KR20160086118A - Electronic cigarette having one button - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, an electric cigarette comprises: a cylindrical cartridge, for containing a liquid nicotine essence; an inhaler unit, joined with the cartridge and covering an upper side of the cartridge; an atomizer unit, including an atomizer tube which joins with the cartridge and covers a lower side of the cartridge while extending upwardly inside the cartridge, a wick which joins with the atomizer tube and is in contact with the liquid nicotine essence filled inside the cartridge, a heating coil which joins with and surrounds part of the wick, and a cap which covers an upper end of the atomizer tube; a body, joined with a lower side of the atomizer unit to transfer electric power to the heating coil, and which includes a button for inputting to the heating coil, a power transfer signal and an information transmission signal, and a display screen for displaying information regarding the atomization of the nicotine essence.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to an electronic cigarette having an operation button,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to electronic cigarettes which heat a coil wound around a wick to atomize the liquid nicotine essence and more particularly to an electronic cigarette which is configured to control various functions of the electronic cigarette with only one operation button will be.

In general, tobacco is a favorite food for many people. Common tobacco is tobacco, which is made of dried tobacco leaves or ground with a thin sheet of paper. In the first place, there is a filter that reduces various harmful substances including nicotine.

When the end of the cigarette is lit at the beginning of the year, the cigarette leaves or the powder burns and a specific smoke is generated. The user inhales the cigarette smoke from the filter side and enjoys the cigarette. However, since tobacco contains many harmful substances such as nicotine and tar, which are carcinogenic substances, it causes various diseases and deaths, and also affects second-hand smoke to the people around.

Therefore, it is a fact that smokers are becoming more and more narrowed as they seek to quit smoking. However, smokers are well aware that cigarettes are free from harm and they should be cut or shortened, but they can not easily be implemented due to old habits, addictions and practices have.

In recent years, a variety of auxiliary devices have been developed to help cigarettes more easily. One of them is electronic cigarettes. Such an electronic cigarette is generally configured such that, when the user sucks and sucks the rear end of the mouth, the liquid nicotine essence is atomized and supplied to the user. The smoke generated at this time includes nicotine and fragrant powder, and does not contain harmful substances such as tar, so that the user can cut off the cigarette early in the year without nicotine withdrawal.

This electronic cigarette consists of a cartridge for accommodating nicotine essence and an atomizer for generating smoke by evaporating the essence supplied from the cartridge. Here, the cartridge feeds the essence to the atomizer, and when the essence is exhausted, it is detached from the atomizer and replaced with a new one, or used to refill the essence with the cartridge.

On the other hand, recently commercially available electronic cigarettes include various functions such as a function of controlling the amount of smoke according to the user's preference, a function of counting the number of electronic cigarette use, and a function of displaying the battery charge amount. In order to perform various functions of the electronic cigarette as described above, a plurality of buttons must be provided on the body. If the body has a plurality of buttons, the internal structure of the body is complicated, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost and increasing the risk of malfunction, There is a problem that it becomes worse.

In addition, a conventional electronic cigarette is provided with a display window for displaying the current amount of smoke. The characters output through the display window are so small that they are not intuitively perceivable, and in the case of a user with poor eyesight, Can not be read and the current amount of smoke can not be determined. In addition, the conventional electronic cigarette has no function of notifying whether the nicotine essence is exhausted or overheated, and there is a problem that the product may be damaged.

KR 10-2014-0063506 A

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the above problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method for inputting various operation signals such as an on / It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic cigarette which is intuitively recognizable and has a function of notifying the exhaustion and overheating of the nicotine essence.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic cigarette comprising:

A cylindrical cartridge in which a liquid nicotine essence can be contained;

A suction unit coupled to cover an upper side of the cartridge;

A wick that is coupled to cover the lower side of the cartridge and extends upward from the cartridge internal space, a wick that is connected to the non-woven tube and contacts the nicotine essence filled in the cartridge, and a wick An atomizing portion having a heat generating coil and a cap covering an upper end of the unshaped tube;

An operation button coupled to the lower portion of the atomization unit for applying power to the heat generating coil and for inputting a voltage application signal and an information output signal to the heat generation coil and a display window for outputting information related to atomization of the nicotine essence A body;

.

The operation buttons are configured to input different kinds of signals according to the number of times of pressurization and pressurization.

When the operation button is pressed for a predetermined time period or more, the number of times of nicotine suction is increased by one,

When the operation button is pressed three times, the mode enters a mode of adjusting a voltage applied to the heat generating coil. In the voltage adjusting mode, a voltage applied to the heat generating coil is increased by 0.1 volt each time the operation button is pressed once And the voltage control mode is ended when the operation button is pressed in the voltage control mode for a second time period longer than the first time period.

