of 60% or more and 90% or less, both the dispersibility and the filter workability of the granules may be very good.

The taste of cigarettes, that is, smoking taste, may be affected by both the granular dispersibility, which refers to how evenly the granules are dispersed, and the granular filter workability, which refers to whether a filter for the granules is manufactured without being contaminated by the fine powders of the medium granules. As seen from Table 1, the smoking taste is very good when the roundness of the granules is 30% or more and 90% or less, and more desirably 60% or more and 90% or less.

FIGS. 5 and 6 relate to examples in which a smoking article including a plurality of medium granules having the above desirable roundness range is used.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating an aerosol-generating device according to an example embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 5, an aerosol-generating device 200 includes an elongate cavity 210 for accommodating a smoking article 100, a heater 220 and a controller 230. The controller 230 may electrically connect to the heater 220 to control a temperature for heating the smoking article 100. The aerosol generating device 200 may further include a battery 240 configured to supply power in a process of generating an aerosol.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating an aerosol-generating system in a state in which a smoking article and an aerosol-generating device are combined, according to an example embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 6, an aerosol-generating system 10 may include a smoking article 100 and an aerosol-generating device 200. The smoking article 100 may be snugly integrated in the elongate cavity 210 of the aerosol-generating device 200. With the smoking article 100 coupling to the aerosol-generating device 200, the heater 220 may heat at least a portion of a medium receiver 110 and a humectant receiver 120 in the smoking article 100. The roundness of plurality of medium granules 114 in the medium receiver 110 of the smoking article 100 of the aerosol-generating system 10 is desirably 90% or less. This is because, when the roundness of the plurality of medium granules 114 exceeds 90%, the stability of the medium granules 114 to the flat sheet 112 decreases, resulting in poor granule dispersibility.

In addition, the roundness of the plurality of medium granules 114 in the medium receiver 110 included in the smoking article 100 of the aerosol-generating system 10 is desirably 60% or more. When the plurality of medium granules 114 have a roundness of less than 60%, the hardness of the medium granules 114 may decrease, thus breaking the medium granules 114 even with a slight shock and generating fine powders, so that the generated find powders may contaminate the medium receiver 110 and the filter 130. In addition, in the process where the medium receiver 110 is formed by applying the plurality of medium granules 114 to one side of the flat sheet 112 and then folding the flat sheet 112, the medium granules 114, which are not attached to the flat sheet 112 but are dropped off the flat sheet 112, may be re-used in a subsequent process. Since the minimum hardness of the granules 114 has to be ensured in order for the plurality of medium granules 114 dropped off to be reused, the plurality of medium granules 114 have a desirable roundness of 60% or more.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate a process for manufacturing a plurality of medium granules having the foregoing desirable roundness range and a shape of granules produced by the process.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically illustrating a fluidized bed granulation process of a top-spraying method among fluidized bed granulation processes.

When powders are mixed with hot air heated in a sealed container 500, the powders flow inside the container and experience a process of mixing, granulation and drying to form granules. The fluidized bed granulation process refers to such a process of generating the granules. The fluid bed granulation process may include a top-spraying method, a bottom-spraying method, a powder feeding method, and a rotor-spraying method. Among them, the top-spraying process is the fluidized bed granulation in which a spraying direction of a liquid binder 510 serving as an adhesive to adhere powders 530 to one another and a flow direction of fluidized air 520 face each other. The top-spraying process may have relatively lower roundness of granules generated through this process, compared to the bottom-spaying method where a spraying direction of the liquid binder 510 is the same as a flow direction of the fluidized air 520 and the rotor-spraying method where a spraying direction of the liquid binder 510 is perpendicular to a flow direction of the fluidized air 520. This is illustrated in detail in FIG. 8.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the actual shape of granules produced by various fluidized bed granulation processes.

FIG. 8 illustrates the shapes of granules manufactured by the fluidized bed granulation processes of the rotor-spraying method, the powder feeding method, and the top-spraying method, sequentially.

Referring to FIG. 8, compared to the granules produced by the fluidized bed granulation processes of the rotor-spraying method and the powder feeding method, the shape of the granules manufactured by the top-spraying method is more irregular and atypical. That is, it may be easy to form granules having a relatively low roundness when using the fluidized bed granulation process of the top-spraying method. This is because a spraying direction of the liquid binder 510 and a flow direction of the fluidizing air 520 are arranged to face each other so that the flow is formed in a reverse direction, allowing particles to grow in an irregular shape.

While this disclosure includes specific examples, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made in these examples without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims and their equivalents. The examples described herein are to be considered in a descriptive sense only, and not for purposes of limitation. Descriptions of features or aspects in each example are to be considered as being applicable to similar features or aspects in other examples. Suitable results may be achieved if the described techniques are performed in a different order, and/or if components in a described system, architecture, device, or circuit are combined in a different manner, and/or replaced or supplemented by other components or their equivalents.

Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A smoking article comprising: a plurality of medium granules; anda medium receiver filled with the plurality of medium granules,wherein the plurality of medium granules have an atypical shape.

2. The smoking article of claim 1, further comprising: a humectant receiver located on one side of the medium receiver and configured to generate an aerosol; and a filter located on the other side of the medium receiver.

3. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the medium receiver is configured by folding a flat sheet, to which the plurality of medium granules are applied, a plurality of times.

4. The smoking article of claim 3, wherein a humectant is applied to one surface of the flat sheet.

5. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the plurality of medium granules have a roundness of 30% or more and 90% or less.

6. The smoking article of claim 5, wherein the roundness is 60% or more and 90% or less.

7. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the plurality of medium granules are manufactured by a fluidized bed granulation process.

8. The smoking article of claim 7, wherein the fluidized bed granulation process is a process in which a spraying direction of a liquid binder and a flow direction of fluidized air face each other.

9. The smoking article of claim 1, wherein the medium receiver is formed by a method comprising applying a humectant to one surface of a flat sheet, disposing the plurality of medium granules on the one surface of the flat sheet, to which the humectant is applied, folding the one surface of the flat sheet to face each other, additionally folding the flat sheet a plurality of times, and wrapping, with a wrapper, the flat sheet folded a plurality of times.

10. The smoking article of claim 9, wherein the plurality of medium granules not applied to the one surface of the flat sheet are reused in a process of manufacturing the smoking article.

11. The smoking article of claim 2, wherein the filter comprises: a first filter having a cavity therein; anda second filter fully filled with a filtration material.

12. An aerosol-generating system comprising: a smoking article; andan aerosol-generating device,wherein the smoking article comprises: a medium receiver filled with a plurality of medium granules;a humectant receiver located on one side of the medium receiver and configured to generate an aerosol; anda filter located on the other side of the medium receiver,wherein the aerosol-generating device comprises: an elongate cavity configured to accommodate the smoking article;a heater configured to heat at least a portion of the medium receiver and the humectant receiver in the smoking article; anda controller electrically connect to the heater, andwherein the plurality of medium granules have a roundness of 90% or less.

13. The aerosol-generating system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of medium granules have a roundness of 60% or more.

14. The aerosol-generating system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of medium granules are manufactured by a process in which a spraying direction of a liquid binder and a flow direction of fluidized air face each other.