WO2019151690A1

WO2019151690A1 - Aerosol generation device and method for controlling aerosol generation device

Info

Publication number: WO2019151690A1
Application number: PCT/KR2019/000808
Authority: WO
Inventors: 장용준; 고경민; 서장원; 정진철; 정민석; 정종성; 장철호
Original assignee: 주식회사 케이티앤지
Priority date: 2018-01-31
Filing date: 2019-01-21
Publication date: 2019-08-08
Also published as: KR20190093025A; KR102389827B1

Abstract

One embodiment according to the present invention provides an aerosol generation device comprising: a heater for generating aerosol by heating a cigarette inserted into the aerosol generation device; a housing for encompassing a part of an area of the cigarette, and allowing the cigarette to move in a preset direction according to the pressure of an oral part of a user; and a control unit for determining whether the user comes into contact with the cigarette on the basis of the pressure of the oral part and controlling an operation of the heater according to the determined result.

Description

Aerosol Generator and Method for Controlling the Aerosol Generator

The present invention relates to an aerosol-generating device and a method for controlling the aerosol-generating device, and more specifically, to check the number of times of smoking of the user according to the movement of the mouthpiece generated by the user's bending pressure or to the aerosol-generating device An aerosol-generating device capable of controlling the operation of an included heater and a method of controlling the aerosol-generating device.

In the case of the existing aerosol generators, a button-type switch is used to transmit a user's smoking state to the aerosol generator device, thereby controlling the temperature of a heater (heater) included in the aerosol generator or puffing (puff). It was common to have the count recorded in memory. Alternatively, the sensor may detect a change in air pressure or flow rate caused by an inhalation action that is necessarily accompanied by a user's smoking process by using a unique sensor to control the temperature of the heater or generate an aerosol as described above. The method of writing to the memory of the device is also known.

However, in the case of an aerosol generating device having a button-type switch, it has been pointed out that the user has to hold the button-type switch at all times because the user has to press the button necessary for suction several times, and a sensor for detecting a change in pressure or flow rate In the case of an aerosol generating device equipped with, the complexity of the program design installed in the aerosol generating device, a lot of power is consumed to drive the sensor and the program as the change in air pressure or flow rate accompanying the user's inhalation behavior must be monitored in real time As a result, there is a need to introduce a technology that solves all of these problems.

Technical problem to be solved by the present invention, the user using the aerosol generating device to control the temperature of the heater of the aerosol generating device or to record the user's use history of the aerosol generating device in the memory of the aerosol generating device, unnecessary aerosol generation SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an aerosol-generating device and a method of controlling the aerosol-generating device which do not need to press a button switch provided in the device several times and need not be provided with a plurality of sensors that cause high power consumption.

The aerosol-generating device according to an embodiment of the present invention for solving the technical problem, the aerosol-forming substrate is heated by the power supplied from the power supply unit for supplying power, the material accommodating unit for receiving an aerosol-forming substrate, the power supplied from the power supply unit A heater to vaporize the mouth, a mouthpiece through which the vaporized aerosol-forming substrate passes in the direction in which the aspiration is sensed, and a portion of the area of the mouthpiece wrapped around the mouth, and the mouse according to the pressure of the bent of the user And a control unit for controlling the operation of the heater when the mouthpiece is moved by the pressure and the sensor is located inside the housing to sense the proximity of the heater to move the piece in a predetermined direction. .

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling an aerosol-generating device, wherein a mouthpiece for passing an aerosol-forming substrate vaporized by a heated heater receives a pressure of a user's bend in the housing. Mouthpiece movement step of moving in a predetermined direction, when the approach of the mouthpiece is detected by a sensor located inside the housing surrounding a part of the area of the mouthpiece, the sensor transmits the detected result to the controller And a control step of controlling, by the controller, an operation of the heater based on the detected result.

An embodiment of the present invention may provide a recording medium storing a program for implementing the method according to the present invention.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a user with an aerosol generating device which not only consumes lower power than a conventional aerosol generating device, but also does not require the user to apply an input to a switch provided in the aerosol generating device many times. have.

1 is a view showing the appearance of an aerosol-generating device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a diagram illustrating a mouthpiece and other components included in an aerosol-generating device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram of an example of an aerosol-generating device according to the present invention.

