ATOMIZING CORE, ATOMIZER, AND ELECTRONIC ATOMIZATION DEVICE

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2023/124981, filed on Oct. 17, 2023, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202211618213.1, filed on Dec. 15, 2022. The entire disclosure of both applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD

This application relates to the field of atomization technologies, and in particular, to an atomizing core, an atomizer, and an electronic atomization device.

BACKGROUND

An electronic atomization device is a device that can heat an aerosol-forming medium to form an aerosol, an atomizing core of which generally includes a ceramic substrate and a heating member arranged on an atomization surface of the ceramic substrate. After being powered up, the heating member heats the aerosol-forming medium near the atomization surface.

The atomization surface generally includes a first atomization region in which the heating member is located and a second atomization region adjacent to the first atomization region. The first atomization region has the highest temperature and the strongest explosive power. The aerosol-forming medium above the heating member has a high degree of oversaturation, enabling maximized proportional atomization. However, the second atomization region has a low atomization temperature, and a substance with a low boiling point may be atomized first. Therefore, non-proportional atomization inevitably exists. In addition, as a quantity of puffs increases, there are fewer low-boiling-point substances in the aerosol-forming medium. This may cause a problem of poor consistency between tastes before and after inhalation.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, the present invention provides an atomizing core, comprising: a substrate comprising an atomization surface; a heating member arranged on the atomization surface, a region of an orthographic projection of the heating member on the atomization surface forming a first atomization region, the atomization surface comprising a second atomization region arranged around a periphery of the first atomization region; and a blocking member arranged in the second atomization region and configured to block an aerosol-forming medium from being atomized in the second atomization region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Subject matter of the present disclosure will be described in even greater detail below based on the exemplary figures. All features described and/or illustrated herein can be used alone or combined in different combinations. The features and advantages of various embodiments will become apparent by reading the following detailed description with reference to the attached drawings, which illustrate the following:

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an atomizing core according to an embodiment of this application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a top-view structure of an atomizing core according to another embodiment of this application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a top-view structure of an atomizing core according to yet another embodiment of this application; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a top-view structure of a combination of a heating member and a blocking member in an atomizing core according to yet another embodiment of this application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In an embodiment, the present invention provides an atomizing core, an atomizer, and an electronic atomization device that can alleviate poor consistency between tastes before and after inhalation caused by non-proportional atomization in a porous substrate region.

In an embodiment, the present invention provides an atomizing core, including: a substrate including an atomization surface;

• • a heating member arranged on the atomization surface, a region of the orthographic projection of the heating member on the atomization surface forming a first atomization region, and the atomization surface further including a second atomization region arranged around the periphery of the first atomization region; and
  • a blocking member arranged in the second atomization region and configured to block an aerosol-forming medium from being atomized in the second atomization region. In an embodiment, surfaces of the substrate other than the atomization surface are exposed to an outer side of the atomizing core. In an embodiment, the blocking member is a dense member.

In an embodiment, the heating member is a porous heating member, the blocking member is a porous blocking member, and the porosity of the heating member is greater than the porosity of the blocking member.

In an embodiment, the porosity of the blocking member is less than 20%, and the porosity of the heating member ranges from 20% to 70%. In an embodiment, the heating member and the blocking member are integrally formed.

In an embodiment, the second atomization region includes a first boundary, the first boundary being not adjacent to the first atomization region, and the orthographic projection of the blocking member on the second atomization region forms a projection region, the first boundary and the projection region being spaced apart from each other.

In an embodiment, the blocking member and the heating member are spaced apart from each other.

In an embodiment, the heating member includes a heating element having a curved shape, the blocking member is arranged in a bend of the heating element, and the blocking member is spaced apart from the heating element along a peripheral direction thereof.

In a second aspect, an atomizer is provided, including the atomizing core in any one of the foregoing embodiments.

In an embodiment, the substrate further includes a liquid absorbing surface, and the atomizer further includes a sealing member, the sealing member covering surfaces of the substrate other than the liquid absorbing surface and the atomization surface.

In a third aspect, an electronic atomization device is further provided, including the foregoing atomizer.

