Personal Vaporizer Fill Valve Assembly for Fast Oil Filling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Personal vaporizers face challenges in efficiently filling fluid vaporizing media, particularly in mass production environments, due to difficulties in aligning filling nozzles with small fill openings, leading to slow and inconsistent filling processes, especially with viscous oils that can spill or stick to tank surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A personal vaporizer design featuring a tank module with a fill valve that blocks communication with the air path until a proximal module is attached, allowing an elongated tube to engage and push the fill valve to an open position, enabling easy filling without interference from center posts, thus enlarging the target area for the filling nozzle and reducing alignment precision requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a small fill opening is used in the tank, then the device structure is compact, but the filling process becomes slow and inconsistent due to alignment difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The filling mechanism is segmented into multiple components: a fill valve with movable blocking portion, an elongated filling tube, and a seal member. The blocking portion can be moved between blocking and unblocking positions, allowing the fill opening to be sealed during operation and opened during filling, thus enabling both compact structure and efficient filling
Solution Approach 2:
The fill valve is pre-positioned to block the fill opening before the filling process begins. The elongated filling tube is pre-aligned with the fill opening, and the seal member is pre-positioned to seal around the filling tube. This preliminary configuration ensures that when filling occurs, the opening is already prepared and aligned, eliminating alignment issues during the actual filling process
2Volume of moving object
If a small fill opening is used in the tank, then the device structure is compact, but the filling process becomes inconsistent and prone to spillage
Solution Approach 1:
The fill valve is pre-positioned to block the fill opening before the filling process begins. The elongated filling tube is pre-aligned with the fill opening, and the seal member is pre-positioned to seal around the filling tube. This preliminary configuration ensures that when filling occurs, the opening is already prepared and aligned, eliminating alignment issues during the actual filling process
Solution Approach 2:
The seal member acts as an intermediary between the tank opening and the filling tube. It provides a reliable seal around the filling tube, preventing leakage and ensuring consistent filling. The seal member mediates the connection between the stationary tank and the movable filling tube, ensuring reliable sealing regardless of minor position variations
3Ease of operation
If the fill valve is always open, then filling is easy, but the vaporizing medium leaks from the tank to the air path
Solution Approach 1:
The fill valve transitions from a static open/closed state to a dynamic system where the blocking portion can be moved between blocking and unblocking positions. This dynamic capability allows the valve to be open during filling operations for easy filling, and closed during normal operation to prevent leakage of vaporizing medium to the air path
Solution Approach 2:
The system is designed so that the fill valve automatically blocks the fill opening during normal operation, preventing leakage without requiring external intervention. During filling operations, the valve can be opened to allow filling, and then automatically closes again, providing self-regulating leak prevention
Data Source
AI summary
A personal vaporizer is constructed so that a tank module is filled with a vaporizing medium prior to being attached to a mouthpiece module. During filling, the tank module is in a first configuration in which a structure blocks media within the tank from flowing into an air path of the tank module. When the mouthpiece module is attached to the tank module after filling, the structure is modified, moving the tank module into a second configuration. However, in the second configuration an elongated tube of the mouthpiece module blocks media within the tank from flowing into the air path of the tank module.