Fragrance-carrying material fragrance component releasing and trapping device

Abstract

The invention provides a device for releasing and trapping aroma components of an aroma-carrying material. The device comprises a heating unit, a material loading unit, a temperature monitoring unit, an aroma component trapping unit and a suction unit, the heating unit is used for generating temperature-adjustable hot air flow and storing the hot air flow in the buffering cavity, and the buffering cavity is matched with the suction unit so that the hot air flow can be output outwards to the material loading unit in a pulse mode. The material loading unit is used for placing a fragrance loading material; the material loading unit is further provided with a temperature cooling assembly. The temperature monitoring unit is used for monitoring the temperature of the heating unit and the temperature in an accommodating cavity in the material loading unit; the aroma component trapping unit is used for collecting aroma components released by the aroma carrying material; the suction unit is used for generating negative pressure and pulse airflow as a negative pressure source of the whole device. The fragrance component releasing and trapping device for the fragrance carrying material has the advantages that releasing and trapping are purer, and the analysis environment of fragrance releasing is closer to reality.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of tobacco detection, in particular to a device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials. Background Art

[0002] With the development of the tobacco industry, there are many types of tobacco products. Among them, adding flavoring particles, gels, popping beads and other flavor-carrying materials into cigarettes to enrich the aroma of smoke has become a popular trend, making the aroma of cigarettes richer and meeting the needs of different consumer groups.

[0003] However, it is difficult to control the amount of flavor components carried therein. Currently, the evaluation mainly relies on the subjective sensory experience of cigarette smokers, and lacks quantitative means.

[0004] Those skilled in the art have been conducting various studies on this issue. For example, the patent application number is CN202121598259.2, entitled: A device for capturing flavor components in cigarette smoke; or the patent application number is CN202210864709.0, entitled: A method for analyzing the release of flavor components from flavored filters. These published patents are all related experiments conducted on cigarettes or flavored filters. There are very complex flavor components in cigarette smoke, and there are relatively complex mesh structures in the filters. The research on flavor release based on these structures is easily interfered by other impurities or adsorption structures, which affects the purity of the flavor source substance and brings obstacles to detection. This is one of the important problems that need to be solved.

[0005] In addition, the release of aroma components needs to take into account the characteristics of the actual smoking environment. How to better simulate different smoking environments so that the release of aroma components is closer to reality is the second important issue that needs to be considered.

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, people have been seeking an ideal technical solution. Summary of the invention

[0007] The purpose of the present invention is to address the deficiencies of the prior art and thereby provide a device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials, which has the advantages of purer release and capture and a more realistic analysis environment for aroma component release.

[0008] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is: a device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials, comprising a heating unit, a material loading unit, a temperature monitoring unit, an aroma component capturing unit and a suction unit; The heating unit, the material loading unit, the aroma component capturing unit and the suction unit are connected end to end in sequence to form an air flow passage; The heating unit is connected to the inlet of the material loading unit. The heating unit includes a buffer cavity and a heating assembly, which is used to generate a temperature-adjustable hot air flow and buffer it in the buffer cavity. The buffer cavity cooperates with the suction unit to output the hot air flow to the material loading unit in a pulsed manner. The material loading unit is provided with a cavity having an inlet and an outlet, the cavity is used to place the aroma-carrying material, the hot air flow excites the aroma-carrying material to release aroma components, and the aroma components are discharged from the outlet along with the hot air flow; The aroma-carrying material may be in the shape of spheres, granules, sticks, powders, blocks, fibers, films, etc.; The temperature monitoring unit is used to monitor the temperature of the heating unit and the temperature in the cavity of the material loading unit; The temperature monitoring unit monitors the temperature at the outlet of the buffer cavity in the heating unit and the temperature at the cavity of the material loading unit; The aroma component capture unit is arranged in the pipeline at the outlet end of the material loading unit, and is used to collect the aroma components released by the aroma-carrying material; The suction unit is connected to the aroma component capture unit, and generates negative pressure and pulse airflow by controlling the suction action, which serve as the negative pressure source of the entire device.

[0009] Based on the above, the cavity of the material loading unit is a cylindrical cavity, and the fragrance-carrying material is placed in the center of the cylindrical cavity. The material can fill the cavity or not.

[0010] Based on the above, the material loading unit is also provided with a temperature cooling component for quickly replacing the temperature in the cavity of the material loading unit to a reference temperature; The temperature cooling component is a cooling pipe wrapped around the outside of the cylindrical cavity. The cooling pipe is connected to a cold source and reduces the temperature of the cylindrical cavity to room temperature by contact heat exchange.