According to the atomizing core, the atomizer, and the electronic atomization device described above, the blocking member is arranged in the second atomization region, i.e., the region at a relatively low temperature during the atomization, so that the flow of the aerosol-forming medium to the region is blocked, and the atomization region is limited to the first atomization region in which the heating member is located. Therefore, atomization in the second atomization region at a low temperature can be thoroughly avoided. In addition, since the first atomization region in which the heating member is located has the highest temperature and the strongest explosive power, a high degree of oversaturation can be given during the atomization of the aerosol-forming medium, so that proportional atomization is maximized, thereby achieving good consistency between tastes before and after inhalation and enabling maximized restoration of the aroma of the aerosol-forming medium.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

• • atomizing core 100;
  • substrate 10;
  • atomization surface 11, first atomization region 111, second atomization region 112, first boundary 1121, second boundary 1122, liquid absorbing surface 12, and side surface 13;
  • heating member 20;
  • heating element 21, first electrode 22, second electrode 23;
  • blocking member 30.

To make the foregoing objectives, features, and advantages of this application more comprehensible, specific implementations of this application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, many specific details are described for thorough understanding of this application. However, this application can be implemented in many other manners different from those described herein. A person skilled in the art may make similar improvements without departing from the connotation of this application. Therefore, this application is not limited to specific embodiments disclosed below.

Unless otherwise defined, meanings of all technical and scientific terms used in this specification are the same as those usually understood by a person skilled in the art to which this application belongs. In this application, terms used in the specification of this application are merely intended to describe objectives of the specific embodiments, but are not intended to limit this application. The term “and/or” used herein includes any or all combinations of one or more associated listed items.

In the description of this application, it should be understood that orientation or position relationships indicated by the terms such as “center”, “longitudinal”, “transverse”, “length”, “width”, “thickness”, “upper”, “lower”, “front”, “back”, “left”, “right”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “inside”, “outside”, “clockwise”, “anticlockwise”, “axial”, “radial”, and “circumferential” are based on the orientation or position relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, and are used only for ease of description of this application simplification of the description, rather than indicating or implying that the mentioned apparatus or component must have a particular orientation or must be constructed and operated in a particular orientation. Therefore, such terms should not be construed as limitations on this application.

In addition, terms “first” and “second” are used merely for the purpose of description, and shall not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implying a quantity of indicated technical features. Therefore, a feature restricted by “first” or “second” may explicitly indicate or implicitly include at least one of such features. In description of this application, “a plurality of” means at least two, such as two and three unless it is specifically defined otherwise.

In this application, unless otherwise explicitly specified or defined, the terms such as “mount”, “connect”, “connection”, and “fix” should be understood in a broad sense. For example, the connection may be a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral connection; or the connection may be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; or the connection may be a direct connection, an indirect connection through an intermediary, or internal communication between two elements or mutual action relationship between two elements, unless otherwise specified explicitly. A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand the specific meanings of the foregoing terms in this application according to specific situations.

In this application, unless otherwise explicitly specified or defined, the first feature being located “above” or “below” the second feature may be the first feature being in direct contact with the second feature, or the first feature being in indirect contact with the second feature through an intermediary. In addition, that the first feature is “above”, “over”, or “on” the second feature may indicate that the first feature is directly above or obliquely above the second feature, or may merely indicate that the horizontal position of the first feature is higher than that of the second feature. That the first feature is “below”, “under”, and “beneath” the second feature may be that the first feature is right below the second feature or at an inclined bottom of the second feature, or may merely indicate that the horizontal position of the first feature is lower than that of the second feature.

It should be noted that, when an element is referred to as “being fixed to” or “being arranged on” another element, the element may be directly on the another element, or an intermediate element may exist. When an element is considered to be “connected to” another element, the element may be directly connected to the another element, or an intermediate element may exist. The terms “vertical”, “horizontal”, “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “right”, and similar expressions used herein are only for purposes of illustration but not indicate a unique implementation.

The accompanying drawings are not drawn to 1:1 scale, and relative sizes of various elements in the accompanying drawings are drawn by way of examples only and not necessarily to true scale.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an atomizing core according to an embodiment of this application.

Referring to the drawing, this application provides, in an embodiment, an atomizing core 100, including a substrate 10, a heating member 20, and a blocking member 30. After being powered on, the atomizing core 100 of this application heats and atomizes an aerosol-forming medium to form an aerosol. Specifically, the atomizing core 100 of this application may be applied to an electronic atomization device, and a liquid storage cavity in the electronic atomization device can provide the aerosol-forming medium to the atomizing core 100 for forming the aerosol by atomization.

The substrate 10 may be a porous substrate, such as porous alumina ceramics, porous silicon oxide, porous cordierite, porous silicon carbide, porous glass, porous silicon nitride, porous mullite, composite porous ceramics, or composite porous glass, but is not limited thereto, which may alternatively be other materials suitable for molding and sintering. The porous substrate is formed by, but not limited to, tape casting, injection molding, and dry pressing.

