TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to aerosol generation devices configured to heat, rather than burn, a consumable comprising tobacco or other suitable aerosol substrate materials, to generate an aerosol for inhalation.

BACKGROUND

The popularity and use of reduced-risk or modified-risk devices (also known as vaporisers) has grown rapidly in the past few years as an aid to assist habitual smokers wishing to quit smoking traditional tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, and rolling tobacco. Various devices and systems are available that heat or warm aerosolisable substances as opposed to burning tobacco in conventional tobacco products.

A commonly available reduced-risk or modified-risk device is the heated substrate aerosol generation device or heat-not-burn device. Devices of this type generate an aerosol or vapour by heating an aerosol substrate that typically comprises moist leaf tobacco or other suitable aerosolisable material to a temperature typically in the range 150°C to 300°C. Heating an aerosol substrate, but not combusting or burning it, releases an aerosol that comprises the components sought by the user but not the toxic and carcinogenic by- products of combustion and burning. Furthermore, the aerosol produced by heating the tobacco or other aerosolisable material does not typically comprise the burnt or bitter taste resulting from combustion and burning that can be unpleasant for the user and so the substrate does not therefore require the sugars and other additives that are typically added to such materials to make the smoke and/or vapour more palatable for the user.

In order to increase the amount of aerosol which can be generated from a consumable, and to improve heating efficiency, it is desirable to decrease the ratio of the volume of the consumable to the surface area that is exposed to a heater. One way of achieving this is by providing the consumable that is thin, for example in the form of a sheet or a thread. However, such consumables can be inconvenient for a user to handle, particularly when inserting a fresh consumable into an aerosol generation device and removing a used consumable from the aerosol generation device. As a result, it is desirable to provide an aerosol generation device with features to assist the user in adding and removing a thin consumable.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect, the present disclosure provides an aerosol generation device configured to heat a consumable comprising tobacco, the device comprising: a housing; and a reel arranged to rotate on an axis of rotation within the housing so as to wind a consumable around the reel, the consumable having a winding dimension along which it is wound around the reel. The reel comprises: a positioning means for positioning the consumable along the winding dimension before the consumable is wound around the reel; and an engagement means for engaging with the consumable when the reel rotates.

Optionally, the reel comprises a reel hole configured to receive an end of the consumable along the winding dimension.

Optionally, the reel hole is a slot, and the consumable is a sheet.

Optionally, the reel hole has an end configured to position the end of the consumable.

Optionally, a side of the reel hole is configured to engage with the consumable when the reel rotates.

Optionally, the aerosol generation device comprises a heating unit arranged on an inner surface of the housing or an outer surface of the reel. Optionally, the heating unit comprises one or more heating elements arranged to extend around the axis of rotation of the reel. Optionally, the heating unit comprises a plurality of heating elements separated along the axis of rotation of the reel.

Optionally, the aerosol generation device comprises a flow channel between an inner surface of the housing and an outer surface of the reel, the flow channel being configured to allow flow of an aerosol generated from the consumable.

Optionally, the housing comprises an insertion hole configured to allow the consumable to be inserted into the flow channel.

Optionally, the aerosol generation device comprises a protrusion and a guide groove configured to guide movement of the protrusion between a plurality of positions, wherein one of the protrusion and the guide groove is formed on the housing and the other of the protrusion and the guide groove is formed on the reel.

Optionally, the guide groove comprises a first path which extends around the axis of rotation of the reel, and, when the reel rotates, the protrusion is guided along the first path between a start position and an end position.

Optionally, when the protrusion is at the start position, the reel hole is aligned with the insertion hole.

Optionally, the guide groove comprises a second path which extends along the axis of rotation of the reel between an attached position and a detached position, and the housing and the reel are configured to be attached to or detached from each other by guiding the protrusion along the second path.

Optionally, the attached position of the second path is between the start position and the end position of the first path.

