Patent Description:
Heat-not-burn devices, also known as heated tobacco devices, operate by heating tobacco or a similar flavor medium, which creates an inhalable vapor, rather than smoke. The tobacco or similar flavor medium is heated by a heating element in the device, while the tobacco itself does not burn. In contrast to conventional cigarettes, where the tobacco burns and produces smoke, with heat-not-burn devices, the intention is to produce vapor instead of smoke.

The <CIT> discloses an article for use with apparatus for heating smokable material to volatilize at least one component of smokable material, which includes a material of a mixture of smokable material with current inducible elements randomly dispersed therein. The <CIT> discloses an inductive heating device comprising a susceptor and a heater coil, which includes a plurality of coil segments with connection taps. The <CIT> discloses a system to volatilize at least one component of a smokable material by using inductive heating generated by a single wound coil. The <CIT> discloses an aerosol delivery system which uses a single induction coil to provide induction heating.

A heat-not-burn (HNB) smoking assembly (hereinafter the "smoking assembly") includes an HNB smoking article (hereinafter the "smoking article") received in an open end of an HNB smoking device (hereinafter the "smoking device"). The smoking article includes multiple conductive elements that generate induced current in alternative magnetic fields generated by multiple inductive coils in the smoking device.

A heat-not-burn smoking article according to the invention is defined in claim <NUM>. A smoking assembly according to the invention is provided according to claim <NUM>.

A conductive element generates induced current in an alternative magnetic field to heat one or more smoking materials to create a vapor. A smoking assembly has multiple conductive elements coupled with multiple inductive coils, respectively. One, two, three, or more inductive coils may be activated at the same time to provide one, two, three, or more alterative magnetic fields that generate induced current in the one, two, three, or more conductive elements (induction heating plates) coupled with the corresponding inductive coils. The smoking assembly includes a smoking article received into a smoking device; the smoking article may have the conductive elements and smoking materials, and the smoking device includes the inductive coils and power source. Although the following description refers to a smoking article, a smoking device and a smoking assembly, the devices and methods disclosed herein use heat-not-burn techniques, which generate vapor rather than smoke.

<FIG> shows an embodiment of the smoking article <NUM> including an inhalation unit <NUM> and a smoking material unit <NUM> in airflow communication with each other.

The smoking article <NUM> includes a mouthpiece <NUM>, and optionally a filter <NUM> including one or more filter materials. Examples of filter materials include, without limitation, filter materials suitable for conventional cigarettes, porous materials, and absorbent materials.

The smoking material unit <NUM> has a first housing <NUM> with a first end <NUM> and a second end <NUM>; multiple conductive elements <NUM> in the first housing <NUM>; and one or more smoking materials <NUM> in the first housing <NUM>.

The first housing <NUM> may include one or more materials that are not conductive, e.g., paper.

The conductive elements include one or more conductive materials or an inert core with one or more conductive materials. Examples of the conductive materials include, without limitation, metals (e.g., aluminum, barium calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gold, ion, iridium, lead, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, muonium, niobium, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, sodium, silver, steel, strontium, tantalum, thallium, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zinc, zirconium) and alloys formed by any combination thereof (e.g., brass), and conductive carbon (e.g., graphite, graphene, and/or carbon-based nanomaterials).

The conductive elements <NUM> may have one or more openings <NUM> (<FIG>) and/or a gap <NUM> between the conductive elements <NUM> and the first housing <NUM> (<FIG>) to allow air flow from the first end <NUM> of the first housing <NUM> to reach the mouthpiece <NUM>.

The conductive elements <NUM> contact or are attached to the first housing <NUM> (<FIG>). One or more of the conductive elements <NUM> may be attached to the first housing <NUM> by a support <NUM> (<FIG>). Alternatively, one or more of the conductive elements <NUM> may be detachable from the first housing <NUM>.

The conductive elements <NUM> and the intersection of the first housing <NUM> may have the same or different shapes. For example, the first housing <NUM> may have a circular intersection, and the conductive elements <NUM> may have a square shape (<FIG>). Alternatively, the first housing <NUM> may have a square intersection, and the conductive elements <NUM> may have a circular shape.

The conductive elements are conductive plates.

