U.S. patent application number 15/181336 was filed with the patent office on 2017-12-14 for reservoir for use in electronic cigarettes and electronic pens.
The applicant listed for this patent is GSW CREATIVE CORPORATION. Invention is credited to THOMAS FORNARELLI.
Application Number | 20170354181 15/181336 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 60572393 |
Filed Date | 2017-12-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20170354181 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
FORNARELLI; THOMAS |
December 14, 2017 |
RESERVOIR FOR USE IN ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES AND ELECTRONIC PENS
Abstract
A reservoir for inhalant product used in electronic cigarettes
and electronic pens is provided which incorporates a convex or
conical smooth bottom wall catch basin that, combined with a dual
wick design, ensures that substantially all the inhalant product is
directed to the wicks for maximum consumability of the inhalant
product. Therefore, regardless of how much or how little oil/liquid
inhalant product is remaining in the reservoir or the position of
the reservoir, it is always being directed toward at least one wick
so there is substantially no unusable space in the reservoir where
product can collect and not be useable.
Inventors: |
FORNARELLI; THOMAS;
(CHICAGO, IL) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
GSW CREATIVE CORPORATION |
Santa Monica |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
60572393 |
Appl. No.: |
15/181336 |
Filed: |
June 13, 2016 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A24F 47/008 20130101;
B65D 15/02 20130101; B65D 85/70 20130101 |
International
Class: |
A24F 47/00 20060101
A24F047/00; B65D 85/00 20060101 B65D085/00; B65D 8/00 20060101
B65D008/00 |
Claims
1. In a reservoir for holding inhalant product for use in
electronic cigarettes and electronic pens, the improvement
comprising: replacing a flat bottom wall of the reservoir with a
smooth convex bottom wall catch basin within which substantially
all inhalant product is contained, and providing dual wicks which
are positioned diametrically opposite each other and are both
engaged to a vaporization element for use in vaporizing the
inhalant product.
2. The reservoir of claim 1 wherein the catch basin and dual wicks
provide for use of substantially all of the inhalant product
without waste.
3. The reservoir of claim 1 wherein the diametric positioning of
the wicks provides for at least one wick being in contact with the
inhalant product regardless of the position of reservoir and
keeping the wicks from degrading or drying out and creating a
burned taste.
4. The reservoir of claim 1 wherein the smooth convex bottom wall
catch basin is made of silicone.
5. The reservoir of claim 1 wherein the smooth convex bottom wall
catch basin is conical.
6. A reservoir for holding inhalant product for use in electronic
cigarettes and electronic pens, the reservoir comprising: a smooth
convex bottom wall catch basin within which substantially all
inhalant product is contained, and dual wicks positioned
diametrically opposite each other and both engaged to a
vaporization element for use in vaporizing the inhalant
product.
7. The reservoir of claim 6 wherein the catch basin and dual wicks
provide for use of substantially all of the inhalant product
without waste.
8. The reservoir of claim 6 wherein the diametric positioning of
the wicks provides for at least one wick being in contact with the
inhalant product regardless of the position of reservoir and
keeping the wicks from degrading or drying out and creating a
burned taste.
9. The reservoir of claim 6 wherein the smooth convex bottom wall
catch basin is made of silicone.
10. The reservoir of claim 6 wherein the smooth convex bottom wall
catch basin is conical.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The invention deals with reservoirs for use in electronic
cigarettes and electronic pens. More particularly, the reservoir of
the present invention incorporates a convex catch basin for its
bottom wall which, when combined with a dual wick design, ensures
that all product is directed to the wicks for maximized use of the
inhalant product within the reservoir. Therefore, regardless of how
much or how little oil/liquid inhalant remains in the reservoir, or
the relative position thereof, it is always being directed toward
the wicks so there is no unusable space in the reservoir where
product can collect and be wasted.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Heretofore reservoirs of this type are known to have
incorporated a substantially centralized single siphon wick which
allows inhalant product to be left in the tank which is unable to
be wicked to the vaporizing area. Also, a single wicking point or
wick increases the likelihood of failure if the wick should become
clogged or degraded. Further, the prior art reservoirs all have a
substantially, flat inside base or bottom wall with a wick about 7
cm higher than the base. What this means is that when the wick has
vaporized the e-liquid inhalant product it can contact, there will
typically always be a little product left at the bottom, below the
wick which cannot be contacted by the wick and burned. When the
wick becomes dried out and is burned, it produce an undesirable
burned taste as it is not be able to burn all the remaining
e-liquid inhalant product, and creates waste and means money lost
for the buyer.