Optionally, the attached position is substantially near to the end position, but not at the end position. Optionally, the guide groove comprises a third path that extends along the axis of rotation of the reel and has an end at the start position, and the housing and the reel are configured to be attached to or detached from each other by guiding the protrusion along the second path or the third path. Optionally, for each of the plurality of positions of the guide groove: the position is an end or corner of the guide groove, or the aerosol generation device comprises a respective position indicator configured to indicate when the protrusion is at the position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the following drawings:

Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration of a cross-section of an aerosol generation device;

Figs. 2A to 2C are schematic illustrations of stages in loading a consumable into the aerosol generation device;

Figs. 3A and 3B are schematic illustrations of loading a consumable into alternative aerosol generation devices;

Figs. 4A to 4D are schematic illustrations of alternative arrangements of a heating unit in an aerosol generation device, and alternative consumables for an aerosol generation device;

Figs. 5A and 5B are schematic illustrations of a guide groove in an aerosol generation device;

Fig. 6 is a schematic illustration of an exterior of an aerosol generation device.

In each of the drawings, x, y or z axes are labelled to illustrate rotations between the different illustrations. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates an aerosol generation device 1 comprising a housing 10 and a reel 20. The reel 20 is arranged to rotate within the housing 10 so as to wind a consumable 1000 (not shown) around the reel 20. In this embodiment, the housing is an elongate housing with a cylindrical internal volume.

The consumable 1000 may be a sheet or thread of aerosol substrate. For example, the consumable may be a thin rectangular sheet. The aerosol substrate may, for example, comprise a tobacco material in various forms such as shredded tobacco and granulated tobacco, and/or the tobacco material may comprise tobacco leaf and/or reconstituted tobacco.

In this embodiment, the aerosol generation device 1 further comprises a mouthpiece 30 via which a generated aerosol may be consumed by a user. More specifically, a consumable may be heated in a flow channel 40 between an inner surface of the housing 10 and an outer surface of the reel 20, in order to generate an aerosol from the consumable. The aerosol may then flow through the flow channel 40 and the mouthpiece 30 to a mouth end of the aerosol generation device.

In this embodiment, the reel 20 is attached to the mouthpiece 30, such that a user may manually control rotation of the reel within the housing by rotating the housing relative to the mouthpiece. In other embodiments, rotation of the reel may be driven by a motor, and the housing and mouthpiece may be formed as a single unit. Furthermore, the reel may have a part which extends beyond the mouthpiece to an opposing end of the device that is opposed to the mouth end, such that the rotation of the reel within the housing can be controlled manually using the opposing end, even if the housing and mouthpiece are formed as a single unit.

Figs. 2A to 2C are schematic illustrations of stages in loading a consumable into the aerosol generation device. Figs. 2A to 2C show a cross-section of the aerosol generation device perpendicular to an axis of rotation of the reel within the housing. The axis of rotation is parallel to the z axis labelled in Fig. 1 , and is not shown in Figs. 2A to 2C.

Referring to Fig. 2A, the housing 10 comprises an insertion hole 11 configured to allow the consumable 1000 to be inserted into the flow channel 40, and the reel 20 comprises a reel hole configured to receive an end of the consumable 1000 along a winding dimension, labelled ‘w’ in Fig. 2A. The winding dimension is a dimension of the consumable 1000 along which the consumable is wound around the reel 20. The winding dimension is typically the longest dimension of the consumable sheet or thread, although this need not be the case.

More specifically, in this embodiment, the reel hole has an end 21 and a side 22. In the case where the consumable 1000 is a sheet, the reel hole is a slot. On the other hand, in cases where the consumable 1000 is a thread, the reel hole may be correspondingly shaped to receive an end of the thread.

The end 21 of the reel hole acts as a positioning means for positioning the consumable ready to be wound around the reel. More specifically, the positioning means is used to position the consumable along the winding dimension before the consumable is wound around the reel. In other words, the positioning means is used to ensure that a correct length of the consumable has been fed into the aerosol generation device before winding occurs. In the case of the end 21 of the reel hole, the consumable is fed until it reaches the end 21 and can go no further. At that point, a user of the aerosol generation device knows that the consumable is correctly positioned to be wound into the aerosol generation device.

The side 22 of the reel hole is configured to act as an engagement means for engaging with the consumable when the reel 20 rotates. More specifically, when the reel 20 rotates, the end of the consumable experiences friction against the side 22 and thus engages with and moves with the side 22. As shown in Figs. 2B and 2C, because the engagement means engages with the part of the consumable that is already in the aerosol generation device, more of the consumable is pulled into the aerosol generation device as the reel rotates, and the consumable is wound around the reel.

