US 12,108,789 B2
Smoking substitute apparatus
Benjamin Illidge, Liverpool (GB); Benjamin Astbury, Liverpool (GB); Nikhil Aggarwal, Liverpool (GB); Huanghai Lu, Liverpool (GB); and John McKeon, Liverpool (GB)
Assigned to Imperial Tobaco Limited, Bristol (GB)
Filed by Imperial Tobacco Limited, Bristol (GB)
Filed on Mar. 17, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/697,100.
Application 17/697,100 is a continuation of application No. PCT/EP2020/076275, filed on Sep. 21, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 19198715 (EP), filed on Sep. 20, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0202076 A1, Jun. 30, 2022
Int. Cl. A24F 40/10 (2020.01); A24F 40/44 (2020.01); A24F 40/46 (2020.01); A24F 40/50 (2020.01)
CPC A24F 40/10 (2020.01) [A24F 40/44 (2020.01); A24F 40/46 (2020.01); A24F 40/50 (2020.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A smoking substitute apparatus having:
an air inlet;
an outlet;
a flow passage formed between the air inlet and the outlet;
a vaporization chamber in communication with the flow passage, the vaporization chamber having an aerosol generator configured to generate an aerosol from an aerosol precursor by heating,
wherein 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 being defined as a volume extending outwardly from the vaporizer element surface to a distance of 1 mm from the vaporizer element surface,
wherein 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−1, the turbulence intensity in the vaporizer element region is not more than 1%.