4 is a view for explaining an example of a process in which a sensor detects the approach of the mouthpiece in the aerosol generating device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram schematically illustrating a mouthpiece and a housing observed in a direction different from that of FIG. 4.

6 is a view for explaining another example of a process in which a sensor detects the approach of the mouthpiece in the aerosol generating device according to the present invention.

7 is a view for explaining another example of a process in which a sensor detects the approach of the mouthpiece in the aerosol generating device according to the present invention.

8 is a view for explaining another example of a process in which a sensor detects the approach of the mouthpiece in the aerosol generating device according to the present invention.

9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of controlling an aerosol-generating device according to the present invention.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus, comprising: a heater for generating an aerosol by heating a cigarette inserted into the aerosol generator; A housing surrounding a portion of the area of the cigarette and allowing the cigarette to move in a preset direction according to a pressure of a user's bend; And a controller for determining whether the user contacts the cigarette based on the pressure of the ball, and controlling the operation of the heater according to the determined result.

In the apparatus, a sensor for detecting the access of the cigarette is located inside the housing, the control unit, after the heater is preheated by the preheat button receiving the user's input, the access of the cigarette is the sensor When detected by, it may be characterized in that for heating the heater until it exceeds a preset temperature.

In the apparatus, a sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing, the control unit, the counter for counting the number of times the cigarette is detected by the sensor and for storing the counted number of times It may be characterized by including a memory.

In the apparatus, the controller may be configured to change the heating temperature of the heater or to calculate the number of puffs of the user based on the number of times stored in the memory.

In the device, a sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing, the sensor is any one of a pressure sensor or a push button sensor to detect the pressure and calculate the numerical value. You can do

In the device, a sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing, the sensor may be characterized in that it is possible to sense a force of 0.00981N to 9.807N.

In the device, a sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing, the sensor is located at the deepest part of the housing to contact the cigarette when the cigarette can no longer move in the direction. It may be characterized by.

In the apparatus, the cigarette includes a protrusion protruding toward the inner circumferential surface of the housing, the housing includes a locking jaw protruding toward the outer circumferential surface of the cigarette, and the control unit is a direction in which the cigarette is preset As the movement distance to the distance between the sensor and the protrusion located on the locking jaw reaches a predetermined distance value, it may be characterized in that for controlling the operation of the heater on the basis of the sensor sensed.

The device may further include a moving direction fixing portion located between the outer circumferential surface of the cigarette and the inner circumferential surface of the housing so that the cigarette can move only in a predetermined direction.

The method according to another embodiment of the present invention for solving the technical problem, the cigarette passing through the aerosol-forming substrate evaporated by the heated heater is moved in a predetermined direction inside the housing under the pressure of the user's bent Cigarette movement step; A sensing step of transmitting, by the sensor, the detected result to a controller when an access of the cigarette is detected by a sensor located inside a housing surrounding a portion of the cigarette; And a control step of controlling, by the controller, the operation of the heater based on the detected result.

As the inventive concept allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. Effects and features of the present invention, and methods of achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below but may be implemented in various forms.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, and the same or corresponding components will be denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description thereof will be omitted. .

In the following embodiments, the terms first, second, etc. are used for the purpose of distinguishing one component from other components rather than a restrictive meaning.

In the following embodiments, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” include plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

In the following embodiments, terms such as include or have means that the features or components described in the specification are present, and does not exclude in advance the possibility of adding one or more other features or components.

When a certain embodiment can be implemented differently, a specific process order may be performed differently from the described order. For example, two processes described in succession may be performed substantially simultaneously or in the reverse order of the described order.

Referring to Figure 1, it can be seen that the aerosol-generating device 1 according to the present invention includes a mouthpiece 2, the device body (4). According to an embodiment, the mouthpiece 2 may be connected to the device body 4 in a manner of being inserted into the device body 4, or the mouthpiece 2 and the device body 4 may be integrated. The mouthpiece 2 is connected to the device body 4 in such a manner as to be inserted into the device body 4, and the mouthpiece 2 is a part which the user contacts the lips (bent) of the user for smoking. The cigarette inserted into the aerosol generating device can also be an example of the mouthpiece (2). The mouthpiece 2 and the cigarette are both in direct contact with the user's lips under pressure and common in that it can be moved in the direction inserted into the device body 4, so long as it is not particularly limited to any one of the following, cigarette May be used synonymously with the mouthpiece 2.