[0011] Based on the above, the temperature cooling component is a cooling branch connected to the cylindrical cavity, and the cooling branch is connected to the reference temperature air source to replace the temperature in the cylindrical cavity to room temperature through ventilation.

[0012] Based on the above, the heating unit cooperates with the suction unit to form a multi-mode pulse airflow; in the multi-mode pulse airflow, the peak temperature of the hot airflow at the material loading unit cavity is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is more than 4 times, the single pulse air flow is 25-100mL, each pulse lasts 1-3s, and the pulse interval is 15-100s.

[0013] Based on the above, in the first puff mode, the peak temperature of the hot air flow is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is 5-8 times, the air volume of a single pulse is 35 mL, the duration of each pulse is 2 seconds, and the pulse interval is 60 seconds. The first puff mode simulates the environmental conditions of the flavoring material when smoking a cigarette in the standard puff mode.

[0014] Based on the above, in the second puff mode, the peak temperature of the hot air flow is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is 5-8 times, the air volume of a single pulse is 55 mL, the duration of each pulse is 2 seconds, and the pulse interval is 30 seconds. The second puff mode simulates the environmental conditions of the flavoring material when smoking a cigarette in the deep puff mode.

[0015] Based on the above, in one of the puff modes, the peak temperature of the hot air flow increases with the increase in the number of puffs, or the peak temperature remains consistent, or the peak temperature first increases and then remains consistent with the increase in the number of puffs.

[0016] Based on the above, the hot air flow of the heating unit is air or nitrogen, and the heating unit is heated by an electric heating wire or an electric heating rod.

[0017] Based on the above, the suction unit is a single-channel smoking machine.

[0018] The present invention has outstanding substantive features and significant progress compared to the prior art. Specifically, the present invention has the following advantages: 1. The test object of the present invention only includes the aroma-carrying material and does not contain cigarettes. The test process is simple and convenient, and the transfer evaluation of the aroma components does not require the participation of cigarettes.

[0019] 2. Higher test accuracy. Since the evaluation of the aroma components of conventional flavored cigarettes needs to consider the smoke aroma components produced by the cigarettes themselves, the smoke background is too complex and it is not easy to exclude the aroma components of the smoke itself, and the controllability of the test accuracy is poor; in the present invention, the chemical composition background of the hot air flow is clean, which can greatly improve the test accuracy of the transfer amount.

[0020] 3. For a more realistic and reliable simulation, the temperature change pattern can be consistent with the temperature change of actual cigarettes, or a custom temperature change pattern can be used to stimulate the release of flavor components, which is consistent with people's smoking actions. It can match the release process of the flavor carrier with the actual process to the greatest extent and improve the quality of experimental research.

[0021] 4. Due to the addition of the temperature cooling component, the temperature rise and fall control is faster, which can better reflect the impact of temperature on the volatilization of the fragrance-carrying material, avoid the problem of residual temperature of the experimental equipment causing insufficient airflow discharge interfering with the fragrance-carrying material, and ensure the accuracy of the experiment.

[0022] 5. All parameters of the pulsed hot air flow are controllable, including air flow temperature, flow rate, flow rate, single puff duration, interval time, etc., so as to simulate the release of flavor components under different types of cigarettes and different smoking modes. It has extremely high flexibility and wide adaptability, and can effectively simulate different types of cigarettes and evaluate the release and transfer behavior of flavor components according to its own needs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0023] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of a device for releasing and capturing aroma components of an aroma-carrying material in Example 1 of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 2 This is a temperature variation diagram of the material loading unit under two suction modes in Example 1 of the present invention.

[0025] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the aroma component release and capture device of the aroma-carrying material in Example 2 of the present invention.

[0026] In the figure: 1. Heating unit; 2. Material loading unit; 3. Temperature monitoring unit; 4. Aroma component capturing unit; 5. Suction unit; 6. Aroma-carrying material; 11. Cache cavity; 12. Heating component; 21. Temperature cooling component. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The technical solution of the present invention is further described in detail below through specific implementation methods.

[0028] Example 1 like Figure 1-Figure 3 As shown, a device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials comprises a heating unit 1, a material loading unit 2, a temperature monitoring unit 3, an aroma component capturing unit 4 and a suction unit 5.

[0029] The heating unit 1, the material loading unit 2, the flavor component capturing unit 4 and the suction unit 5 are connected end to end in sequence to form an air flow passage.

