Heat-Not-Burn Stick Comprising Foam-Like Aerosol-Generating Material Arranged In A Container

Abstract

An aerosol-generating article includes a charge of aerosol-generating material arranged in a container, wherein the aerosol-generating material is provided in a form of shaped individual elements including a foam-like material. The aerosol-generating article further includes a sealing portion provided to one longitudinal end of the container, and made of an air permeable material and/or having an air permeable structure such that air is capable of flowing therethrough.

Claims

1. An aerosol-generating article, comprising a charge of aerosol-generating material arranged in a container, wherein the aerosol-generating material is provided in a form of shaped individual elements comprising a foam-like material, wherein the aerosol-generating article further comprises a sealing portion provided to one longitudinal end of the container, and made of an air permeable material and/or having an air permeable structure such that air is capable of flowing therethrough.

2. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the container is air permeable.

3. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 2, wherein the container comprises an air permeable material and/or an air permeable structure.

4. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the air permeable material is selected from the group of cellulose acetate, paper, metal, heat resistant plastic, activated charcoal, and a combination thereof.

5. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the aerosol-generating material comprises a tobacco originating agent having a weight of 0.1-66 wt.-% of a weight of the foam.

6. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 5, wherein the tobacco originating agent is selected from the group of tobacco, tobacco flavour, nicotine, and derivatives of nicotine.

7. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the aerosol-generating material further comprises an aerosol-forming agent, a foam-stabilizing agent, and a foam-forming agent, wherein the aerosol-forming agent has a weight of 10-80 wt. % of a weight of the foam.

8. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the container comprises a tubular wall made of a material selected from the group consisting of paper, metal, plastic, silica or a combination thereof.

9. The aerosol-generating article according to any one of the preceding claim 1, wherein the container is filled up to at most 95% of a space therein.

10. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the shaped individual elements of the aerosol-generating material are in a form of pods, granules, elongated fibres, elongated spirals or a combination thereof.

11. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the aerosol-generating material comprises a bundle of elongated fibres, wherein each elongated fibre has an average diameter of between 0.3 and 5 mm.

12. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, further comprising a filter attached at a longitudinal end of the container (22).

13. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 12, wherein the filter comprises cellulose acetate, paper, heat resistant plastic or polymer, activated charcoal, a flavourant, or a combination thereof.

14. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the sealing portion is provided with gel, silica, gum, slurry, or matrix.

15. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 3, wherein the container comprises the air permeable structure, and the air permeable structure is micro holes or mesh.

16. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the aerosol-generating material comprises a tobacco originating agent having a weight of 0.1-33 wt.-% of a weight of the foam.

17. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the aerosol-generating material further comprises an aerosol-forming agent, a foam-stabilizing agent, and a foam-forming agent, wherein the aerosol-forming agent has a weight of 30-70 wt.-% of a weight of the foam.

18. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the container is filled up to at most 50% of a space therein.

19. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the aerosol-generating material comprises a bundle of elongated fibres, wherein each elongated fibre has an average diameter of between 0.5 and 1 mm.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0041] FIG. 1 shows a schematic representative of an aerosol-generating article according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0042] FIG. 2 shows a cross sectional view of the portion housing containers, wherein the aerosol-generating material is contained in the containers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0043] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of an aerosol-generating article 100 according to the present invention. The aerosol-generating article 100 has a cylindrical shape which is similar to the currently marketed heat-not-burn articles.

[0044] The aerosol-generating article 100 comprises a plurality of portions 10, 20, 30 arranged longitudinally in an end to end fashion. One longitudinal end of the aerosol-generating article 100 represents a distal end 15 whereas another longitudinal end of the aerosol-generating article 100 represents a proximal, mouth end 25. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the aerosol-generating article 100 comprises a sealing portion 10, an aerosol-generating material portion 20, and a mouthpiece portion 30. These portions 10, 20, 30 can be attached in abutment together by one or several wrappers, forming an elongated, substantially cylindrical aerosol-generating article.

[0045] It shall also be noted that the mouthpiece section 30 may itself be formed of either a single segment of filter material, for example of cellulose acetate as known from conventional cigarettes, or of a plurality of segments adjoined together conventionally with one or several plug wraps, to form a multi-segments mouthpiece. Such multi-segments mouthpiece may in particular comprise a centre hole acetate segment 301 contacting the aerosol-generating material portion 20, then an aerosol-cooling portion 302, for example formed of pleated polylactic acid (PLA) film, and a monoacetate filter portion 303 at the mouthpiece end 25, which mouth end filter segment 303 may comprise one or more flavour-releasing elements such as a capsule or a thread (cf. FIG. 1).

[0046] In use, the aerosol-generating article 100 is inserted into a vaporizer or heating device comprising a heater such that at least the aerosol-generating material portion 20 cooperates with a heating element 200. When the heating element 200 is a heating blade or rod element, it pierces for example through from the distal end 15 of the aerosol-generating article 100 and the aerosol-generating article 100 is slid onto the heating element until the latter extends into portion 20 to heat up tobacco-containing aerosol-generating materials contained therein. The aerosol-generating article 100 is designed in such a way that aerosol generated upon heating the aerosol-generating material in portion 20 is permissible to flow longitudinally from the distal end 15 to the mouth end 25 when a user draws or sucks from the mouth end 25 through the mouthpiece when in use.

[0047] The sealing portion 10 serves as an additional shield in addition to the container 22 such that the chunks or debris from the aerosol-generating material 65 will not be withdrawn together with the heating element 200 when the aerosol-generating article 100 is being pulled out from the holder of the smoking device.