Specifically, the porous substrate is in fluid communication with the liquid storage cavity and may adsorb the aerosol-forming medium from the liquid storage cavity by a capillary action and/or allow the aerosol-forming medium to enter the porous substrate under the action of gravity. The heating member 20 heats and atomizes the aerosol-forming medium in the porous substrate.

The substrate 10 includes an atomization surface 11. The heating member 20 is arranged on the atomization surface 11, which may specifically be arranged on the atomization surface 11 of the substrate 10, or may be at least partially embedded in the substrate 10 from the atomization surface 11.

The substrate 10 further includes a liquid absorbing surface 12. The liquid absorbing surface 12 may be arranged opposite to the atomization surface 11, or may not be arranged opposite to the atomization surface 11. In conclusion, the aerosol-forming medium in the liquid storage cavity can enter the substrate 10 from the liquid absorbing surface 12, so as to be guided to the atomization surface 11 and be heated and atomized by the heating member 20.

The heating member 20 may be a heating sheet, a heating film, or a heating mesh, provided that the aerosol-forming medium can be heated and atomized.

Referring to FIG. 2, in this embodiment of this application, a region in which the orthographic projection of the heating member 20 on the atomization surface 11 is located forms a first atomization region 111. It may be understood that, the orthographic projection of the heating member 20 on the atomization surface 11 is the orthographic projection of the heating member 20 towards the heating member 20 along a direction perpendicular to the atomization surface 11.

The atomization surface 11 further includes a second atomization region 112 arranged around the periphery of the first atomization region 111. A blocking member 30 is arranged in the second atomization region 112 and is configured to block the aerosol-forming medium from being atomized in the second atomization region 112.

Specifically, a region in which the orthographic projection of the blocking member 30 on the atomization surface 11 is located may wholly coincide with or partially coincide with the second atomization region 112, which is not specifically limited.

The blocking member 30 may be a dense member, for example, quartz, glass, dense ceramic or silicon. When the blocking member 30 is made of glass, the glass may be one of common glass, quartz glass, borosilicate glass, and photosensitive lithium aluminosilicate glass. It should be noted that the blocking member 30 may also have a pore when being a dense member, and the porosity should be different from that of the porous substrate. Specifically, the porosity of the blocking member 30 should be smaller than that of the porous substrate.

According to the atomizing core 100 of this application, the blocking member 30 is arranged in the second atomization region 112, i.e., the region at a relatively low temperature during the atomization, so that the flow of the aerosol-forming medium to the region is blocked, and the atomization region is limited to the first atomization region 111 in which the heating member 20 is located. Therefore, atomization in the second atomization region 112 at a low temperature can be thoroughly avoided. In addition, since the first atomization region 111 in which the heating member 20 is located has the highest temperature and the strongest explosive power, a high degree of oversaturation can be given during the atomization of the aerosol-forming medium, so that proportional atomization is maximized, thereby achieving good consistency between tastes before and after inhalation and enabling maximized restoration of the aroma of the aerosol-forming medium.

In addition, since the aerosol-forming medium is prevented from being atomized in the second atomization region 112, energy required for the second atomization region 112 to heat the aerosol-forming medium is saved, thereby improving energy utilization during atomization of the heating member 20.

Referring to FIG. 1 again, in some embodiments, surfaces of the substrate 10 other than the atomization surface 11 are exposed to an outer side of the atomizing core 100.

Specifically, in an implementation of this application, one side surface of the substrate 10 is the atomization surface 11, and the side surface opposite to the atomization surface 11 is the liquid absorbing surface 12. In addition, the substrate 10 further includes a plurality of side surfaces 13 arranged between the atomization surface 11 and the liquid absorbing surface 12, and both the side surfaces and the liquid absorbing surface 12 are exposed to the outer side of the atomizing core 100. Specifically, the substrate 10 may be rectangular, cylindrical, V-shaped, or the like, which is not specifically limited.

It may be understood that, the blocking member 30 in this application does not extend to the surfaces of the substrate 10 other than the atomization surface 11.

In this way, the stability of the structure of the heating member 20 may not be affected, and the process can be simplified.

In some embodiments, the heating member 20 is a porous heating member, the blocking member 30 is a porous blocking member, and the porosity of the heating member 20 is greater than the porosity of the blocking member 30.