[0030] Specifically, in this embodiment, the heating unit 1 is connected to the inlet of the material loading unit 2, and the heating unit 1 includes a cache cavity 11 and a heating component 12. The cache cavity 11 is mainly used to temporarily store the heated gas. In this embodiment, the gas can be air or nitrogen. The heating component 12 can select an electric heating method such as a heating wire or a heating rod. The heating wire or the heating rod is placed in the cache cavity 11 to gradually heat up the airflow in the cache cavity 11. Since the temperature near the heat source may be higher and the temperature far away from the heat source may be lower in the cache cavity 11, the temperature detection position of the temperature monitoring unit 3 is set near the outlet of the cache cavity 11 to ensure that the output airflow temperature is consistent with the target temperature.

[0031] The actual capacity of the cache cavity 11 in this embodiment is set to 1000-2000mL, which can store a relatively large volume of gas. When the gas volume is large, the balance and stability of the gas temperature can be guaranteed. Of course, the outside of the cache cavity 11 can also be appropriately added with insulation materials to ensure that the temperature is not lost.

[0032] The buffer cavity 11 cooperates with the suction unit 5 to output the hot air flow to the material loading unit 2 in a pulsed manner.

[0033] The pulse mode described in this embodiment refers to a method of outputting airflow at a set flow rate, a set duration, and a set interval time, and its core purpose is to simulate the inhalation state of a person when smoking.

[0034] A cavity with an inlet and an outlet is provided in the material loading unit 2. In the present embodiment, the structure of the cavity is designed to be a cylindrical cavity, which is used to simulate the size of the aroma-carrying material segment of the "acetate segment-aroma-carrying material segment-acetate segment" filter. There is no acetate segment or other structure in the front and back to filter the airflow, so as to fully demonstrate the aroma release ability of the aroma-carrying material.

[0035] The cavity is used to place the fragrance-carrying material 6, and the hot air flow stimulates the fragrance-carrying material 6 to release the fragrance, and is discharged from the outlet accompanied by the hot air flow. Since the release of the aroma components of the fragrance-carrying material 6 needs to rely on temperature induction, the hot air flow and the fragrance-carrying material 6 are coordinated to complete the operation. The shape and size of the cavity can be highly consistent with the size of the fragrance-carrying material segment in the filter tip to avoid differences caused by changes in appearance size.

[0036] In order to prevent temperature loss, the length of the airflow channel between the heating unit 1 and the material loading unit 2 can be shortened as much as possible. In this embodiment, the length is controlled between 10-20 cm.

[0037] The material loading unit 2 is also provided with a temperature cooling component 21 for rapidly replacing the temperature in the cavity of the material loading unit to a reference temperature; In this embodiment, the temperature cooling component 21 is configured as a cooling pipe wrapped around the outside of the cylindrical cavity, and the cooling pipe is connected to a cold source to reduce the temperature of the cylindrical cavity to room temperature by contact heat exchange, wherein one of the temperature probes of the temperature monitoring unit is disposed inside the cylindrical cavity to monitor the temperature changes in the cavity at all times, and then feed back the temperature change data to the cooling component 21 to ensure the accuracy of the operation of the cooling component 21.

[0038] The core purpose of this step is also to simulate the smoking process of a real cigarette. Since this solution removes the cigarette carrier, it can better and more purely display the aroma release process of the flavor carrier. However, it is also subject to the problem that the lack of a cigarette carrier makes it impossible to intuitively replicate the smoking state of the cigarette. Specifically, after a single puff is completed, some heated gas remains in the cylindrical cavity and the pipeline of the material loading unit 2. The temperature of this gas will continue to stimulate the release temperature of the flavor carrier. In a real environment, after a person completes a single puff, the filter leaves the mouth and the temperature quickly drops to room temperature.

[0039] Therefore, the temperature cooling component 21 added in this embodiment takes effect in the interval time period, quickly reducing the temperature inside the material loading unit 2 to room temperature, or called the reference temperature. The temperature value can be determined according to a preset standard, generally 20-26°C, to maximize the simulation of the cigarette smoking state.

[0040] The temperature monitoring unit 3 is used to monitor the temperature of the heating unit and the temperature in the cavity of the material loading unit. It mainly provides feedback data for the control action of the entire system. For example, the heating unit can feedback and adjust the temperature value change in the cache cavity 11 according to the temperature detected by the temperature monitoring unit 3. The control host can determine whether the heating peak temperature meets the standard and whether the cooling work of the temperature cooling component 21 is in place through the temperature of the material loading unit 2 collected by the temperature monitoring unit 3, and further make adjustments.