The operation is stopped when the operation button is pressed over the third time zone longer than the second time zone, and the power is turned on / off when the operation button is pressed five times,

When the power is turned off, the number of times of sucking the nicotine is initialized, and the magnitude of the voltage applied to the heating coil is stored as a final set value.

Wherein the ground color of the display window is blue when the voltage applied to the heating coil is within the reference range and the ground color of the display window is green when the voltage applied to the heating coil is less than the reference range, When the voltage applied to the heating coil exceeds the reference range, the background color of the display window is displayed in red.

Wherein the cartridge is provided with one or more transparent windows so that the liquid level of the liquid nicotine essence filled therein is exposed,

A liquid level sensor for sensing the level of the liquid nicotine essence is provided in the cartridge,

And outputs an alarm when the level of the liquid nicotine essence inside the cartridge falls below a reference range.

And a temperature sensing sensor mounted inside the calorie pipe for outputting a warning signal when the temperature of the interior of the calorie pipe is overheated by the reference value or more.

Since the electronic cigarette according to the present invention can input various operation signals such as an on / off signal and an amount-of-control signal with only one operation button, not only the internal structure is simplified but also the appearance is good, In addition, it is easy to use because it can intuitively recognize the amount of smoke, and it is equipped with a function of notifying the exhaustion and overheating of nicotine essence, so that malfunction and safety accident can be prevented.

1 is a perspective view of an electronic cigarette according to the present invention.
2 is an exploded perspective view of an electronic cigarette according to the present invention.
Figs. 3 to 9 are schematic views showing examples of using the operation buttons. Fig.
FIG. 10 shows the emission color of the display window according to the voltage applied to the exothermic coil.
11 and 12 show the mounting structure of the water level sensor and the temperature sensing sensor.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the electronic cigarette according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic cigarette according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of an electronic cigarette according to the present invention.

An electronic cigarette according to the present invention is an apparatus for heating a liquid nicotine essence to atomize the essence by atomizing the user. The apparatus includes a cylindrical cartridge 100 in which liquid nicotine essence can be contained, An atomizing unit 300 coupled to cover the lower side of the cartridge 100 and atomizing the nicotine essence contained in the cartridge 100, And a body 400 coupled to the lower side of the atomization unit 300 as basic components.

The atomization unit 300 includes an incoherent tube 310 extending upward from an inner space of the cartridge 100 and a middle portion coupled to the upper portion of the incoherent tube 310, A heating coil 330 (see FIG. 12) coupled to surround a part of the wick 320; a cap (not shown) covering the upper end of the quench tube 310; (340). The body 400 is a constituent element for applying power to the heating coil 330 so that the nicotine essence adhered to the core 320 can be heated and atomized. The body 400 has a built-in rechargeable battery for portable convenience. 1, when both the suction unit 200 and the atomizing unit 300 are coupled to the cartridge 100, the wick 320 is wetted with the liquid nicotine essence contained in the cartridge 100, When the power is applied to the heating coil 330, the nicotine essence around the heating coil 330 is vaporized and supplied to the user through the suction unit 200. Thus, the nicotine essence in the cartridge 100 is absorbed into the wick 320 and the nicotine essence absorbed in the wick 320 is heated by the exothermic coil 330, which is substantially the same in conventional electronic cigarettes And a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

At this time, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention is characterized in that the body 400 is provided with an operation button 410 for inputting a voltage application signal and an information output signal to the heat generating coil 330 and information related to the atomization of the nicotine essence And a display window 420 is provided for the display screen. The conventional electronic cigarette has a problem in that the internal structure is complicated and the manufacturing cost increases and the risk of occurrence of failure increases because the electronic cigarette is provided with a plurality of buttons for inputting different kinds of signals separately. Since only one operation button 410 for signal input is provided, the internal structure of the body 400 is simplified, so that the manufacturing cost is reduced, the possibility of failure is significantly reduced, and the appearance is improved .

The operation button 410 may be configured to input different types of signals according to the number of times of pressing and pressing so that the user can input various kinds of signals even if only one operation button 410 is provided on the body 400, . That is, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention is set to output different signals according to how many times the operation button 410 is pressed and the operation button 410 is pressed for a few seconds, The operation of the electronic cigarette can be freely controlled by only the operation button 410. [

In addition, when a plurality of buttons are provided as in the conventional electronic cigarette, the user has to visually confirm which button he / she presses, which is inconvenient for use. However, since the electronic cigarette according to the present invention is provided with only one operation button 410, it is advantageous that the user does not need to check the operation button 410 with the naked eye when the user presses the operation button 410, that is, have.

An operation example of the operation button 410 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG.

