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EP-4736672-A2 - VENTILATED AEROSOL-GENERATING ARTICLE WITH UPSTREAM POROUS SEGMENT

EP4736672A2EP 4736672 A2EP4736672 A2EP 4736672A2EP-4736672-A2

Abstract

There is provided an aerosol-generating article (10) comprising: a rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate; and a downstream section (14) at a location downstream of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate. The downstream section (14) comprises: a support element (22) located immediately downstream of the rod (12), the support element (22) being in longitudinal alignment with the rod (12) and comprising a first hollow tubular segment (26); and an aerosol cooling element (24) located immediately downstream of the support element (22), the aerosol-cooling element (24) being in longitudinal alignment with the support element (22) and the rod (12) and comprising a second hollow tubular segment (34). The aerosol-generating article (10) further comprises a ventilation zone (60) at a location along the second hollow tubular segment (34), and an upstream section (16) at a location upstream of the rod (12). The upstream section (16) comprises an upstream element (46) positioned immediately upstream of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate and having a resistance to draw (RTD) of less than about 50 millimetres H 2 O.

Inventors

  • BERTOLDO, Massimiliano
  • LHAOU, Ayoub
  • MONTANARI, Edoardo
  • Uthurry, Jerome
  • NESOVIC, Milica

Assignees

  • Philip Morris Products S.A.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20210224

Claims (18)

  1. An aerosol-generating article (10) for producing an inhalable aerosol upon heating, the aerosol-generating article (10) comprising: a rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate; and a downstream section (14) at a location downstream of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate, wherein the downstream section (14) comprises: a support element (22) located immediately downstream of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate, the support element (22) being in longitudinal alignment with the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate and comprising a first hollow tubular segment (26); and an aerosol cooling element (24) located immediately downstream of the support element (22) and in longitudinal alignment with the support element (22) and the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate, the aerosol-cooling element (24) comprising a second hollow tubular segment (34); wherein the aerosol-generating article (10) further comprises: a ventilation zone (60) at a location along the second hollow tubular segment (34); and an upstream section (16) at a location upstream of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate, the upstream section (16) comprising an upstream element (46) positioned immediately upstream of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate and having a resistance to draw (RTD) of less than about 80 millimetres H 2 O.
  2. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to claim 1 further comprising an elongate susceptor (44) arranged longitudinally within the aerosol-generating substrate.
  3. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to claim 2, wherein the susceptor (44) extends all the way to a downstream end of the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate.
  4. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the second hollow tubular segment (34) defines a cavity (36) extending all the way from a downstream end (40) of the second hollow tubular segment (34) to an upstream end (38) of the second hollow tubular segment (34).
  5. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the aerosol-generating article (10) has a ventilation level of at least about 10 percent.
  6. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the aerosol-generating article (10) has a ventilation level of less than about 40 percent.
  7. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein an RTD of the support element (22) is less than about 10 millimetres H 2 O and an RTD of the aerosol-cooling element (24) is less than about 10 millimetres H 2 O.
  8. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate comprises gel composition that includes an alkaloid compound, or a cannabinoid compound, or both an alkaloid compound and a cannabinoid compound or wherein the aerosol-generating substrate comprises a homogenised plant material comprising non-tobacco plant flavour particles.
  9. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the ventilation zone (60) comprises one or more rows of perforations formed through a peripheral wall of the second hollow tubular segment (34).
  10. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to claim 9, wherein the one or more rows of perforations are arranged circumferentially around the peripheral wall of the second hollow tubular segment (34).
  11. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 10, wherein the ventilation zone comprises two or more rows of perforations, the rows being longitudinally spaced apart from one another along the second hollow tubular segment.
  12. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of claims 9, 10 or 11, wherein an equivalent diameter of at least one of the ventilation perforations is at least about 100 micrometres.
  13. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the upstream element (46) has a length of less than about 10 millimetres.
  14. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the downstream section (14) of the aerosol-generating article (10) comprises a mouthpiece element (42), the mouthpiece element (42) comprising at least one mouthpiece filter segment for filtering the aerosol that is generated from the aerosol-generating substrate.
  15. An aerosol-generating article according to claim 14, wherein the downstream section comprises a mouth end cavity at the downstream end, downstream of the mouthpiece element.
  16. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of claims 1 to 13, wherein the rod (12) of aerosol-generating substrate is located immediately downstream of the upstream element (46) and wherein the aerosol-generating article (10) further comprises a mouthpiece element (42) located immediately downstream of the aerosol-cooling element (24), and an outer wrapper circumscribing the upstream element (46), the support element (22), the aerosol-cooling element (24) and the mouthpiece element (42).
  17. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein a distance between the ventilation zone (60) and a mouth end (20) of the aerosol-generating article is at least 10 mm.
  18. An aerosol-generating article (10) according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the aerosol-generating substrate comprises homogenised plant material and wherein the aerosol-generating article (10) further comprises a wrapper formed of an aluminium co-laminated sheet circumscribing the rod of homogenised plant material.