In the specific example shown in Figs. 2A to 2C, the reel hole is asymmetric and one side is straight while the other side 22 is curved. The curved side allows the consumable to be flat against both the side 22 that acts as the engagement means and the outer surface of the reel 20, without forcing the consumable 1000 to form a corner which could otherwise increase the likelihood that the consumable breaks while being wound around the reel 20.

As shown in Figs. 2A to 2C, in this embodiment, a full rotation of the reel within the housing fully winds the consumable around the reel 20. However, in other embodiments, the reel may be configured to rotate multiple times within the housing to wind multiple layers of the consumable around the reel.

Additionally, as shown in Figs. 2A to 2C, in this embodiment, the reel 20 comprises a closing element 26 arranged to close the insertion hole 11 when the consumable 1000 is fully inserted. This has the advantage of improving efficiency by removing a way for heat to leak out from the aerosol generation device. However, in other embodiments, the closing element 26 may be omitted.

Figs. 3A and 3B are schematic illustrations of loading a consumable into alternative aerosol generation devices. In Fig. 3A, an embodiment is illustrated where, instead of a reel hole as described above, the housing 10 and the reel 20 are entirely bisected along part of their length in the z axis, providing a gap through which the consumable can pass through the aerosol generation device. This arrangement allows a double winding effect in which the consumable is wound by both ends of the gap. That is, as the reel 20 is rotated, the both ends of the consumable 1000 are simultaneously wound through the respective insertion holes 11. Furthermore, this has the advantage that an end of the consumable may be inserted through either of the insertion holes 11 . However, in order to avoid leaving a part of the consumable outside of the aerosol generation device when the reel is wound, the consumable must be fed half-way through the gap before winding. In this embodiment, a positioning means 21 ’ is arranged to block a corresponding positioning means 201 on the consumable 1000 when the consumable 1000 is correctly positioned for winding. In Fig. 3B, an embodiment is illustrated where the reel is not required to have a hole or gap as described above. Instead, the reel 20 has a resilient clip 21 , 22 on its surface, which acts as both a positioning means and an engagement means. The user pushes the consumable through the insertion hole 11 until an end of the consumable engages with the resilient clip 21 , 22, and then rotates the reel 20 within the housing 10 to wind the consumable around the reel.

The above are just examples of alternative positioning means and engagement means, and many other examples are possible. For example, the reel 20 could have one or more piercing elements extending from an outer surface, for piercing the consumable in order to position and engage with the consumable, and optionally even to drive heating of the consumable, as described in application EP19202286.1 .

Figs. 4A to 4D are schematic illustrations of alternative arrangements of a heating unit in a part of an aerosol generation device, and alternative consumables for an aerosol generation device. Figs. 4A to 4D are cross- sections illustrated from a perspective showing the axis of rotation (z axis) of the reel 20.

In each of Figs. 4A to 4D, the reel 20 is shown between two opposite walls of the housing 10. The opposite walls are connected to each other outside of the plane shown in the figures. Similarly, in Figs. 4A to 4C, two sections of a sheet-shaped consumable 1000 are shown on either side of the reel, illustrating the consumable 1000 wrapped around the reel 20.

As additionally illustrated in Fig. 4A, the reel 20 comprises a heating unit 23 arranged on an outer surface of the reel. The heating element is connected to a power supply (not shown) which may comprise control circuitry for controlling the heating element automatically and/or may comprise one or more user inputs (e.g. buttons, sliders) for a user to control the heating element. The user inputs may be arranged on an outer surface of the aerosol generation device (e.g. an outer surface of the housing 10 or the mouthpiece 30).

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 4A, the heating unit 23 comprises a plurality of heating elements arranged to extend around the axis of rotation of the reel (the direction of extension is out of the plane of the cross-section). In other words, the heating elements extend along the outer surface of the reel, around the axis of rotation of the reel. In embodiments where the reel 20 has a reel hole, the heating elements may not extend around the entire circumference of the reel, and ‘extend around’ means that they extend around a substantial portion of the circumference. Furthermore, the individual heating elements may not be continuous, and may comprise a series of smaller portions along the direction of extending around the axis of rotation.

More preferably, as shown in Fig. 4A, the heating elements may be separated along the axis of rotation of the reel. By providing separated heating elements, it becomes possible to control each heating element individually in order to, for example, heat different areas of the consumable at different times and/or different rates in order to control an aerosol generation profile.

