Aerosol-generating system and method of dispensing liquid aerosol-forming substrate with pumped air
An aerosol-generating system may include a liquid storage portion, a vaporizer, and a pump. The liquid storage portion may be configured to store a liquid aerosol-forming substrate. The vaporizer may be configured to volatilize the liquid aerosol-forming substrate. The pump may be configured to pump air into the liquid storage portion so as to push out a volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate from the liquid storage portion and to supply the volume of the liquid aerosol-forming substrate to the vaporizer. A method for generating an aerosol may be performed with the system.
1. An aerosol-generating system, comprising:
a storage portion containing an aerosol-forming substrate; and
a main unit configured to pump an incoming volume of air into the storage portion to displace an outgoing volume of the aerosol-forming substrate from the storage portion and to heat the outgoing volume of the aerosol-forming substrate to generate an aerosol.
2. The aerosol-generating system of claim 1 , wherein the storage portion defines an inlet for the incoming volume of the air and an outlet for the outgoing volume of the aerosol-forming substrate.
3. The aerosol-generating system of claim 2 , wherein the inlet is the only point of ingress into the storage portion, and the outlet is the only point of egress from the storage portion.
4. The aerosol-generating system of claim 2 , wherein the storage portion further defines a first storage volume and a second storage volume containing the aerosol-forming substrate.
5. The aerosol-generating system of claim 4 , wherein the storage portion includes a first dividing wall and a second dividing wall configured to partition the first storage volume and the second storage volume.
6. The aerosol-generating system of claim 5 , wherein the first dividing wall and the second dividing wall are configured inhibit a passage of the incoming volume of the air through the storage portion.
7. The aerosol-generating system of claim 5 , wherein the first dividing wall and the second dividing wall have overlapping portions.
8. The aerosol-generating system of claim 7 , wherein the overlapping portions of the first dividing wall and the second dividing wall define a gap therebetween.
9. The aerosol-generating system of claim 8 , wherein the first storage volume is in fluidic communication with the second storage volume via only the gap.
10. The aerosol-generating system of claim 4 , wherein the storage portion is configured such that the incoming volume of the air is confined to the first storage volume.
11. The aerosol-generating system of claim 4 , wherein the main unit is configured to pump the incoming volume of the air into the first storage volume via the inlet in the storage portion.
12. The aerosol-generating system of claim 4 , wherein the storage portion is configured such that the outgoing volume of the aerosol-forming substrate displaced therefrom is from the second storage volume.
13. The aerosol-generating system of claim 1 , wherein the main unit includes a micropump upstream from the storage portion, the micropump configured to pump the incoming volume of the air into the storage portion.
14. The aerosol-generating system of claim 1 , wherein the main unit includes a vaporizer downstream from the storage portion, the vaporizer configured to heat the outgoing volume of the aerosol-forming substrate.