[0041] The detection accuracy and temperature adjustment accuracy of the system are controlled within 1°C.

[0042] The aroma component capturing unit 4 is disposed in the pipeline at the outlet end of the material loading unit 2, and is used to collect the aroma components released by the aroma-carrying material.

[0043] Various capture methods commonly used in the art can be used, such as cold trap solutions, adsorption tubes, Cambridge filters, etc. The analysis or determination process of the aroma components after capture can use conventional methods such as weighing, GC-MS, GC-MS / MS, etc.

[0044] Since the captured aroma components are not interfered by cigarette smoke, they must come from the release of aroma components of the aroma-carrying materials, so the detection accuracy is guaranteed.

[0045] The suction unit 5 is connected to the aroma component capturing unit 4, and generates negative pressure and pulse airflow by controlling the suction action, which serves as the negative pressure source of the entire device.

[0046] In this embodiment, the suction unit 5 adopts a single-channel smoking machine, which usually has a function of setting a suction mode. Different suction modes can be set to meet experimental needs.

[0047] In general, the heating unit 1 cooperates with the suction unit 5 to form a multi-mode pulse airflow; in the multi-mode pulse airflow, the peak temperature of the hot airflow is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is more than 4 times, the single pulse air flow is 25-100mL, each pulse lasts 1-3s, and the pulse interval is 15-100s.

[0048] When it is specifically implemented, the common standard smoking mode or deep smoking mode can be referred to, so that the standard smoking mode and deep smoking mode of cigarettes are consistent, providing a unified benchmark for the study of the characteristics of flavor release.

[0049] Specifically, in the standard suction mode, the air flow rate has a pulse characteristic, with one pulse every 60 seconds, each pulse lasting 2 seconds, each pulse air flow rate of 35mL, and 5-8 pulses; the air flow temperature has a pulse characteristic related to the air flow rate. During each pulse, the air flow temperature in the sample chamber rises rapidly, and the temperature drops after the pulse ends. The peak air flow temperature is 30-80°C.

[0050] In the deep inhalation mode, the airflow has a pulse characteristic, with one pulse every 30 seconds, each pulse lasting 2 seconds, each pulse airflow of 55mL, and 5-8 pulses; the airflow temperature has a pulse characteristic related to the airflow. During each pulse, the airflow temperature in the sample chamber rises rapidly, and the temperature drops after the pulse ends. The peak airflow temperature is 30-80°C. All temperature monitoring data, inhalation mode data, detection data after fragrance release, etc. can be uniformly collected in the host computer of the control system and stored in the storage module for data analysis.

[0051] When conducting specific experiments, there may be a variety of temperature change situations, for example, the peak temperature of the hot air flow increases with the increase in the number of puffs, or the peak temperature always remains consistent, or the peak temperature first increases and then remains consistent with the increase in the number of puffs.

[0052] like Figure 2 As shown in a, in the standard suction mode, the peak temperature in the cylindrical cavity where the fragrance-carrying material is located remains unchanged as the suction port sequence changes.

[0053] like Figure 2 As shown in b, in the deep inhalation mode, the peak temperature in the cylindrical cavity where the aroma-carrying material is located remains unchanged as the inhalation sequence changes.

[0054] like Figure 2As shown in c, in the standard inhalation mode, the peak temperature in the cylindrical cavity where the aroma material is located first increases and then remains unchanged as the inhalation sequence increases. It can be seen that in order to maintain the ambient temperature of the aroma material at the set temperature, the temperature in the buffer cavity in the heating unit needs to be controlled at a slightly higher temperature to overcome the temperature loss problem caused by the airflow process.

[0055] In this embodiment, all aroma components released by the aroma carrier material can be captured by the aroma component capture unit 4. The capture method can adopt various capture methods commonly used in the art, such as cold trap solution, adsorption tube, Cambridge filter, etc., and then the aroma components are directly analyzed by conventional methods such as weighing method, GC-MS, GC-MS / MS, etc., avoiding the interference of gas components contained in the cigarette carrier, making the transfer evaluation of the aroma components of the aroma carrier material more accurate, and the operation convenience of the entire system is extremely high.

[0056] Example 2 The significant difference between this embodiment and embodiment 1 is that the temperature cooling component is a cooling branch connected to the cylindrical cavity, and the cooling branch is connected to the reference temperature air source, and replaces the temperature in the cylindrical cavity to room temperature through ventilation.