For example, it is known that the rate and composition of generated aerosol changes over the course of heating an aerosol substrate, and a heating profile of the separate heating elements may be controlled in order to improve the aerosol generation profile. More specifically, the separate heating elements enable an effect similar to continuously adding fresh aerosol substrate, by starting to heat different parts of the consumable at different times.

Additionally, by activating different numbers of heating elements, different intensities of aerosol can be generated. Activating different numbers of heating elements may additionally control the total amount of aerosol which can be generated per consumable. Accordingly, the number or arrangement of activated heating elements may, for example, be controlled by the user.

The aerosol generation device partly schematically illustrated in Fig. 4B is similar to Fig. 4A, except that the heating unit 23’ is a single heating element arranged to extend around the axis of rotation of the reel. More specifically, the heating unit 23’ is a uniform sheet on the outer surface of the reel. This alternative embodiment may reduce the level of detail in which a heating profile may be defined, but has the benefit of simplifying manufacture of the aerosol generation device.

The aerosol generation device partly schematically illustrated in Fig. 4C is similar to Fig. 4A, except that the heating unit 23 is arranged on an inner surface of the housing 10. This means that any control circuitry for the heating unit may be provided in the housing. This may also make it easier to connect user inputs between an outer surface of the housing 10 and the heating unit 23.

The aerosol generation device partly schematically illustrated in Fig. 4D is similar to Fig. 4A, except that the reed hole has a shape adapted to receive an end of a thread-shaped consumable 1000’. Sections of the thread-shaped consumable 1000’ are shown wrapped around the reel 20, starting from the reel hole 22. The alternative features of Figs. 4A to 4D may also be combined. For example, the heating unit 23 may be a uniform sheet on the inner surface of the housing. As another example, the aerosol generation device may comprise both of a heating unit on the inner surface of the housing, and a heating unit on the outer surface of the reel. Furthermore, in other embodiments, the heating unit may be omitted entirely. For example, the aerosol generation device may instead have an inductive or conductive driving element arranged to drive a heating unit that is integrated in the consumable. Figs. 5A and 5B are schematic illustrations of a guide groove in an aerosol generation device.

Fig. 5A schematically illustrates the principle of the guide groove. In an embodiment, the reel 20 comprises a guide groove 24, and the housing 10 comprises a protrusion 13. The guide groove is configured to guide movement of the protrusion. More specifically, the guide groove is deep enough to allow the protrusion to move along the groove, and has walls which prevent the protrusion 13 from leaving the groove. Because the guide groove 24 and the protrusion 13 are formed on opposite ones of the housing and the reel, the guide groove 24 and the protrusion 13 guide relative movement of the housing 10 and the reel 20. This is achieved in other embodiments by forming the guide groove 24 on the housing 10, and the protrusion 13 on the reel 20.

Fig. 5B schematically illustrates a more detailed embodiment having a guide groove. In Fig. 5B, the reel 20 is shown attached to the mouthpiece 30, and the housing 10 is omitted. The guide groove comprises a first path 241 which extends around the axis of rotation of the reel. When the reel rotates, the protrusion 13 formed on the housing 10 (not shown) is guided along the first path between a start position 242 and an end position 243. The end position 243 may be a position at which the closing element 26 (if present) closes the insertion hole 11 .

In order to make it easier for a user to insert an end of the consumable 1000 into the reel hole, it is preferable that the start position 242 and the protrusion 13 are arranged such that, when the protrusion is at the start position, the reel hole is aligned with the insertion hole 11 of the housing 10. It is desirable to be able to separate the reel 20 from the housing 10, for example in order to provide access clean the inner surface of the housing and/or the outer surface of the reel. Separating the reel 20 from the housing 10 may also be used to remove the consumable 1000 after use. As a result, it is preferable that the guide groove in embodiments comprises a second path 244 which extends along the axis of rotation of the reel. The second path may also extend around the axis of rotation, for example in a helical shape, or may be fully parallel to the axis of rotation, as shown in Fig. 5B. The second path extends between a detached position 245 and an attached position 246. The guide groove has an open end at the detached position 245, such that the housing 10 can be fully separated from the reel 20. On the other hand, at the attached position 246, the second path connects to the first path such that the protrusion can follow the first path while the reel 20 is attached to the housing 10. Thus, the housing and the reel can be attached to or detached from each other by guiding the protrusion 13 along the second path 244.