<FIG> shows an embodiment of the smoking article <NUM> where two adjacent conductive elements <NUM> may define a first chamber <NUM> in the first housing <NUM>. The first chamber <NUM> contains one or more smoking materials. In certain embodiments, each first chamber <NUM> may contain about the same amount of the same smoking materials. Alternatively, the first chambers <NUM> may contain different amounts and/or different types of the smoking materials. As shown in <FIG>, the smoking material unit <NUM> may further include one or more non-conductive separators <NUM> between the first chambers <NUM> containing different smoking materials. The conductive elements <NUM> may be configured with various arrangements. For example, the conductive elements <NUM> may be evenly spaced apart from each other. Alternatively, the distances between adjacent conductive elements <NUM> may vary. Optionally, the conductive elements <NUM> are plates which are substantially parallel to each other and perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the smoking article. Unless otherwise specified, "substantially parallel to each other" implies a maximum alignment error of ±<NUM>°; and "substantially perpendicular" implies a maximum alignment error of ±<NUM>°. Alternatively, any two of the plates may be aligned at an angle to each other, wherein the angle may be <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, or <NUM>-±<NUM>°. Unless otherwise specified, an angle between two plates means an angle between a surface of one plate of the two plates and a surface of the other plate.

The smoking materials may be solid materials containing one or more tobacco products. Alternatively, one or more of the smoking materials <NUM> may include a porous material soaked with an e-liquid. Examples of the porous materials include, without limitation, micro-porous ceramic, foamed ceramic, natural fiber, artificial fiber or foam metal material. Examples of fibers include, without limitation, ceramic fiber, quartz fiber, glass fiber, and aramid fiber. An e-liquid may produce a mist or vapour when heated by an atomizer. It may include one or more chemicals selected from the group consisting of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), polyethylene glycol <NUM> (PEG400), and alcohols, and one or more agents selected from the group consisting of flavors (e.g., tobacco flavors, food flavors such as flavors of candy, nuts, fruit, bakery, dairy, cream, spice and vegetable, beverage flavors, floral flavors, sweet flavors, and sour flavors) and nicotine. The e-liquid may include nicotine at various concentrations or may be nicotine-free. Nicotine may be synthetic or tobacco-derived nicotine products.

A heat-not-burn smoking article has a plurality of spaced apart conductive plates; a volume of a smoking material between adjacent conductive plates; and the conductive plates and the smoking material contained within a cylindrical container. The cylindrical container may be a wrapper (e.g., paper) around the conductive plates and the smoking material. The conductive plates may be equally spaced apart and parallel to each other.

<FIG> shows various embodiments of the smoking assembly <NUM> including various embodiments of the smoking device <NUM> coupled with an embodiment of the smoking article <NUM> having multiple conductive elements and one or more smoking materials. The smoking device <NUM> includes: a second housing <NUM> with a battery unit <NUM> and a heating unit <NUM> in the housing <NUM>; the battery unit <NUM> containing a battery <NUM>; and the heating unit <NUM> containing a receptacle <NUM> for receiving the smoking article <NUM>, and a plurality of induction coils <NUM> spaced apart along the receptacle <NUM>.

The housing <NUM> may have a closed end <NUM> and an open end <NUM>. The battery unit <NUM> may be at the closed end <NUM>, and the heating unit <NUM> may be at the open end <NUM>. The housing <NUM> may include one or more conductive materials to shield the magnetic field produced by the inductive coils.

Optionally, the battery unit <NUM> further includes an electronic controller or a control circuit <NUM> that activates the heating unit <NUM> when the electronic controller or control circuit <NUM> is activated.

The heating unit <NUM> includes: a receptacle <NUM> for receiving the smoking article <NUM> from the open end <NUM>; and multiple induction coils <NUM> attached to the receptacle <NUM>. One, two, three, or more of the induction coils <NUM> may be selectively and/or independently activated by the control circuit <NUM> to generate one or more alternative magnetic fields in the receptacle <NUM>. One or more of the induction coils <NUM> are coupled with one or more of the conductive elements in the smoking article <NUM> to generate induced current. Unless otherwise specified, a conductive element is "coupled" to an induction coil when an alternative magnetic field created by the induction coil can generate induced current on the conductive element sufficient to create heat useful to generate vapor. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, or ten of the induction coils <NUM> may be activated simultaneously. Optionally, the induction coils <NUM> are activated sequentially from the distal to the proximal of the open end <NUM>.

