Aerosol generating article having a mouthpiece with a modified structure

Abstract

An aerosol-generating article is provided, including an aerosol-generating substrate; and a mouthpiece disposed downstream of the aerosol-generating substrate, a peripheral region of the mouthpiece including one or more closed pockets of air.

Claims

1. An aerosol-generating article, comprising: an aerosol-generating substrate; and a mouthpiece disposed downstream of the aerosol-generating substrate, wherein a peripheral region of the mouthpiece comprises one or more closed pockets of air, wherein the mouthpiece further comprises a mouthpiece segment, wherein the one or more closed pockets of air are disposed in the peripheral region of the mouthpiece segment, wherein the mouthpiece further comprises a wrapper circumscribing the mouthpiece segment, and wherein the one or more closed pockets of air are provided in a form of longitudinally extending channels, each channel of the longitudinally extending channels being defined between a corresponding longitudinally extending groove in an outer surface of the mouthpiece segment and an inner surface of an overlying portion of the circumscribing wrapper.

2. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the mouthpiece segment is disposed at a mouth end of the mouthpiece.

3. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the mouthpiece segment is substantially cylindrical.

4. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the mouthpiece segment comprises a first component forming an inner region of the mouthpiece segment, and a second component forming the peripheral region of the mouthpiece segment.

5. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 4, wherein the first component is gas permeable.

6. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 4, wherein the first component comprises fibrous filtration material.

7. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the corresponding longitudinally extending groove is provided with first and second spaced apart blocking members closing the channels at respective upstream and downstream ends thereof.

8. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 7, wherein the corresponding longitudinally extending groove includes a first longitudinally extending groove and a second longitudinally extending groove, wherein each of the first longitudinally extending groove and the second longitudinally extending groove is provided with the first and the second spaced apart blocking members, and wherein the first and the second spaced apart blocking members of the first longitudinally extending groove are disposed at different longitudinal locations than that of the first and the second spaced apart blocking members of the second longitudinally extending groove.

9. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the longitudinally extending grooves extend only along part of a length of the mouthpiece segment.

10. An aerosol-generating article, comprising: an aerosol-generating substrate; and a mouthpiece disposed downstream of the aerosol-generating substrate, wherein a peripheral region of the mouthpiece comprises one or more closed pockets of air, wherein the mouthpiece further comprises a wrapper circumscribing a mouthpiece segment, wherein the mouthpiece segment comprises one or more cavities recessed into an outer surface of the mouthpiece segment underlying the circumscribing wrapper, and wherein each of the one or more closed pockets of air is defined between one of the recessed cavities and an inner surface of an overlying portion of the circumscribing wrapper.

11. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the wrapper circumscribing the mouthpiece segment has a porosity of less than 1,000 Coresta units.

12. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the wrapper circumscribing the mouthpiece segment has a porosity of less than 1,000 Coresta units.

13. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein a combined volume of the one or more closed pockets of air is at least 20 mm.sup.3.

14. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the aerosol-generating article has a length of 45 mm or less.

15. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the mouthpiece segment is disposed at a mouth end of the mouthpiece.

16. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the mouthpiece segment is substantially cylindrical.

17. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the mouthpiece segment comprises a first component forming an inner region of the mouthpiece segment, and a second component forming the peripheral region of the mouthpiece segment.

18. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 17, wherein the first component is gas permeable.

19. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 17, wherein the first component comprises fibrous filtration material.

20. The aerosol-generating article according to claim 1, wherein the one or more closed pockets of air are filled with a liquid.

Description

(1) Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram of an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram of an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a mouthpiece of an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a mouthpiece of an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and

(6) FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the outer surface of a mouthpiece segment of an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

(7) FIG. 1 illustrates an aerosol-generating article 1 article in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. The aerosol-generating article 1 comprises four segments. The segments are: an aerosol generating substrate 2, a support element 3, an aerosol-cooling element 4 and a mouthpiece segment 5 in the form of a filter segment comprising cellulose acetate fibres.