Although not shown in FIG. 1, the inside of the apparatus body 4 includes a material accommodating portion accommodating an aerosol-forming substrate, a heating device (heater) for heating the aerosol-forming substrate, and the like to provide an aerosol to a user. This will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

More specifically, FIG. 2 shows that when the user's bend 210 touches the mouthpiece 230 to inhale the aerosol, the mouthpiece 230 moves in the direction of the pressure sensor 270 due to the pressure of the bend. It shows the appearance. For convenience of description, it is assumed in FIG. 2 that the mouthpiece 230 is placed horizontally with the ground and moves closer to the pressure sensor 270 while moving to the left side where the pressure sensor is located under the pressure of the bend.

When the mouthpiece 230 receives the bending pressure in the direction in which the user's pressure sensor 270 is located, the movement direction fixing unit may move closer to the pressure sensor 270 without moving in a different direction from the pressure receiving direction. Surrounded by 250. The moving direction fixer 250 minimizes the gap between the housing 290 and the mouthpiece 230, which is one component of the aerosol-generating device body for releasing the aerosol through the mouthpiece 230, thereby reducing the mouthpiece ( When 230 is bent pressure to move to the left side only, not the up and down direction to contact the pressure sensor 270.

In another embodiment, the mouthpiece 230 is applied to the mouthpiece 230 while the mouthpiece 230 and the pressure sensor 270 remain in contact with each other even though the mouthpiece 230 does not substantially move to the left. Only the bending pressure may be sensed by the pressure sensor 270.

The thickness a of the moving direction fixing part 250 of FIG. 2 is approximately equal to the distance between the mouthpiece 230 and the housing 290, and the coefficient of friction of the surface of the moving direction fixing part 250 determines the bending pressure of the user. When received, it is preferable that the movement direction fixing unit 250 is lower than a predetermined reference coefficient so that the movement direction fixing unit 250 can be moved without resistance in the direction in which the pressure sensor 270 is located. The movement direction fixer 250 may be omitted according to an exemplary embodiment. When the movement direction fixer 250 is omitted, the mouthpiece 230 may move under the bending pressure and contact the pressure sensor 270. . In addition, according to the embodiment, the movement direction fixing unit 250 may include a heater, in the above case, uniform regardless of the position change caused by the movement of the mouthpiece 230 and the movement direction fixing unit (250). The heating state can be maintained.

When the mouthpiece 230 or the movement direction fixing part 250 surrounding the mouthpiece 230 contacts the pressure sensor 270, the pressure sensor 270 senses the force that is in contact with the mouthpiece 230. Here, the force detected by the pressure sensor 270 is a spring as well as a force generated by the movement direction fixing portion 250 surrounding the mouthpiece 230 or the mouthpiece 230 is in direct contact with the pressure sensor 270 ( It is a concept including all of the force detected by the pressure sensor 270 that the moving direction fixing part 250 surrounding the mouthpiece 230 or the mouthpiece 230 approaches through the spring.

According to the embodiment, the pressure sensor 270 is the mouthpiece 230 or the mouthpiece even before the movement direction fixing portion 250 surrounding the mouthpiece 230 or the mouthpiece 230 contacts the pressure sensor 270. An approach of the movement direction fixing unit 250 surrounding the 230 may be sensed. In addition, in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the mouthpiece 230 and the housing 290 are horizontally positioned with the ground, but the mouthpiece 230 and the housing 290 are different from the horizontal direction with the ground (for example, vertically). Direction, the direction in which the mouthpiece 230 moves by the user's bending pressure may be different from FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 3, the aerosol generating device 300 according to the present invention includes a power supply unit 310, a heater 315, a material accommodating unit 320, a mouthpiece 330, a housing 340, and a moving direction fixing unit ( 341, the sensor 343, and the controller 350.

The power supply unit 310 supplies power to the heater 315 based on the signal received from the control unit 350, and the heater 315 is heated by receiving power from the power supply unit 310, and vaporizes by heating the aerosol-forming substrate. Let's do it.