The induction coils <NUM> are spaced apart along the receptacle <NUM> and may have various arrangements to couple with the conductive elements of the smoking article <NUM> accordingly. For example, the induction coils <NUM> may be evenly spaced with each other. Unless otherwise specified, the distance between two induction coils is the shortest distance between the two induction coils. Alternatively, the distances between adjacent induction coils <NUM> may vary. Optionally, the induction coils <NUM> may be substantially parallel to each other. Alternatively, the induction coils <NUM> may be positioned at varied angles with each other. In certain embodiments, an angle between two induction coils is the angle between two center axes which the two induction coils wind around, respectively. The angles between any two induction coils may be <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, <NUM>-±<NUM>°, or <NUM>-±<NUM>°. Alternatively, an angle between two induction coils is an angle between two conductive plates coupled with the two induction coils, respectively.

The heating unit <NUM> may further include a sealing element <NUM> proximal to the open end <NUM> that contacts the smoking article <NUM>. The sealing element may be composed of silicon, rubber, and/or other suitable polymers. Optionally, the receptacle <NUM> has a closed end <NUM> that seals the receptacle from the battery unit <NUM> to avoid contamination of the battery <NUM> and/or the control circuit <NUM>.

The smoking device <NUM> may include an air inlet <NUM> on the housing <NUM> to allow air flow into the receptacle <NUM>. The air inlet <NUM> may be positioned on either side of the closed end <NUM> of the receptacle <NUM>. When the air inlet <NUM> is positioned between the battery and the closed end <NUM>, a one-way valve <NUM> may be configured at the closed end <NUM> allowing air to flow only in one direction into the receptacle <NUM> (<FIG>).

Optionally, the smoking device <NUM> includes a sensor <NUM> (e.g., an airflow sensor, pressure sensor, or a puff sensor) on or in the second housing <NUM> that may activate the control circuit <NUM> when sensing inhalation (<FIG> and <FIG>). Alternatively, the smoking device <NUM> may include a switch <NUM> which may activate the control circuit <NUM> when turned on (<FIG> and <FIG>).

<FIG> show another embodiment of the smoking assembly <NUM> including an embodiment of the smoking device <NUM> coupled with an embodiment of the smoking article <NUM>.

The smoking device <NUM> has: a battery unit <NUM> at an end <NUM> of the smoking device <NUM>; and a heating unit <NUM> at an open end <NUM> of the smoking device <NUM>. The battery unit <NUM> contains a battery <NUM> and, optionally, a control circuit. The heating unit <NUM> includes a receptacle <NUM> for receiving the smoking article <NUM>; and multiple induction coils <NUM> in the receptacle <NUM>. The receptacle <NUM> is defined by a housing <NUM>, a closed end <NUM> of the housing <NUM>, and the open end <NUM>. The smoking device <NUM> further includes a switch <NUM> on the housing <NUM> that activates the control circuit and/or the induction coils <NUM>. One or more of the conductive elements <NUM> in the smoking article <NUM> are coupled with one or more of the induction coils <NUM>, respectively. The heating unit <NUM> may further include a sealing element <NUM> proximal to the open end <NUM> that contacts the smoking article <NUM> (<FIG>, not shown in <FIG>). The When the smoking article <NUM> is inserted into the smoking device <NUM>, each conductive element <NUM> may be aligned with one of the induction coils <NUM>.

<FIG>, and <FIG> show various embodiments of the smoking assembly <NUM>/<NUM> including an embodiment of the smoking article <NUM>; and various embodiments of the smoking device <NUM>/<NUM>. The smoking article <NUM> is received into the receptacle <NUM>/<NUM> of the smoking device <NUM>/<NUM>; and one or more of the conductive elements <NUM> are coupled with one or more of the induction coils <NUM>/<NUM>.

A smoking device may have a battery unit having a battery in a housing, with the battery electrically connected to an electronic controller and to a sensor; the housing having a receptacle for receiving a smoking article; and a plurality of induction coils electrically connected to the electronic controller, with the induction coils longitudinally spaced apart along the receptacle. The smoking device may further include a smoking article inserted into the receptacle, with the smoking article including a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart induction heating plates, with a volume of a smoking material between adjacent induction heating plates.

Claim 1:
A heat-not-burn smoking article comprising:
an inhalation unit (<NUM>) comprising a mouthpiece (<NUM>); and
a smoking material unit (<NUM>) in airflow communication with the inhalation unit (<NUM>), comprising:
a first housing (<NUM>) having a first end (<NUM>) distal to the inhalation unit (<NUM>) and a second end (<NUM>);
multiple conductive elements (<NUM>) in the first housing (<NUM>);
characterized in that,
the conductive elements (<NUM>) are conductive plates which are longitudinally spaced apart from each other and contacting or being attached to the first housing (<NUM>); and
one or more smoking materials (<NUM>) in the first housing (<NUM>) between at least two adjacent conductive plates.