Inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation

Abstract

An inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation includes an aerosol forming substrate in the form of particles and a susceptor in the form of a plurality of particles, wherein the susceptor is a combination of an aerosol forming substrate and a susceptor for obtaining a rigid susceptor, wherein the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer has a rigidity greater than the rigidity of the susceptor layer.

Claims

1. An inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation, the consumable comprising flavour forming particles and a susceptor in the form of susceptor particles, wherein each susceptor particle is a combination of a rigid aerosol forming substrate layer and a susceptor layer that together make the susceptor particle rigid, wherein the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer has a rigidity greater than a rigidity of the susceptor layer.

2. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein each rigid susceptor particle has a rigidity not more than 10% more rigid than the rigidity of the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer.

3. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 2, wherein the rigidity of each rigid susceptor particle is not more than 5% more rigid than the rigidity of the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer.

4. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 3, wherein the rigidity of each rigid susceptor particle is not more than 1% more rigid than the rigidity of the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer.

5. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein the susceptor has a shear strength of at least 250 MPa.

6. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein each susceptor particle includes perforations extending through the layers.

7. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein the combination of each susceptor particle further includes a second aerosol forming substrate layer.

8. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 7, wherein the rigidity of each rigid susceptor particle with the second aerosol forming substrate is substantially equivalent to or greater than the rigidity of each rigid susceptor particle without the second aerosol forming substrate.

9. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 7, wherein each susceptor particle includes perforations extending through all of the layers.

10. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein each susceptor particle is printed, or wherein each susceptor particle includes a glue layer between the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer and the susceptor layer.

11. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein susceptor particle and the flavour forming particles are homogeneously mixed.

12. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein the rigid susceptor particles are shaped as discs.

13. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein shapes of the rigid particles and of the flavour forming particles includes line, strand, polygonal, square, curve, disc, oval, annulus, circle.

14. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein the flavour forming particles and the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer include tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, tobacco extract, homogenized tobacco, tobacco substitutes, reconstituted tobacco including tobacco and any one or more of cellulose fibres, tobacco stalk fibres and inorganic fillers such as calcium carbonate, or any combinations thereof.

15. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 7, wherein the flavour forming particles, the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer, and the second aerosol forming substrate layer each include tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, tobacco extract, homogenized tobacco, tobacco substitutes, reconstituted tobacco including tobacco and any one or more of cellulose fibres, tobacco stalk fibres and inorganic fillers such as calcium carbonate, or any combinations thereof.

16. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein the susceptor particles and the flavour forming particles range in length and/or diameter from 1 to 15 millimetres.

17. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 16, wherein the susceptor particles and the flavour forming particles range in length and/or diameter from 2 to 8 millimetres.

18. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, further comprising a paper sheet wrapped around the flavour forming particles and the susceptor particles to form a rod.

19. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, further comprising a capsule in which the flavour forming particles and the susceptor particles are received.

20. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 19, wherein the capsule is porous in at least one side.

21. An aerosol generating device comprising: the consumable according to claim 1; a heating compartment arranged to receive the consumable; an induction heating assembly arranged to inductively heat the consumable.

22. A method of manufacturing an inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation, the method comprising steps of: providing an aerosol forming substrate sheet; providing a susceptor sheet; combining the susceptor sheet with the aerosol forming substrate sheet for obtaining a rigid sheet; cutting the rigid sheet into particles; mixing said particles with particles of an aerosol forming substrate.

23. The method of manufacturing an inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 22, wherein before the step of cutting the rigid sheet into particles, the method further comprises the steps of: providing a second aerosol forming substrate sheet; and combining the second aerosol forming substrate sheet with the susceptor sheet and the aerosol forming substrate sheet to form the rigid sheet.

24. The method of manufacturing an inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 22, wherein before the step of cutting the rigid sheet into particles, the method further comprising the step of: perforating the aerosol forming substrate sheet and the susceptor sheet.