[0057] The cooling branch can quickly reduce the temperature to room temperature by direct replacement, and has a higher cooling efficiency than the heat exchange method in Example 1. The small amount of flavor component loss caused during the replacement process is roughly equivalent to or even better than the flavor loss during the slow cooling process in Example 1. There is also a small amount of flavor loss during the actual cigarette smoking process, so this part of the loss can be ignored in specific research work.

[0058] In general, the detection device for the flavor release of flavor-carrying materials constructed by the present invention can obtain purer data than the flavor release detection device based on cigarette design, and is more conducive to analyzing the characteristics of the flavor-carrying materials. There are many adjustable parameters in the entire device. For example, when the positions of adding flavor-carrying materials in ordinary cigarettes and heated cigarettes are different, the temperature of cigarette smoke passing through is different, and the air flow speed is different under different puffing modes. Therefore, the method has a wide range of applications and can evaluate the release and transfer behavior of flavor components as needed.

[0059] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention rather than to limit it. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, ordinary technicians in the field should understand that the specific implementation methods of the present invention can still be modified or some technical features can be replaced by equivalents without departing from the spirit of the technical solution of the present invention, which should be included in the scope of the technical solution for protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials, characterized in that: It includes a heating unit, a material loading unit, a temperature monitoring unit, an aroma component capturing unit and a suction unit; The heating unit, the material loading unit, the aroma component capturing unit and the suction unit are connected end to end in sequence to form an air flow passage; The heating unit is connected to the inlet of the material loading unit. The heating unit includes a buffer cavity and a heating assembly, which is used to generate a temperature-adjustable hot air flow and buffer it in the buffer cavity. The buffer cavity cooperates with the suction unit to output the hot air flow to the material loading unit in a pulsed manner. The material loading unit is provided with a cavity having an inlet and an outlet, the cavity is used to place the aroma-carrying material, the hot air flow excites the aroma-carrying material to release the aroma, and the aroma is discharged from the outlet along with the hot air flow; The temperature monitoring unit is used to monitor the temperature of the heating unit and the temperature in the cavity of the material loading unit; The aroma component capture unit is arranged in the pipeline at the outlet end of the material loading unit, and is used to collect the aroma components released by the aroma-carrying material; The suction unit is connected to the aroma component capture unit, and generates negative pressure and pulse airflow by controlling the suction action, which serve as the negative pressure source of the entire device.

2. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 1, characterized in that: The cavity of the material loading unit is a cylindrical cavity, and the fragrance-carrying material is placed in the center of the cylindrical cavity.

3. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 2, characterized in that: The material loading unit is also provided with a temperature cooling component for quickly replacing the temperature inside the cavity of the material loading unit to a reference temperature. The temperature cooling component is a cooling pipe wrapped around the outside of the cylindrical cavity. The cooling pipe is connected to a cold source and reduces the temperature of the cylindrical cavity to room temperature by contact heat exchange.

4. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 3, characterized in that: The temperature cooling component is a cooling branch connected to the cylindrical cavity, and the cooling branch is connected to a reference temperature air source to replace the temperature in the cylindrical cavity to room temperature through ventilation.

5. The aroma component releasing and capturing device of aroma carrier material according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The heating unit cooperates with the suction unit to form a multi-mode pulse airflow; in the multi-mode pulse airflow, the peak temperature of the hot airflow at the material loading unit cavity is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is more than 4 times, the single pulse air flow is 25-100mL, each pulse lasts 1-3s, and the pulse interval is 15-100s.

6. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 5, characterized in that: In the first suction mode, the peak temperature of the hot air flow is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is 5-8 times, the gas flow rate of a single pulse is 35 mL, the duration of each pulse is 2 s, and the pulse interval is 60 s.

7. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 5, characterized in that: In the second suction mode, the peak temperature of the hot air flow is 30-80°C, the number of pulses is 5-8 times, the gas flow rate of a single pulse is 55 mL, the duration of each pulse is 2 s, and the pulse interval is 30 s.

8. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 5, characterized in that: In one of the puff modes, the peak temperature of the hot air flow increases with the increase in the number of puffs, or the peak temperature remains consistent.

9. The device for releasing and capturing aroma components of aroma-carrying materials according to claim 8, characterized in that: The hot air flow of the heating unit is air or nitrogen, the heating unit is heated by an electric heating wire or an electric heating rod, and the temperature monitoring unit monitors the temperature at the outlet position of the cache cavity in the heating unit.

10. The aroma component releasing and capturing device of aroma carrier material according to claim 9, characterized in that: The suction unit is a single-channel smoking machine.

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