The substance accommodating part 320 accommodates an aerosol-forming substrate. The aerosol-forming substrate contained in the material accommodating part 320 is a substrate which forms an aerosol when heated to a high temperature by a heater, and a tobacco-containing material containing a volatile tobacco flavor compound. It includes.

Here, the aerosol-forming substrate is a solid substrate, a powder containing at least one of tobacco leaves, fragments of tobacco ribs, reduced tobacco, homogenised tabacco, such as extruded tobacco, and expanded tobacco. It may include one or more of powder, granule, pellet, thread, spaghetti, strip, or sheet. Aerosol-forming substrates also include glycerin and propylene glycol as aerosol formers. According to an embodiment, the aerosol-forming substrate may be a tobacco liquid phase containing nicotine as a liquid substrate.

As a first embodiment, if the aerosol-forming substrate is a solid substrate, the mouthpiece 330 may be a solid cigarette, that is, a cigarette wrapped in a wrapper, according to the first embodiment, the material accommodating portion 320 is It may be omitted from the aerosol generating device 300 according to.

As a second embodiment, if the aerosol-forming substrate is a liquid substrate, the mouthpiece 330 serves as a passage through which the aerosol passes, and the aerosol-forming substrate before the material receiving portion 320 is heated by a heater to form an aerosol. This can be accommodated.

The heater 315 is heated by receiving power from the power supply unit 310 to vaporize the aerosol-forming substrate received from the material accommodating unit 320.

According to an embodiment, when the aerosol-forming substrate is a solid substrate, the mouthpiece 330 is a cigarette, and the heater 315 is a heater for internal or external heating through a method of inserting a medium heater or a method of inserting a heater internal medium. Can be. In this case, unlike the position shown in FIG. 3, the heater 315 may be heated by receiving power from the power supply unit 310 in a state in which the heater 315 is positioned.

The mouthpiece 330 directly contacts the user's mouth to allow the user to inhale the aerosol. When the mouthpiece 330 senses suction of the user, the mouthpiece 330 passes the aerosol (vaporized aerosol forming substrate) in the direction in which the suction is sensed.

The housing 340 surrounds a part of the area of the mouthpiece 330 and moves the mouthpiece 330 in a predetermined direction according to the pressure of the user's bend. As described with reference to FIG. 2, the housing 340 may further include a movement direction fixing part 341 that assists the mouthpiece 330 to move in a predetermined direction. Here, the preset direction means any one of the vertical direction and the left and right directions, more specifically, in the vertical direction with the sensor 343, based on the sensor 343 located inside the housing 340 as a reference. It means the direction of moving away or near. As an example, as shown in FIG. 2, if the aerosol-generating device is placed in the horizontal direction with the ground and the air outlet of the mouthpiece 330 is located on the right side, the preset direction is leftward.

The sensor 343 is located inside the housing 340 and senses the approach of the mouthpiece 330 moving by the user's bending pressure. The sensor 343 transmits the detected result to the controller 350.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the sensor 343 may be any one of a pressure sensor or a push button sensor that senses a pressure and calculates the numerical value. As another optional embodiment, the sensor 343 may detect a force of 0.00981N to 9.807N, and in this case, the force that the sensor 343 can detect corresponds to 0.1g to 1000g.

When the mouthpiece 330 is moved by the bending pressure, and the proximity of the mouthpiece 330 is detected by the sensor 343 located inside the housing 340, the controller 350 stops the operation of the heater 315. To control. The controller 350 may correspond to at least one or more processors for processing data received from a sensor, or may include at least one or more processors. Accordingly, the controller 350 may be driven in a form included in another hardware device such as a microprocessor or a general purpose computer system.

Sensing the approach of the mouthpiece 330 by the sensor 343 means that the mouthpiece 330 moves in a preset direction by the bending pressure and then contacts the sensor 343. As another example, when the separation distance between the mouthpiece 330 and the sensor 343 is less than a predetermined value according to the precision or type of the sensor 343, the sensor 343 may detect the approach of the mouthpiece 330. It may be.

Controlling the operation of the heater 315 by the controller 350 includes not only raising or lowering the temperature of the heater 315, but also shutting off the power supply of the heater 315.