Figs. 3 to 9 are schematic views showing an example of using the operation button 410. Fig.

When power is applied to the electronic cigarette according to the present invention, a battery charge and charge ratio indicating the current charge amount are displayed on the display window 420 as shown in FIG. For example, when the battery charge amount is 50%, the display window 420 displays a half of the battery picture and the numeral 50 is output.

When the operation button 410 is pressed in this state, a voltage is applied to the heating coil 330 to atomize the nicotine essence, and the user sucks the atomized nicotine essence through the suction unit 200. At this time, 410 is pressed for the first time period set in advance, it is determined that the user has inhaled nicotine once, and the number of times of sucking the nicotine is increased by one and output to the display window 420. Generally, in order for the amount of smoke to be sucked by the smoker to be generated once, the heat generating coil 330 must be heated for about 2 seconds, and the first time period is preferably set to 2 seconds. That is, when the operation button 410 is pressed for 2 seconds or more, the number of times of sucking of nicotine is increased by one and output.

Of course, since the pressing time of the operation button 410 can be increased or decreased according to the atomizing performance of the electronic cigarette, the pressing time of the operation button 410 for increasing the number of times of sucking of the nicotine once, that is, Can be changed.

Meanwhile, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention is configured such that the voltage applied to the heating coil 330 can be adjusted so that the amount of nicotine absorption can be controlled according to the user. In this case, when the operation button 410 is simply pressed once, the heat generating coil 330 is heated to generate atomization. In order to enter the mode for controlling the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330, Is set to be pressed by the preset number of times (three times in the present embodiment). Accordingly, when the user wishes to increase or decrease the amount of nicotine essence, the user can enter the voltage regulation mode by pressing the operation button 410 three times as shown in FIG.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the voltage applied to the current heating coil 330 is output in units of a volt in the display window 420. In this state, whenever the operation button 410 is pressed once, The voltage applied to the coil 330 is increased by 0.1 volt. For example, when the operation button 410 is pressed twice in the state shown in FIG. 5, the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330 is increased by 0.2 volts to 3.4 volts as shown in FIG. The voltage that can be applied to the heating coil 330 is typically set to 3.2 volts to 4.8 volts. When the operating button 410 is pressed while the applied voltage is 4.8 volts, the applied voltage is configured to return to 3.2 volts .

When the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330 is completed, the user presses the operation button 410 in the second time zone longer than the first time zone (7 seconds in the present embodiment) Mode and enter the use mode. At this time, even if the operation button 410 is not operated for 10 seconds or longer in the voltage adjustment mode, it is determined that the voltage adjustment is completed and the user may enter the usage mode.

As shown in FIG. 7, when the operation button 410 is pressed for 2 seconds or more after the mode is switched to the use mode, the number of times of sucking the nicotine is increased to 2 as shown in FIG. 8, and the nicotine essence is atomized . At this time, since the magnitude of the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330 is set to 3.4 volts, which is increased by 0.2 volts from the initial value, more amount of atomization per unit time is generated so that the user can absorb more nicotine .

If the operation button 410 is pressed for a long period of time even if the operation button 410 is depressed by a desk edge or another object regardless of the intention of the user, the nicotine essence is unnecessarily wasted There is a possibility that the heat generating coil 330 is overheated and damaged. Therefore, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention is set such that operation is stopped when the operation button 410 is pressed in a third time zone (10 seconds in this embodiment) longer than the second time zone as shown in Fig. 9 . Further, the power is turned on / off even when the operation button 410 is pressed five times.

When the power of the electronic cigarette is turned off as described above, the number of times of sucking the nicotine is initialized. However, in order to obtain the desired amount of nicotine essence dose without regulating the applied voltage to the exothermic coil 330 when the user subsequently uses the electronic cigarette again, the voltage applied to the exothermic coil 330 Is preferably stored as a final set value.

10 shows emission colors of the voltage-dependent display window 420 applied to the heating coil 330. FIG.

Since the magnitude of the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330 is output as a number through the display window 420, the user can determine the amount of the display by viewing the number of the display window 420. However, It is impossible to intuitively determine the atomization amount, which may be inconvenient to use.

Accordingly, in the electronic cigarette according to the present invention, when the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330 is within the reference range (3.8 volts to 4.3 volts in this embodiment), the background color of the display window 420 is output in blue The ground color of the display window 420 is displayed in green when the voltage applied to the heating coil 330 is less than the reference range (3.2 volts to 3.7 volts in this embodiment) When the applied voltage exceeds the reference range (4.4 volts to 4.8 volts in this embodiment), the background color of the display window 420 is displayed in red.