[0003] The proposed reservoir or tank of the present invention
includes a convex shaped bottom wall. The material of the bottom is
smooth so that the e-liquid inhalant product easily travels down to
the outer bottom edge of the central convex shaped bottom wall to
at least one of the dual wicks with which the bottom is in contact.
The dual wicks delivers the e-liquid inhalant product to a
vaporization chamber, and the convex shape of the bottom provides
that substantially all of the e-liquid inhalant product will all be
used, without any substantial waste and therefore substantially no
money lost for the buyer. Moreover, the dual ended wick stays wet
so that a burned taste is not produced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] According to the invention there is provided a reservoir for
inhalant product used in electronic cigarettes and electronic pens
which incorporates a bottom wall convex catch basin that, combined
with a dual wick design, ensures that substantially all the
inhalant product is directed to at least one of the dual wicks for
maximized use of the inhalant product held therewithin. Therefore,
regardless of how much or how little oil/liquid inhalant product is
in the reservoir, it is always being directed toward at least one
of the dual wicks so there is substantially no unusable space in
the reservoir where inhalant product can collect and become
waste.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] FIG. 1 shows a prior art single wick reservoir for an
electronic cigarette and electronic pens, including a mouthpiece
thereof;
[0006] FIG. 2 shows a longitudinal exterior view of the reservoir
made in accordance with the teachings of the present invention;
and
[0007] FIG. 3 shows a longitudinal cross sectional view of the
reservoir of FIG. 2 including the convex bottom wall catch basin
with dual wicks of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
[0008] The following detailed embodiments presented herein are for
illustrative purposes. That is, these detailed embodiments are
intended to be exemplary of the present invention for the purposes
of providing and aiding a person skilled in the pertinent art to
readily understand how to make and use of the present
invention.
[0009] Accordingly, the detailed discussion herein of one or more
embodiments is not intended, nor is to be construed, to limit the
metes and bounds of the patent protection afforded the present
invention, in which the scope of patent protection is intended to
be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof. Therefore,
embodiments not specifically addressed herein, such as adaptations,
variations, modifications, and equivalent arrangements, should be
and are considered to be implicitly disclosed by the illustrative
embodiments and claims described herein and therefore fall within
the scope of the present invention.
[0010] Further, it should be understood that, although steps of
various claimed methods may be shown and described as being in a
sequence or temporal order, the steps of any such method are not
limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or order,
absent an indication otherwise. That is, the claimed method steps
are considered capable of being carried out in any sequential
combination or permutation order while still falling within the
scope of the present invention.
[0011] Additionally, it is important to note that each term used
herein refers to that which a person skilled in the relevant art
would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of
such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used
herein, as understood by the person skilled in the relevant art
based on the contextual use of such term, differs in any way from
any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended
that the meaning of the term as understood by the person skilled in
the relevant art should prevail.
[0012] In a standard prior art cartridge or reservoir, the wick is
usually a one-piece siphon wick, which sticks up through the middle
of the tank or reservoir, as shown in FIG. 1. This one-piece siphon
wick creates two primary functionality issues. First, there is
approximately 5 millimeters of space where inhalant product can
collect underneath the wick which leads to a significant portion of
the product remaining unused and unusable in the reservoir. This is
especially true for thicker oil inhalant products, which tend to
collect along the bottom of the reservoir near a silicon spacer
(not shown) and cannot be moved to the wick unless the reservoir is
heated and tilted, and even then there is no way to get all of the
collected oil product to the wick. Secondly, because there is only
a single pathway from the top of the wick through the silicon
component and into the vaporization coil, any overload of the
wick's capacity or degradation of the wick material due to plant
matter and/or essential fatty acids in the plant oil creates a
product failure either through leaking or through loss of
functionality of the wicking process, which leads to no oil being
delivered to the vaporization element. This creates the very common
"burnt" or "metallic" taste which is produced by such single wick
reservoirs.