As an optional embodiment, the control unit 350 may preset temperature when the sensor 343 approaches the mouthpiece 330 after the heater 315 is preheated by the preheating button receiving the user's input. It may be controlled to heat the heater until it exceeds. The aerosol generating device 300 according to the present invention may undergo a preheating process before heating the heater 315 in order to vaporize the aerosol-forming substrate, and the user may have a preheating button (not shown) provided in the aerosol generating device 300. By applying an input to the heater, the heater 315 can be preheated.

The controller 350 exceeds the preset temperature only when the mouthpiece 330 approaches the sensor 343 after the user preheats the heater 315 by applying an input to a preheating button (not shown). The heater 315 is not preheated, even if the sensor 343 detects the approach of the mouthpiece, the heater 315 is not heated to exceed the preset temperature.

In this optional embodiment, the heater 315 is preheated first, and as a result, the control unit 350 can control the operation of the heater only when the sensor 343 detects the mouthpiece 330. The problem that the temperature of the heater does not occur only by applying an arbitrary pressure to the mouthpiece 330 in the state that is not preheated. In addition, the aerosol-generating device according to the present embodiment has a time determining button for determining the start and end of smoking, instead of having a preheating button for preheating the heater, so that the mouthpiece is not pressed by the user. An arbitrary pressure is applied to the 330 to prevent the problem of changing the temperature of the heater only by moving the mouthpiece 330. As an example, the user may press the viewpoint determination button twice within 1 second to transmit the start time of smoking to the controller, and press the viewpoint determination button three times within 1 second to inform the controller of the end time of smoking. At this time, the pattern of pressing the viewpoint determination button is stored in advance in the control unit 350.

In another optional embodiment, the controller 350 stores a counter for counting the number of times the mouthpiece 330 is detected by the sensor 343 (hereinafter, the "detection number") and a counted number of detection times. It may include a memory (memory). The controller 350 may receive the number of detections and store the number of detections in the memory, and determine the number of times of inhalation of the user based on the number of detections stored in the memory. For example, the controller 350 may determine that the user inhales the aerosol 15 times through the mouthpiece 330 when the number of detections is 15 times.

If a specific pattern is detected from the number of detections stored in the memory, the control unit 350 changes the heating temperature of the heater 315 based on the pattern, or determines the starting or ending time of the user's smoking. The number of puffs of a user at may be calculated. The controller 350 may further store template data for identifying a specific pattern from the number of detections. When the smoking data of the user is accumulated in the memory, the controller 350 may repeat the same or similar pattern in the accumulated smoking data as one. Grouping and patterning, changing the heating temperature of the heater 315 based on a result of comparing the patterned data with the newly introduced user data, or calculate the number of puffs of the user in one smoking cycle. Can be.

For example, if data of the number of detections for the first 10 seconds is repeated four times and the number of detections for the remaining 20 seconds seven times in a 30-second smoking cycle is repeatedly stored in the memory, the controller 350 stores the template data. The operation of the heater 315 may be changed by grasping the entire data on the number of detections for 30 seconds as a pattern and comparing the pattern with each time a user's smoking is detected.

As another optional embodiment, the controller 350 may stop supplying power to the heater 315 based on the user's puff count and the preset time determined from the detection count. In the present exemplary embodiment, if the user's puff number determined from the number of detections exceeds 14 times or if the time for supplying power to the heater to vaporize the aerosol-forming substrate exceeds 6 minutes, the heater ( 315) can be powered off. That is, as one of two conditions for stopping the power supply to the heater 315 being heated, when the detection count stored in the memory is utilized, a timer included in the controller 350 malfunctions. Edo effectively cuts off the power supply to the heater 315, thereby preventing malfunction of the aerosol generating device and excessively long smoking by the user due to overheating of the heater.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the mouthpiece moves by the user's bending pressure to approach the sensor located inside the housing, the operation of the heater included in the aerosol-generating device is controlled, and meaningful user data is stored. Can be collected.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating only a partial configuration of the aerosol generating device described with reference to FIG. 3. According to FIG. 4, only a mouthpiece, a housing, and a sensor are shown in the configuration of the aerosol generating device described with reference to FIG. 3. Is omitted. For convenience of explanation, hereinafter, the same components as those described in FIG. 3 will be described with reference numerals different from those used in FIG. 3.

In FIG. 4A, it is assumed that the mouthpiece 410 and the housing 450 are perpendicular to the ground, and a portion of the mouthpiece 410 is surrounded by the housing 450. The sensor 430 is located inside the housing 450.