Therefore, even if the user does not check the number of the display window 420, the user can see that the background color of the display window 420 is green and that the background color of the display window 420 is red, It is possible to intuitively use it.

Meanwhile, the background color of the display window 420 may be changed to other colors other than the blue, green, and red colors shown in the present embodiment. However, since the LED lamp typically emits RGB three colors, 420 are set to blue, green, and red as shown in the present embodiment.

Figs. 11 and 12 show the mounting structure of the water level sensor 120 and the temperature sensor 350. Fig.

When the core 320 is wet with the nicotine essence, there is no fear of overheat even if the heating coil 330 is heated. However, when the core 320 is dry and the nicotine essence in the cartridge 100 is exhausted, There is a risk of overheating. Accordingly, the cartridge 100 is provided with one or more transparent windows 110 so that the liquid level of the liquid nicotine essence filled therein can be visually confirmed by a user.

However, if the user does not visually check the level of the nicotine essence, there is a risk of damage to the product due to overheating of the heat generating coil 330. Accordingly, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention may include a water level sensor 120 for sensing the level of the liquid nicotine essence in the cartridge 100. When the level of the nicotine essence drops below a reference value and the water level sensor 120 generates a signal, an alarm such as flashing of the display window 420 or a warning sound is output. The user then refills the nicotine essence, It is possible to prevent the heating coil 330 from overheating.

If the temperature of the heating coil 330 is overheated, the temperature of the heating coil 330 exceeds the normal range. Therefore, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention measures the temperature in the heating pipe 310, May be configured to inform the user. That is, the electronic cigarette according to the present invention is further provided with a temperature sensor 350 mounted inside the calorie pipe 310 for outputting a warning signal when the temperature of the inside of the calorie pipe 310 is over the reference value .

The water level sensor 120 and the temperature sensing sensor 350 are manufactured in various structures in various fields and commercialized. The detailed operation principles of the water level sensor 120 and the temperature sensing sensor 350 are described in detail The description is omitted.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. It will also be appreciated that many modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention.

100: Cartridge 110: Transparent window
120: Water level sensor 200: Suction part
300: atomization part 310:
320: Wick 330: Heat generating coil
340: Cap 350: Temperature sensor
400: body 410: operation button
420: display window

Claims (7)

A cylindrical cartridge 100 in which a liquid nicotine essence can be contained;
A suction unit 200 coupled to cover the upper side of the cartridge 100;
An incoherent tube 310 coupled to cover the lower side of the cartridge 100 and extending upwards from the internal space of the cartridge 100 and a capillary tube 310 coupled to the incoherent tube 310 and filled with nicotine essence An atomization unit 300 having a core 320 in contact with the core 320 and a cap 340 covering the upper end of the core 310 and a heat generating coil 330 coupled to surround the core 320, ;
An operation button 410 coupled to the lower portion of the atomization unit 300 to apply power to the heating coil 330 and to input a voltage application signal and an information output signal to the heating coil 330; A body (400) having a display window (420) for outputting information related to the atomization of the nicotine essence;
And an electronic cigarette. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the operation button (410) is configured to input signals of different types according to the number of times of pressurization and pressurization. The method of claim 2,
When the operation button 410 is pressed for a predetermined time period or more, the number of times of nicotine suction is increased by one,
When the operation button 410 is pressed three times, the mode enters a mode for controlling the voltage applied to the heat generating coil 330. When the operation button 410 is pressed once in the voltage adjusting mode, 330) is increased by 0.1 volt, and when the operation button (410) is pressed over the second time zone longer than the first time zone in the voltage regulation mode, the voltage regulation mode is ended. The method of claim 3,
When the operation button 410 is pressed to the third time zone longer than the second time zone, the operation is stopped,
When the operation button 410 is pressed five times, the power is turned on / off,
Wherein the number of times of sucking the nicotine at the power-off time is initialized and the magnitude of the voltage applied to the heating coil (330) is stored as a final set value. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
When the voltage applied to the heating coil 330 is within the reference range, the background color of the display window 420 is blue. When the voltage applied to the heating coil 330 is less than the reference range, The ground color of the display window 420 is displayed in green and the ground color of the display window 420 is red when the voltage applied to the heating coil 330 exceeds the reference range. . The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The cartridge 100 is provided with one or more transparent windows 110 to expose the liquid level of the liquid nicotine essence therein,
A water level sensor 120 for sensing the level of the liquid nicotine essence is provided in the cartridge 100,
And outputs an alarm when the level of the liquid nicotine essence inside the cartridge (100) drops below a reference range. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The electronic cigarette according to claim 1, further comprising a temperature sensor (350) installed in the interior of the deadening tube (310) and outputting a warning signal when the temperature inside the deadening tube (310)

Images