25. The method of manufacturing an inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 22, wherein the step of combining includes printing, gluing, stacking, binding, and/or sticking the susceptor sheet with the aerosol forming substrate sheet.

26. The inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation according to claim 1, wherein the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer is a portion of a sheet, and the susceptor layer is a portion of a sheet.

27. An inductively heatable consumable for aerosol generation, the consumable comprising particles of an aerosol forming substrate mixed with a susceptor in the form of susceptor particles, wherein each susceptor particle is a combination of a rigid aerosol forming substrate layer and a susceptor layer that together make the susceptor particle rigid, wherein the rigid aerosol forming substrate layer has a rigidity greater than a rigidity of the susceptor layer.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of an inductively heatable tobacco consumable comprising particles of rigid susceptor and particles of aerosol forming substrate according to an aspect of the invention;

(2) FIG. 2 is a side view of a rigid sheet of susceptor comprising a sheet of susceptor combined with a sheet of aerosol forming substrate according to one aspect of the invention;

(3) FIG. 3 is a side view of a second rigid sheet of susceptor comprising a sheet of susceptor combined in the middle of two sheets of aerosol forming substrate;

(4) FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of part of an aerosol generating device according to the present disclosure:

(5) FIG. 5 is a side view of a rod including a mixture of rigid susceptor particles and particles of aerosol forming substrate wrapped by a paper sheet; and

(6) FIG. 6 is a side view of a capsule including a mixture of rigid susceptor particles and particles of aerosol forming substrate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(7) Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(8) FIG. 1 gives a schematically view of an inductively heatable tobacco consumable 100 according to one aspect of the invention.

(9) FIG. 2 shows a sheet of rigid susceptor 106 comprising a sheet of susceptor 104 combined with a sheet of aerosol forming substrate 102.

(10) Alternatively, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 3, a sheet of rigid susceptor 107 may comprise an additional sheet of aerosol forming substrate 103 combined with the rigid susceptor 106 such that the sheet of susceptor 104 stands in the middle of the first and second sheets of aerosol forming substrate 102 and 103, such that the sheet of susceptor 104 adheres to the first and second sheets of aerosol forming substrate 102 and 103. Alternatively, a sheet of rigid susceptor may be a combination of plurality of sheets 106, or a combination of plurality of sheets 107 or combination of plurality of sheets 106 and 107.

(11) Adhering or combining includes technologies amongst printing, gluing, stacking, binding, sticking.

(12) The inductively heatable susceptor layer 104 is thereby enclosed by the aerosol forming substrate layers. One advantage of this approach is that it may improve heating efficiency. Another advantage of this approach is that it may extend the shelf-life of the inductively heatable susceptor layer by virtue of the fact that the aerosol forming substrate layers 104 and 103 and adhesive may form a protective enclosure around the inductively heatable susceptor layer (e.g. comprising iron), thereby preventing oxidation of the inductively heatable susceptor (the thickness of the adhesive may be about 10 micrometres).

(13) This maybe also the case for the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 2.

(14) The sheet of aerosol forming substrate 102 and/or 103 includes tobacco (which may have been processed in some way to form, for example, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, tobacco extract, homogenized tobacco, tobacco substitutes or any combinations thereof, preferably reconstituted tobacco that is easy to manufacture).

(15) The particles of aerosol forming substrate 108 include tobacco (which may also be processed to form, for example, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, reconstituted tobacco, tobacco extract, homogenized tobacco, tobacco substitutes or any combinations thereof).

(16) Turning back to FIG. 1, the consumable 100 comprises particles of aerosol forming substrate 108 and particles of rigid susceptor sheet 106 and/or 107.

(17) The rigid susceptor particles 106 and/or 107 have a similar size and shape and as far as possible are distributed within the tobacco particles 108 in a consistent orientation relative to an induction coil. In the present embodiment, the susceptor particles are shaped as small discs. However, in alternative embodiments they could be shaped as annular discs. They could also be shaped as ribbons but in such a case it is more important to try to obtain a consistent orientation of the ribbons relative to the induction coil.