[0048] FIG. 2 shows a cross sectional view of the aerosol-generating material portion 20 of the FIG. 1 (dotted line A-A). Said aerosol-generating material portion 20 comprises a plurality of containers 22, housing a charge of aerosol-generating material 65 in a foam-like structure. The containers 22 may be provided in an air permeable structure such as mesh or is made up with an air permeable material such as paper. It can also be foreseen that the containers 22 are possible to be made of a heat-conductive material, in particular a metal such as aluminium, zinc, copper, brass or chromium steel so as to be heat conductive in order to allow transfer of heat, essentially by conduction, from a heating element of a heating device to the foam-like aerosol-generating material 65 to generate an aerosol.

[0049] The foam-like material 65 may comprise tobacco-containing material, and preferably is a foam-like aerosol-generating material 65 as described in WO 2018/122375 A1 and is housed within the container 22 at an average quantity of approximately 100-1000 mg, preferably approximately 250-400 mg of aerosol-generating material per portion. For instance, when a portion of the smoking article has a weight of between 300 mg, only approximately of 50 mg to 60 mg thereof are tobacco-containing material.

[0050] In this particular embodiment, the cross section (dotted line A-A) of the portion 20 shows that the container 22 are in substantially circular shapes. In other words, the containers 22 can be provided as granules, pods, disc, elongated fibres, elongated spiral or the like. For instance, container 22 in form of elongated fibre or elongated spiral has the advantages of increased processability, simplicity (produced via extrusion), easier control of density and air flow.

[0051] Advantageously, one or more airflow channels 75 are arranged longitudinally in the longitudinal direction of the aerosol-generating article 100. This allows aerosol circulation and insertion of the article onto a blade or rod like heating element 200 of a heating device when such is used in conjunction with the inventive article 100 for heating it.

[0052] To this end, it is disclosed that the aerosol-generating material 65 which is foam-like or mousse-like material, preferably comprises tobacco-containing or originating material, i.e. material derived from real tobacco plants or seeds. The aerosol-generating material 65 can be provided to the containers 22 via different methods well known to a skilled person in the art.

[0053] Thanks to the novel aerosol-generating article, the inventors have surprisingly found out that aerosol-generating material which is in form of a foam-like or mousse-like, wherein the foam-like material is housed within a container 22, a more homogenised form of tobacco-containing materials can be achieved and provided. Such aerosol-generating article advantageously provides a denser, tobacco-flavour rich, homogenous aerosol, which offers consumers a better user's experience compared to reconstituted tobacco. For example, the aerosol-generating article of the present invention permits aerosol delivery for up to 15-20 puffs with prominent tobacco character, requiring however very little tobacco material (e.g. only 60 mg of tobacco-containing material of a 250-400 mg portion).

[0054] In the preferred embodiment of FIG. 1, the sealing portion 10 is provided to the aerosol-generating article 100 of the present invention at the furthest portion from the mouth end 25. The sealing portion 10 may comprise a solid material such as gel, gum, matrix or slurry.

[0055] As described above, a heating blade 200 or rod element 200 of a vaporizer or a heating device may pierce through the sealing portion 10 and reach the portion 20 comprises a plurality of containers 22, wherein the heating element 200 is in contact with the foam-like material 65 provided within the containers 22, thereby producing a charge of aerosol, as the foam-like material 65 is heated by the heating element 200. Although it is not intended, traces of debris are usually formed from the heated foam-like aerosol-generating article 100 and these traces of debris or chunks are often stuck to the surface of the heating element 200 of the smoking device. For this reason, the user needs to clean frequently the smoking device.

[0056] The sealing portion 10 can be provided to the aerosol-generating article 100 of the present invention to clean the heating blade or rod element (e.g. being discarded) upon withdrawal of the article 100 from the heating blade or rod element, thereby preventing the aerosol-generating material 65 or its debris from leaving the portion 20 where containers 22 having aerosol-generating material 65 are being contained. For this reason, the heating element 200 can be cleaned automatically by the sealing portion 10 when being retrieved from the aerosol-generating article 100, thus reducing the frequency of cleaning the surface of the heating blade element of the smoking device. To this end, it is disclosed that the material chosen to form the sealing portion 10 should be able to the heat of the heating element 200, for example at least 500° C. and up to 1000° C.

[0057] Thanks to the containers 22 where the aerosol-generating material 65 in form of foam-like or mousse-like is housed therein, the heat of the heating device is not directly transferred to the aerosol-generating material 65. The inventor of the present invention has found out that the foam-like aerosol-generating material 65 contained in the container 22 is indirectly heated by the heating element 200 and has a temperature of approximately 230° C. when in use. This temperature is ideal for the foam-like material to release charge of aerosol.

[0058] It is reiterated herein again that one or more air channel 75 provided through the containers 22 are preferably parallel to the longitudinal direction of the aerosol-generating article 100 such that air can be flown from a distal end 15 to the mouth end 25 of the mouthpiece 30 of the aerosol-generating article 100 for a user to draw the aerosol through the mouthpiece when in use.

[0059] It will be appreciated that the aerosol-generating article 100 show in the FIG. 1 may also be suitable for use with any types of existing heat-not-burn aerosol-generating devices, in particular but not exclusively comprising blade or rod heating elements inserted into a charge of aerosol-generating material or peripheral wrapped in a rod shape together with a mouthpiece.