Imperial Tobacco Limited

Benjamin Astbury

Nikhil Aggarwal

Benjamin Illidge

Huanghai Lu

John Mckeon

Matthew Pilkington

Andrew Duckworth

Stephen Jones

James Keefe

A smoking substitute apparatus. The smoking substitute apparatus comprising: an air inlet, and a vapor outlet; a vaporization chamber the vaporization chamber including: a first vaporizer, for vaporizing aerosol precursor and providing vaporized precursor; and a second vaporizer, located downstream of the first vaporizer, for vaporizing aerosol precursor and providing vaporized precursor; wherein the smoking substitute apparatus also includes a bypass airflow path, which bypasses the vaporization chamber.

Smoking substitute apparatus

A smoking substitute apparatus comprises: a housing having a longitudinal axis; an air outlet provided at a first end of the housing; an air inlet provided at a second end of the housing opposite to the first end; an air flow channel extending through the housing between the air inlet and the air outlet; a heater in fluid communication with the air flow channel. The heater is configured to generate an aerosol from an aerosol precursor. Electrical contacts are provided on a sidewall of the housing and are electrically connected with the heater. The electrical contacts are configured to engage with corresponding electrical terminals on a main body of a smoking substitute system.

Smoking substitute apparatus with electrical contacts

A smoking substitute apparatus comprises: a housing having a longitudinal axis; an air inlet and an air outlet; a vaporization chamber having a vaporization chamber inlet and a heater. The air inlet and air outlet are in fluid communication through an airflow channel. The airflow channel passes through the vaporization chamber inlet and the vaporization chamber. The heater extends across the airflow channel. The vaporization chamber inlet receives airflow from a radial direction and changes an airflow direction to an axial direction into the vaporization chamber. The vaporization chamber inlet reduces a rate of airflow direction change from the substantially radial direction to the axial direction. The housing comprises a radially-extending wall and the vaporization chamber inlet comprises an axial aperture through the wall. A part of a perimeter of an upstream edge of the axial aperture is filleted to reduce the rate of change of airflow direction.

A smoking substitute apparatus for generating an aerosol, comprising: a housing; an air inlet and an outlet formed at the housing; a passage extending between the air inlet and outlet, air flowing in use along the passage for inhalation by a user drawing on the apparatus; and an aerosol generation chamber containing an aerosol generator being operable to generate an aerosol from an aerosol precursor; wherein the aerosol generator is in fluid communication with a downstream portion of the passage for allowing the aerosol to entrain into an air flow along the passage; wherein the downstream portion of the passage comprises a flow converging section having a curved sidewall tapered towards the outlet, and wherein an upstream end of the flow converging section substantially conforms to a cross sectional profile of the aerosol generation chamber.

A smoking substitute apparatus is disclosed, having: an air inlet; an outlet; and a flow passage formed between the air inlet and the outlet. A vaporization chamber is in communication with the flow passage, the vaporization chamber having an aerosol generator configured to generate an aerosol from an aerosol precursor by heating. The aerosol generator comprises a vaporizer element loaded with aerosol precursor, the vaporizer element being heatable by a heater and presenting a vaporizer element surface to air in the vaporization chamber. The air inlet, flow passage, outlet and the vaporization chamber are configured so that the cooling rate of the vapor is such that the time taken to cool to 50° C. is not less than 16 ms under certain conditions.

A smoking substitute apparatus is disclosed, having: an air inlet; an outlet; and a flow passage formed therebetween. A vaporization chamber is in communication with the flow passage, the vaporization chamber having an aerosol generator configured to generate an aerosol from an aerosol precursor by heating. The aerosol generator comprises a vaporizer element loaded with aerosol precursor, the vaporizer element being heatable by a heater and presenting a vaporizer element surface to air in the vaporization chamber. A vaporizer element region is defined as a volume extending outwardly from the vaporizer element surface to a distance of 1 mm from the vaporizer element surface. The air inlet, flow passage, outlet and the vaporization chamber are configured so that, when the air flow rate inhaled by the user through the apparatus is 1.3 L min, the turbulence intensity in the vaporizer element region is not more than 1%.

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Liverpool, United Kingdom

Benjamin Astbury