More specifically, in FIG. 4A, the mouthpiece 410 includes a protrusion 411 protruding toward the inner circumferential surface of the housing 450, and the housing 450 defines the outer circumferential surface of the mouthpiece 410. The projection 411 of the mouthpiece 410 is a locking projection 451 of the housing 450 when the mouthpiece 410 moves downward in the vertical direction with respect to the ground. As a result, no further descent is possible.

The mouthpiece 410 has a cylindrical shape with a relatively higher height than the diameter of the top or bottom surface, and the housing 450 forms an appearance for easy insertion of the cylindrical mouthpiece 410. It is possible to specify the outer circumferential surface of the 410 and the inner circumferential surface of the housing 450.

For convenience of description, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 4 will be used.

5 (a) is a view showing the observation of the mouthpiece 410 inserted into the housing 450 in the exact opposite direction to the direction in which the mouthpiece 410 is inserted. In FIG. 5A, the protrusion 411 of the mouthpiece 410 contacts the inner circumferential surface of the housing 450.

FIG. 5B is a view illustrating the observation of the mouthpiece 410 inserted into the housing 450 in the direction in which the mouthpiece 410 is inserted. In FIG. 5B, the locking jaw 451 of the housing 450 contacts the outer circumferential surface of the mouthpiece 410.

Again, the description of FIG. 4 will be continued. FIG. 4B illustrates that the mouthpiece 410 is in contact with the sensor 430 while moving downward while receiving a bending pressure in a direction perpendicular to the ground in FIG. 4A. The mouthpiece 410 subjected to the bending pressure of the user continuously moves downward, and the protrusion 411 included in the mouthpiece 410 is caught by the locking jaw 451 of the housing 450, thereby stopping the downward movement. When the sensor 430 is positioned on the locking jaw 451 of the housing and the mouthpiece 410 moves and the protrusion 411 of the mouthpiece contacts the sensor 430, the sensor 430 transmits the contacted result to the controller. The controller controls the operation of the heater based on the sensing result of the sensor 430.

According to an embodiment, when the separation distance between the sensor 430 located on the locking jaw and the protrusion 411 of the mouthpiece 410 reaches the preset distance value as the mouthpiece 410 moves in the preset direction, the sensor 430 may detect the movement of the mouthpiece 410 and transmit it to the controller so that the controller can control the operation of the heater.

According to FIG. 4B, the preset distance value may be 0. In this case, the sensor 430 is a sensor only when the sensor 430 is in contact with the protrusion 411 of the mouthpiece 410. The result of sensing by the 430 is transmitted to the controller. In the present exemplary embodiment, the preset distance value may vary depending on the performance of the sensor 430 or the controller, and the force sensed by the sensor 430 is not included in the preset range (for example, 0.00981N to 9.807N). If not, the sensor 430 may not transmit the sensing result to the controller.

In FIG. 6A, unlike in FIG. 4A, the mouthpiece 610 does not include a protrusion. Although not shown in FIG. 6A, the mouthpiece 610 is mounted on a moving direction fixing part located between the outer circumferential surface of the mouthpiece and the inner circumferential surface of the housing 650 so as to be movable in the housing 650. It may be. In FIG. 6A, the sensor 630 is located at the deepest part of the housing 650 so that the mouthpiece 610 and the mouthpiece 610 can no longer move in a preset direction. Contact.

FIG. 6B is a diagram illustrating the mouthpiece 610 contacting the sensor 630 by moving downward. The sensor 630 transmits the sensing result based on the detected force while contacting the mouthpiece 610 to the controller.

First, FIG. 7A assumes that the mouthpiece 710 and the housing 750 are perpendicular to the ground, and a part of the mouthpiece 710 is surrounded by the housing 750. In FIG. 7A, the sensor 730 includes a first sensor part 731 and a second sensor part 733, and is located inside the housing 750.

More specifically, FIG. 7A illustrates the mouthpiece 710 and the housing 750 in a state in which no bending pressure is applied to the mouthpiece 710. In FIG. 7A, the mouse The piece 710 includes a protrusion 711 protruding toward the inner circumferential surface of the housing 750, and the first sensor part 731 and the second sensor part 733 of the sensor 730 are formed of the housing 750. Protruding from the inner circumferential surface toward the outer surface of the mouthpiece 710, the first sensor portion 731 is in contact with the protrusion 711 of the mouthpiece 710 to function as a locking jaw.