In this way, when entering the substrate 10 and flowing to the atomization surface 11, the aerosol-forming medium may be attracted by the porous heating member with the larger porosity and concentrated in the first atomization region 111, thereby further reducing residence of the aerosol-forming medium in the second atomization region 112 in which the blocking member 30 is located, and increasing the degree of oversaturation of the aerosol-forming medium in the first atomization region 111.

Optionally, the porosity of the blocking member 30 is less than 20%, and the porosity of the heating member 20 ranges from 20% to 70%. Within this porosity range, the difficulty of manufacturing of the blocking member 30 and the heating member 20 can be reduced.

Specifically, the pore size of the porous heating member ranges from 10 mm to 50 mm.

In this embodiment of this application, when the substrate 10 is a porous substrate, the porosity of the porous substrate ranges from 50% to 80%.

Specifically, the pore size of the porous substrate ranges from 15 mm to 60 mm.

In some embodiments, to simplify a manufacturing process of the atomizing core 100, the heating member 20 and the blocking member 30 are integrally formed.

Specifically, the heating member 20 and the blocking member 30 are integrally formed by using a printing process. The material of the heating member 20 and the material of the blocking member 30 may be the same.

Certainly, in some other embodiments, the material of the heating member 20 may be different from the material of the blocking member 30.

In this embodiment of this application, the heating member 20 is a heating film, and may be formed by screen printing, vacuum coating, or the like.

Specifically, when the heating film is prepared by screen printing, the slurry of the heating film has certain fluidity, and the slurry may infiltrate pores of the porous substrate during the printing. Since the pores of the porous substrate are not straight through holes, there is a certain degree of tortuosity, and hole walls are not smooth, which has resistance to infiltration of the slurry. The hole walls of the porous substrate with low porosity or a small pore size (15 μm to 60 μm) has greater viscosity resistance, and the degree of infiltration of the slurry of the heating film is lower. At the same time, an amount of infiltration may be regulated by adjusting the fluidity of the material of the heating film at a high temperature or the viscosity of the slurry at a low temperature.

Preferably, the thickness of the heating film ranges from 15 microns to 150 microns, and the thickness of the part of the heating film with which the porous substrate is filled does not exceed 60% of the thickness of the entire heating film.

By controlling the amount of infiltration of the heating film, overheating and boiling of the aerosol-forming medium inside the atomizing core 100 may be reduced, thereby reducing heat loss and improving atomization efficiency.

When the heating film is prepared by vacuum coating, specifically, the heating film may be prepared by using a magnetron sputtering coating process, and a small amount of the material of the heating film infiltrates the pores of the porous substrate. Specifically, the thickness of the heating film may be controlled to range from 1 micron to 5 microns.

In this way, since a small amount of the heating film infiltrates the porous substrate, a small amount of heat is generated, thereby improving energy utilization. In addition, the small amount of infiltration provides physical interlocking between the heating film and the porous substrate, enhancing film-substrate bonding strength. Therefore, structural reliability of the heating film can be improved.

Referring to FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 again, in some embodiments, the heating member 20 includes a heating element 21, a first electrode 22, and a second electrode 23. The first electrode 22 and the second electrode 23 are connected to the heating element 21.

In this way, the heating element 21, the first electrode 22, and the second electrode 23 can be arranged on the atomization surface 11 at the same time, thereby simplifying a connection process.

Specifically, the first electrode 22 and the second electrode 23 may be connected to two opposite ends of the heating element 21.

Specifically, the heating element 21 is in the shape of a long strip, and may alternatively be in a bent shape such as an S shape in other embodiments, which is not specifically limited.

Referring to FIG. 2, when a region in which the orthographic projection of the blocking member 30 on the second atomization region 112 is located partially coincides with the second atomization region 112, in some embodiments, the second atomization region 112 includes a first boundary 1121, the first boundary 1121 is not adjacent to the first atomization region 111, the orthographic projection of the blocking member 30 on the second atomization region 112 forms a projection region, and the first boundary 1121 and the projection region are spaced apart from each other.

Considering that an extremely low-temperature region may be formed in a region far away from the heating member 20 and the temperature in the region is insufficient to atomize the aerosol-forming medium, through the arrangement that the projection region of the blocking member 30 on the second atomization region 112 and the first boundary 1121 are spaced apart from each other, the forming material of the blocking member 30 can be saved, and the process can be simplified.

Referring to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, in some embodiments, the blocking member 30 and the heating member 20 are spaced apart from each other.

Specifically, the second atomization region 112 further includes a second boundary 1122, the second boundary 1122 is adjacent to the first atomization region 111, the orthographic projection of the blocking member 30 on the second atomization region 112 forms a projection region, and the second boundary 1122 and the projection region are spaced apart from each other. In an implementation of this application, the first boundary 1121 and the second boundary 1122 may be arranged opposite to each other.

