Philip Morris Inc.

Aubry T Burton

Jay A Fournier

John Bryant Paine, Iii

Mary Ellen Counts

Willie G Houck, Jr

William J Crowe

Robert L Ripley

Patrick H Hayes

Robert E Lee

John M Campbell

Joseph L Banyasz

Charles Edwin Thomas, Jr

Woontung G Chan

Donald Bruce Losee

A cleaning unit used to clean condensates formed during use of a component of a smoking system. The component can be a heating fixture having a cigarette receiving section and a plurality of longitudinally extending circumferentially spaced apart heating elements located within a can which accumulates the condensates. During a cleaning operation, the heating fixture is fitted within a cavity in the cleaning unit such that the cigarette receiving end of the heating fixture engages an O-ring and the terminal base portion abuts against an indented stop in an interior sidewall of a removable portion of the housing. The cleaning unit includes a water inlet connected to a source of pressurized water such as a faucet and a spray member extends into the cigarette receiving section to spray jets of water against the interior of the can. The housing can include a main flow passage which supplies pressurized water to the spray member and one or more bypass passages whereby water used to clean the heating fixture can exit the housing through one outlet and water which bypasses the heating fixture can exit the housing through other outlets. The housing can include a pulsating mechanism to pulsate jets of pressurized water against the interior of the heating fixture.

Cleaning unit for the heater fixture of a smoking device

Growing community of inventors

Richmond, VA, United States of America

Aubry T Burton