Preferably, in embodiments where the guide groove has the first path 241 and the second path 244, the attached position 246 of the second path is located along the first path between the start position 242 and the end position 243 of the first path. This means that the housing 10 cannot easily become accidentally separated from the reel 20, because the protrusion 13 must first be aligned at the attached position 246 before the protrusion 13 can move along the second path 244.

More preferably, the attached position 246 is substantially near to the end position 243, that is, closer to the end position 243 than to the start position 242, but not actually at the end position 243. With this arrangement, it is relatively easy to detach the reel 20 from the housing 10 after use of a consumable to generate an aerosol. This is particularly advantageous in cases where generation of the aerosol also generates sticky or adhesive by-products which make it harder to rotate the reel 20 within the housing 10 until the device is cleaned.

As shown in Fig. 5B, the guide groove may further comprise a third path 247 that provides an alternative way of attaching or detaching the housing 10 and the reel 20. Like the second path, the third path extends along the axis of rotation of the reel, and the housing and the reel are configured to be attached to or detached from each other by guiding the protrusion along the second path. However, in the case of the third path 247, the third path has an end at the start position 242, making it easy to reassemble the aerosol generation device after cleaning in a position ready to wind a fresh consumable around the reel 20. While this is useful, the third path 247 is not essential, because the aerosol generation device 20 can instead be reassembled to the same position via the second and first paths.

In the specific example of the third path shown in Fig. 5B, the third path 247 partly overlaps with the reel hole 21 , 22, such that the protrusion 13 moves over the reel hole when the third path is used. In an alternative embodiment, the second path 244 could instead be arranged to overlap with the reel hole 21 , 22, and the third path 247 could be omitted, in order to maximise the space available for the heating unit 23 on the outer surface of the reel 20.

In other embodiments, the protrusion and guide groove may be omitted. For example, the reel 20 may in some embodiments be permanently contained in the housing 10, such that the housing 10 itself can guide rotation of the reel 20. In such embodiments, a used consumable may be removed by reversing the winding process shown in Figs. 2A to 2C.

As further shown in Fig. 5B, the reel 20 may additionally comprise one or more spacers 25 to maintain a space between the outer surface of the reel 20 and the inner surface of the housing 10 in the region comprising the heating unit 23 (and the consumable 1000, when present).

Fig. 6 is a schematic illustration of an exterior of an aerosol generation device having a guide groove as described above.

With the arrangement shown in Fig. 5B, there are three functional positions for the user to consider when the reel 20 is attached to the housing 10: a start position 242 at which an end of the consumable can be inserted into the aerosol generation device; a locked position (the end position 243), at which the consumable is fully wound into the device ready for aerosol generation; and an unlocked position (the attached position 246) at which the device can be disassembled to remove the consumable and/or clean the device.

In order to assist the user in finding each of these functional positions, in this embodiment, the aerosol generation device preferably comprises position indicators to indicate a position of the protrusion 13 and one or more of the positions in the guide groove 24.

More specifically, in this embodiment, the housing 10 has a first position indicator 12 arranged to indicate the position of the protrusion 13, and the mouthpiece 30 has a second, third and fourth position indicator 31 , 32, 33 arranged to indicate respectively the start position 242, the end position 243 and the attached position 246. In embodiments where the reel 20 is not attached to the mouthpiece 30, the second, third and fourth position indicators 31 , 32, 33 may instead be arranged on an externally visible part of the reel 20. Furthermore, in embodiments where the reel 20 has the protrusion 13 and the housing 10 has the guide groove 24, the locations of the position indicators are correspondingly reversed.

In this embodiment, the protrusion 13 is formed on an inner surface of the housing between the insertion hole 11 and the mouthpiece 30. As a result, the first position indicator 12 may be omitted, so long as the user understands that each of the second, third and fourth indicators 31 , 32, 33 need to be aligned with the insertion hole 11 .

Furthermore, since the start position 242 and the end position 243 of the first path 241 are at ends or corners of the guide groove 24, the user is able to find these positions by feel when rotating the reel 20 within the housing 10. Therefore, the associated second and third position indicators 31 , 32 may be omitted.

More generally, for each of the plurality of defined positions in the guide groove 24, the position is an end or corner of the guide groove 24, or the aerosol generation device comprises a respective position indicator configured to indicate when the protrusion is at the position. In the case of the attached position 246 and the detached position 245, both positions are indicated by the fourth position indicator 33.