Due to uncontrollability of the preparation process, during the preparation, the blocking member 30 may have an intersection with the heating member 20, which may lead to dry heating of the heating member 20 at the intersection due to a lack of the aerosol-forming medium. Therefore, through the arrangement that the blocking member 30 and the heating member 20 are spaced apart from each other, interference from the heating member 20 can be prevented, so as to improve heat generation and atomization efficiency.

In another embodiment, the first boundary 1121 of the second atomization region 112 and the projection region formed by the blocking member 30 are spaced apart from each other, and the blocking member 30 and the heating member 20 are spaced apart from each other.

Specifically, in this embodiment of this application, the blocking member 30 and the heating element 21 of the heating member 20 are spaced from each other. More specifically, the second boundary 1122 is adjacent to the orthographic projection formed by the heating element 21 in the first atomization region 111.

It should be noted that, when the heating element 21 is curved, for example, is S-shaped, the blocking member 30 may be arranged in a bend formed by the curved heating element 21, and the blocking member 30 is spaced apart from the heating element 21 along a peripheral direction thereof.

In this way, a structure similar to a riverbank can be constructed between the heating member 20 and the blocking member 30, thereby helping increase the height of an oil film in a partition region and increasing an effective amount of the aerosol-forming medium atomized by the heating member 20.

Based on the same inventive concept, this application further provides an atomizer, including the atomizing core 100 in any one of the foregoing embodiments. Specifically, the atomizer further includes a housing, and a liquid storage cavity for storing the aerosol-forming medium is formed in the housing.

In some embodiments, the atomizer further includes a sealing member, and the sealing member covers surfaces of the substrate 10 other than the liquid absorbing surface 12 and the atomization surface 11.

Through the arrangement that the sealing member covers the surfaces of the substrate 10 other than the liquid absorbing surface 12 and the atomization surface 11, leakage of the aerosol-forming medium from the substrate 10 can be reduced, thereby improving the degree of saturation of the aerosol-forming medium of the substrate 10.

Specifically, the sealing member is a silicon sealing member, and the sealing member may alternatively be an elastic sealing member made of another material, which is not specifically limited. Based on the same inventive concept, this application further provides an electronic atomization device, including the atomizer in any one of the foregoing embodiments.

Specifically, the electronic atomization device further includes a power supply assembly. The power supply assembly can provide electrical energy for the atomizing core 100, for the atomizing core 100 to heat and atomize the aerosol-forming medium.

The atomizing core 100, the atomizer, and the electronic atomization device provided in the embodiments of this application achieve the following beneficial effects.

The blocking member 30 is arranged in the second atomization region 112, i.e., the region at a relatively low temperature during the atomization, so that the flow of the aerosol-forming medium to the region is blocked, and the atomization region is limited to the first atomization region 111 in which the heating member 20 is located. Therefore, atomization in the second atomization region 112 at a low temperature can be thoroughly avoided. In addition, since the first atomization region 111 in which the heating member 20 is located has the highest temperature and the strongest explosive power, a high degree of oversaturation can be given during the atomization of the aerosol-forming medium, so that proportional atomization is maximized, thereby achieving good consistency between tastes before and after inhalation and enabling maximized restoration of the aroma of the aerosol-forming medium.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. It will be understood that changes and modifications may be made by those of ordinary skill within the scope of the following claims. In particular, the present invention covers further embodiments with any combination of features from different embodiments described above and below. Additionally, statements made herein characterizing the invention refer to an embodiment of the invention and not necessarily all embodiments.

The terms used in the claims should be construed to have the broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the foregoing description. For example, the use of the article “a” or “the” in introducing an element should not be interpreted as being exclusive of a plurality of elements. Likewise, the recitation of “or” should be interpreted as being inclusive, such that the recitation of “A or B” is not exclusive of “A and B,” unless it is clear from the context or the foregoing description that only one of A and B is intended. Further, the recitation of “at least one of A, B and C” should be interpreted as one or more of a group of elements consisting of A, B and C, and should not be interpreted as requiring at least one of each of the listed elements A, B and C, regardless of whether A, B and C are related as categories or otherwise. Moreover, the recitation of “A, B and/or C” or “at least one of A, B or C” should be interpreted as including any singular entity from the listed elements, e.g., A, any subset from the listed elements, e.g., A and B, or the entire list of elements A, B and C.