[0013] In the present embodiment of an inhalant reservoir 10
presented here, and which is shown from its exterior in FIG. 2, the
issues noted in the prior art have been addressed through the
design of a molded, convex or conical silicon bottom wall catch
basin 12 and a dual wick 14, 16 design. The convex or conical
smooth bottom wall 12 ensures that all oil inhalant product (not
shown) is funneled to at least one of the two wicks 14, 16 in the
cartridge or reservoir 10, regardless of how much or how little oil
inhalant product (not shown) is in the reservoir 10. In one
embodiment, the basin 12 is made of silicon. Additionally, the
dual-wick 14, 16 configuration allows for controlled saturation of
the vaporization element, preventing both the overload or the
drying out of the wick 14, 16 along the vaporization element 20
(FIG. 3). This not only prevents the burned or metallic taste from
occurring, it also prevents the degradation of the wicks which may
cause cartridge or reservoir 10 failure.
[0014] As best illustrated in FIG. 3, the present embodiment of the
inhalant cartridge 10 of the present invention incorporates all the
structures known by those skilled in the art and so will not be
addressed here. Only the modifications to the prior art are
described herein and it will be understood that such modifications
may be applied to any cartridge/tank style reservoir, making then
modifications substantially universal. Again, in FIG. 3, it will be
seen that the bottom wall has been modified to comprise a molded,
convex or conical silicon bottom wall catch basin 12. Also, two
wicks 14 and 16 extend along edges of the basin 12 at opposite
positions along a circumference of the basin 12, each being
diametrically opposite to the other. This configuration allows for
the inhalant product in the reservoir 10 to be in contact with at
least one of the dual wicks 14, 16 regardless of how much or how
little product is in the reservoir 10 and regardless of what
position the reservoir 10 is maintained. As stated above, the
modifications prevent a burned taste from occurring and prevent
degradation of the wicks 14, 16 which may cause failure of the
reservoir 10.
[0015] As described above, the inhalant cartridge 10 provides a
number of advantages, some of which have been described above and
others of which are inherent in the invention. Also, modifications
may be proposed without departing from the teachings herein.
Accordingly, the scope of the invention is only to be limited as
necessitated by the accompanying claims.
[0016] As to the manner of usage and operation of the present
invention, the same should be apparent from the above description.
Accordingly, no further discussion relating to the manner of usage
and operation will be provided.
[0017] While embodiments of the device have been described in
detail, it should be apparent that modifications and variations
thereto are possible, all of which fall within the true spirit and
scope of the invention. With respect to the above description then,
it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for
the parts of the invention, to include variations in size,
materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly
and use, are deemed readily apparent to one skilled in the art, and
all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings
and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed
by the present invention.
[0018] Throughout this specification, unless the context requires
otherwise, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or
"comprising" or the term "includes" or variations, thereof, or the
term "having" or variations thereof will be understood to imply the
inclusion of a stated element or integer or group of elements or
integers but not the exclusion of any other element or integer or
group of elements or integers. In this regard, in construing the
claim scope, an embodiment where one or more features is added to
any of the claims is to be regarded as within the scope of the
invention given that the essential features of the invention as
claimed are included in such an embodiment.
[0019] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention
described herein is susceptible to variations and modifications
other than those specifically described. It is to be understood
that the invention includes all such variations and modifications
that fall within its spirit and scope. The invention also includes
all of the steps, features, compositions and compounds referred to
or indicated in this specification, individually or collectively,
and any and all combinations of any two or more of said steps or
features.
[0020] Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only
of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous
modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in
the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact
construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly,
all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to,
falling within the scope of the invention.
* * * * *