Subsequently, (b) of FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the mouthpiece 710 finishes the downward movement to the innermost side of the housing 750 as a result of the user's bending pressure being applied to the mouthpiece 710. In FIG. 7A, when the bending pressure is applied to the mouthpiece 710 by a predetermined amount or more, the first sensor part 731 of the housing 750 is disposed on the outer circumferential surface of the mouthpiece 710. The first sensor part 731 moves to the position where the second sensor part 733 is located, so that the first sensor part 731 moves to a direction toward the inner circumferential surface, resulting in the result as shown in FIG.

That is, in FIG. 7, when the mouthpiece 710 including the protrusion 711 toward the inner circumferential surface of the housing 750 moves in the first direction preset by the bending pressure, the mouthpiece 710 is included in the housing 750 and the mouthpiece ( As the sensor 730 protruding toward the outer circumferential surface of the 710 moves in the second preset direction, the sensor 730 detects that the bent pressure is greater than or equal to the preset value and transmits the detected result to the controller. Done. In this process, the second sensor unit 733 is inserted into an insertion hole provided in the housing 750 in advance, and the first sensor unit 731 moves to the position of the second sensor unit 733.

When comparing (a) of FIG. 4 and (a) of FIG. 4, (a) of FIG. 4 illustrates that the sensor, which was initially located at the protrusion of the mouthpiece and the locking jaw inside the housing, is spaced apart from each other and then bent to the mouthpiece. As the pressure is applied, the separation distance becomes 0, and the pressure is applied to the sensor. In FIG. 7 (a), the protrusion of the mouthpiece and the sensor located inside the housing are in contact with each other. The two embodiments are distinguished from each other by the fact that the sensor itself is moved while a predetermined pressure is applied to the sensor. That is, in FIG. 4, the sensor 430 may use a pressure sensor or a push button sensor, and in FIG. 7, the sensor 730 may use a push button sensor.

In FIG. 8A, unlike in FIG. 7A, the mouthpiece 810 does not include a protrusion. Although shown in FIG. 8A, the mouthpiece 810 may be mounted on a moving direction fixing part located between the outer circumferential surface of the mouthpiece and the inner circumferential surface of the housing 850 to move the shank in the housing 850. have. In FIG. 8A, the sensor 830 is located at the deepest part of the housing 850 such that the mouthpiece 810 moves in a preset direction and causes the mouthpiece 810 to move. If the size exceeds a preset value in the sensor 830, as shown in FIG. 8 (b), the sensor 830 senses based on the force detected while the mouthpiece 810 contacts the sensor 830. The result is transmitted to the controller.

9 may be implemented by the aerosol generating device according to FIG. 3, and thus descriptions overlapping with those described in FIG. 3 will be omitted. For convenience of description, the reference numerals of FIG. 3 are used in FIG. 9, and FIG. It is considered to include all the embodiments described in 4 to 8.

The mouthpiece 330 passing the aerosol-forming substrate vaporized by the heated heater 315 is moved in a predetermined direction inside the housing under the pressure of the user's bend (S910).

According to an embodiment, if the aerosol-forming substrate is a solid substrate in step S910, the mouthpiece 330 may be a cigarette (cigarette) wrapped in a wrapper.

The movement of the mouthpiece 330 in a predetermined direction in step S910 is detected by the sensor 343 located inside the housing 340, and the sensor 343 is a result of detecting the approach of the mouthpiece 330. Is transmitted to the control unit 350 (S930).

The controller 350 controls the operation of the heater 315 when it is determined that a force of a predetermined value or more is transmitted to the sensor 343 based on the result detected by the sensor 343 (S950).

In operation S950, the controller 350 may further increase the temperature of the heater 315 or cut off the power supplied to the heater 315 when it is determined that the user's smoking is finished.

Embodiments according to the present invention described above may be implemented in the form of a computer program that can be executed through various components on a computer, such a computer program may be recorded in a computer-readable medium. At this time, the media may be magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks and magnetic tape, optical recording media such as CD-ROMs and DVDs, magneto-optical media such as floptical disks, and ROMs. Hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as memory, RAM, flash memory, and the like.