(18) To produce the susceptor from which the susceptor particles 106 and 107 are formed, in some embodiments, a pre-formed aerosol forming substrate sheet is combined with pre-formed susceptor sheet. In various embodiments this is achieved by providing an adhesive between faces of the substrate sheet and the susceptor sheet that are to be abutted. Once abutted, due to the adhesive, or any other form of process by which the substrate sheet and the susceptor sheet are joined, the sheets are combined. Where there is a further aerosol forming substrate layer as in susceptor particles 107, a further aerosol forming substrate sheet is joined to an opposing side of the susceptor sheet to the side to which the other aerosol forming substrate is joined or to be joined. Regardless of the number of aerosol forming substrate sheets, this provides a sheet of rigid susceptor. This means no further processing needs to be carried out on the susceptor.

(19) Due to the rigidity of the aerosol forming substrate sheet(s), and the corresponding rigidity of the susceptor sheet, the susceptor has sufficient shear strength to minimise curling when induction heating is applied. This is in part achieved by the various layers being pre-formed as sheets without needing to dry or cure any one layer when combining the layers or for one layer to be provided in a non-solid form that then requires further processing in order to cause the layer to set and provide the desired properties. With the susceptor being formed in the manner described, the desired properties are provided without a need for further processing. Further, should one layer be provided in a non-solid form during the process of combining the layers, that layer provided in the non-solid form would not have the desired rigidity, which could lead to variation in the rigidity though-out the layer, and also between separate susceptors. This would cause a greater variation in the rigidity of susceptors without allowing the rigidity to be known before the susceptor is produced. By using pre-formed sheets, the rigidity of the sheets is able to be known before they are combined allowing each sheet to only be used if it meets a threshold rigidity, such as by having a minimum shear strength, and in some embodiments, a minimum uniformity of shear strength across the sheet.

(20) For forming the tobacco consumable 100 according to the invention, the sheet of rigid susceptor is cut into particles, providing sheared particles (where the layers have been sheared by the cutting process). In some embodiments, such particles are then mixed together with particles of aerosol forming substrate. The resultant mixture may be wrapped by a wrapper such as a paper sheet 202 to form a rod 200, shown in FIG. 5. Such a continuous rod 200 is then cut to the required size for a tobacco plug to be used in combination with an inductive heating device 400 for aerosol generation.

(21) Alternatively, the resultant mixture may be put in a capsule 300 (shown in FIG. 6) to be used in combination with an inductive heating device 400 for aerosol generation. The capsule may have at least one porous side 302 to allow airflow.

(22) Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown diagrammatically a vapour generating device 400 according to an example of the present disclosure. The vapour generating device 400 comprises a housing 412. The device 400 includes a power source 416 and control circuitry 417, which may be configured to operate at high frequency. The power source typically comprises one or more batteries which could, for example, be inductively rechargeable. The device 400 also includes an air inlet (not shown).

(23) The vapour generating device 400 comprises an induction heating assembly 420 for heating a vapour generating (i.e. vaporisable) substance. The induction heating assembly 420 comprises a generally cylindrical heating compartment 424, which is arranged to receive a correspondingly shaped generally cylindrical induction heatable capsule 300 or rod 200 as described above. The induction heatable capsule 300 typically comprises an outer layer or membrane, with the outer layer or membrane being air permeable. For example, the induction heatable capsule 300 may be a disposable capsule containing the mixture of particles of aerosol forming substrate and particles of induction heatable rigid susceptor.

REFERENCE NUMBERS USED FOR THE FIGURES

(24) 100 Consumable 102 First aerosol forming substrate sheet 103 Second aerosol forming substrate sheet 104 Susceptor sheet 106 First rigid susceptor sheet 107 Second rigid susceptor sheet 108 Particles of aerosol forming substrate 400 Aerosol vapour device 412 Housing 416 Power source 417 Control circuitry 420 Induction heating assembly 424 Heating compartment 430 Induction coil