(8) The four segments are arranged sequentially and in coaxial alignment and are assembled by a cigarette paper 6 to form a rod. The rod has a mouth-end 7, which a user inserts into his or her mouth during use, and a distal end 8 located at the opposite end of the rod to the mouth end 7. Segments located between the mouth-end 7 and the distal end 8 can be described as being upstream of the mouth-end 7 or, alternatively, downstream of the distal end 8. When assembled, the rod is 52 millimetres long and has a diameter of 7.2 millimetres.

(9) The mouthpiece segment 5 has at least two closed pockets of air 55 disposed in the peripheral region of the mouthpiece segment 5. Each pocket is enclosed by a portion of the outer surface of the mouthpiece segment 5, a portion of the inner surface of the wrapper 6, and respective first and second blocking members 51, 52.

(10) FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram of an aerosol-generating article in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention. The article 1 of FIG. 2 differs from the article 1 of FIG. 1, in that the mouthpiece segment 5 of FIG. 2 does not include blocking members for the closed pockets. Instead, both of the upstream and downstream ends 251, 252 of the mouthpiece segment form a barrier which prevents air from escaping the pockets. This can enable the mouthpiece to have a conventional appearance when viewed from the mouth end of the article 1.

(11) FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a mouthpiece of an aerosol-generating article 1 in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention. The mouthpiece is in an unwrapped configuration with the wrapper 6 not fully circumscribing the mouthpiece segment 305.

(12) The mouthpiece segment 305 comprises a first component 353 forming the inner region of the mouthpiece segment 305, and a second component 354 forming the peripheral region of the mouthpiece segment 305. The first component 353 is a gas permeable component formed of cellulose acetate fibers. Aerosol is therefore able to flow through the first component 353 of the mouthpiece segment 305. The second component 356 is a moulded plastic sheath, which surrounds the first component353 . The outer surface of the sheath is formed with a plurality of longitudinally extending grooves 356 for defining the plurality of closed pockets.

(13) Each longitudinally extending groove 356 is provided with first and second spaced apart blocking members 351, 352 to fill their respective grooves and close the channels at their respective upstream and downstream ends.

(14) The first and second blocking members 351, 352 are provided as discrete elements within their respective grooves. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the first and second blocking members 351, 352 of a first groove may be positioned at a different longitudinal location to that of the first and second blocking members of a second groove. Such an arrangement is advantageous when the mouthpiece segment is formed from a continuous rod. In particular, such an arrangement is advantageous when the continuous rod is cut at discrete locations to form mouthpiece segments. This is because the arrangement enables a segment to be cut from the rod at any location along the rod's length, and still have a high likelihood of a closed pocket of air being formable in said segment. In other words, the arrangement reduces the importance, or eliminates the need for, registering the location of the blocking members with the location of the cuts in the rod forming each segment.

(15) FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a mouthpiece of an aerosol-generating article 1 in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention. The mouthpiece is in an unwrapped configuration with the wrapper 6 not fully circumscribing the mouthpiece segment 405.

(16) The mouthpiece segment 405 of FIG. 4 is similar to the mouthpiece segment 305 of FIG. 3, but differs in that the mouthpiece segment 405 of FIG. 4 has first and second blocking members 451, 452, which are provided as single elements, in the form of single strips of material, which extends across the plurality of longitudinally extending grooves 456. The first blocking member 451 of each groove has the same longitudinal position as the first blocking of each of the other grooves. Similarly, the second blocking member 452 of each groove has the same longitudinal position as the second blocking of each of the other grooves. Also similar to FIG. 3, mouthpiece segment 405 comprises a first component 453 forming the inner region of the mouthpiece segment 405, and a second component 454 forming the peripheral region of the mouthpiece segment 405.

(17) FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the outer surface of a portion of a mouthpiece segment 505 of an aerosol-generating article 1 in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention. In contrast to the embodiments shown in the likes of FIGS. 3 and 4, the closed pockets of air are not formed by longitudinal grooves in the outer surface of the mouthpiece segment. Instead, each of the one or more closed pockets is defined between one of a plurality of recessed cavities 555 on the outer surface of the mouthpiece segment 505, and the inner surface of an overlying portion of the circumscribing wrapper (not shown in FIG. 5). As a result, no blocking members are required in the FIG. 5 embodiment.