On the other hand, the computer program may be specially designed and configured for the present invention, or may be known and available to those skilled in the computer software field. Examples of computer programs may include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code executable by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

Particular implementations described in the present invention are embodiments and do not limit the scope of the present invention in any way. For brevity of description, descriptions of conventional electronic configurations, control systems, software, and other functional aspects of the systems may be omitted. In addition, the connection or connection members of the lines between the components shown in the drawings by way of example shows a functional connection and / or physical or circuit connections, in the actual device replaceable or additional various functional connections, physical It may be represented as a connection, or circuit connections. In addition, unless specifically mentioned, such as "essential", "important" may not be a necessary component for the application of the present invention.

In the specification (particularly in the claims) of the present invention, the use of the term “above” and similar indicating terminology may correspond to both the singular and the plural. In addition, in the present invention, when the range is described, it includes the invention to which the individual values belonging to the range are applied (if not stated to the contrary), and each individual value constituting the range is described in the detailed description of the invention. Same as Finally, if there is no explicit order or contrary to the steps constituting the method according to the invention, the steps may be performed in a suitable order. The present invention is not necessarily limited to the description order of the above steps. The use of all examples or exemplary terms (eg, etc.) in the present invention is merely for the purpose of describing the present invention in detail, and the scope of the present invention is limited by the above examples or exemplary terms unless the scope of the claims is defined. It doesn't happen. In addition, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications, combinations and changes can be made depending on design conditions and factors within the scope of the appended claims or equivalents thereof.

The present invention can be used to implement a device included in a device that produces an inhalable aerosol, such as an electronic cigarette, or the device itself.

Claims

In the aerosol generating device,

A heater for generating an aerosol by heating a cigarette inserted into the aerosol generating device;

A housing surrounding a portion of the area of the cigarette and allowing the cigarette to move in a preset direction according to a pressure of a user's bend; And

And a controller configured to determine whether the user contacts the cigarette based on the pressure of the bent portion, and control the operation of the heater according to the determined result.
The method of claim 1,

A sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing,

The control unit,

After the heater is preheated by the preheat button receiving the user's input, if the access of the cigarette is detected by the sensor, the aerosol generating device characterized in that for heating the heater until a predetermined temperature is exceeded .
The method of claim 1,

A sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing,

The control unit,

And a memory for storing a count of the number of times the cigarette is sensed by the sensor and a memory for storing the counted number of times.
The method of claim 3,

The control unit,

Based on the number of times stored in the memory, an aerosol generating device, characterized in that for changing the heating temperature of the heater or calculating the number of puffs of the user.
The method of claim 1,

A sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing,

The sensor,

An aerosol-generating device, characterized in that any one of the pressure sensor or a push button sensor to detect the pressure to calculate the numerical value.
The method of claim 1,

A sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing,

The sensor,

An aerosol-generating device, characterized in that capable of sensing a force of 0.00981N to 9.807N.
The method of claim 1,

A sensor for detecting the approach of the cigarette is located inside the housing,

The sensor,

An aerosol-generating device, characterized in that it is located at the deepest part of the housing to contact the cigarette when the cigarette can no longer move in the direction.
The method of claim 1,

The cigarette,

A protrusion protruding toward an inner circumferential surface of the housing,

The housing,

It includes a locking projection protruding toward the outer circumferential surface of the cigarette,

The control unit,

As the cigarette moves in a preset direction, when the separation distance between the sensor located on the locking jaw and the protrusion reaches a preset distance value, the operation of the heater is controlled based on a result of sensing by the sensor. An aerosol generator.
The method of claim 1,

The aerosol generating device,

And a moving direction fixing part positioned between the outer circumferential surface of the cigarette and the inner circumferential surface of the housing so that the cigarette can move only in a predetermined direction.
A cigarette moving step of passing the aerosol-forming substrate vaporized by the heated heater to move in a predetermined direction within the housing under the pressure of the user's bend;

A sensing step of transmitting, by the sensor, the detected result to a controller when an access of the cigarette is detected by a sensor located inside a housing surrounding a portion of the cigarette; And

And a control step of controlling, by the controller, the operation of the heater based on the detected result.