Description

The present invention relates to an aerosol-generating article comprising an aerosol-generating substrate and adapted to produce an inhalable aerosol upon heating. Aerosol-generating articles in which an aerosol-generating substrate, such as a tobacco-containing substrate, is heated rather than combusted, are known in the art. Typically, in such heated smoking articles an aerosol is generated by the transfer of heat from a heat source to a physically separate aerosol-generating substrate or material, which may be located in contact with, within, around, or downstream of the heat source. During use of the aerosol-generating article, volatile compounds are released from the aerosol-generating substrate by heat transfer from the heat source and are entrained in air drawn through the aerosol-generating article. As the released compounds cool, they condense to form an aerosol. A number of prior art documents disclose aerosol-generating devices for consuming aerosol-generating articles. Such devices include, for example, electrically heated aerosol-generating devices in which an aerosol is generated by the transfer of heat from one or more electrical heater elements of the aerosol-generating device to the aerosol-generating substrate of a heated aerosol-generating article. For example, electrically heated aerosol-generating devices have been proposed that comprise an internal heater blade which is adapted to be inserted into the aerosol-generating substrate. As an alternative, inductively heatable aerosol-generating articles comprising an aerosol-generating substrate and a susceptor arranged within the aerosol-generating substrate have been proposed by WO 2015/176898. Aerosol-generating articles in which a tobacco-containing substrate is heated rather than combusted present a number of challenges that were not encountered with conventional smoking articles. First of all, tobacco-containing substrates are typically heated to significantly lower temperatures compared with the temperatures reached by the combustion front in a conventional cigarette. This may have an impact on nicotine release from the tobacco-containing substrate and nicotine delivery to the consumer. At the same time, if the heating temperature is increased in an attempt to boost nicotine delivery, then the aerosol generated typically needs to be cooled to a greater extent and more rapidly before it reaches the consumer. However, technical solutions that were commonly used for cooling the mainstream smoke in conventional smoking articles, such as the provision of a high filtration efficiency segment at the mouth end of a cigarette, may have undesirable effects in an aerosol-generating article wherein a tobacco-containing substrate is heated rather than combusted, as they may reduce nicotine delivery. Secondly, a need is generally felt for aerosol-generating articles that are easy to use and have improved practicality. Further, it would be desirable to provide one such aerosol-generating article that can be manufactured efficiently and at high speed, preferably with a satisfactory RTD and low RTD variability from one article to another. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a new and improved aerosol-generating article adapted to achieve at least one of the desirable results described above. The present disclosure relates to an aerosol-generating article comprising a rod of aerosol-generating substrate. The aerosol-generating article may further comprise a downstream section at a location downstream of the rod of aerosol-generating substrate. The downstream section may comprise a support element located immediately downstream of the rod, the support element being in longitudinal alignment with the rod and comprising a first hollow tubular segment. The downstream section may further comprise an aerosol cooling element located immediately downstream of the support element, the aerosol-cooling element being in longitudinal alignment with the support element and the rod and comprising a second hollow tubular segment. The aerosol-generating article may further comprise a ventilation zone at a location along the second hollow tubular segment. The aerosol-generating article may further comprise an upstream section at a location upstream of the rod, the upstream section comprising an upstream element positioned immediately upstream of the rod. The upstream element may have a resistance to draw (RTD) of less than about 80 millimetres H2O. According to the present invention, there is provided an aerosol-generating article comprising: a rod of aerosol-generating substrate; and a downstream section at a location downstream of the rod of aerosol-generating substrate. The downstream section comprises: a support element located immediately downstream of the rod, the support element being in longitudinal alignment with the rod and comprising a first hollow tubular segment; and an aerosol cooling element located immediately downstream of the support element, t