The World’s First Heated Tobacco Device with Automatic Stick Ejection Is Launched

The World’s First Heated Tobacco Device with Automatic Stick Ejection Is Launched
Shenzhen Yuyan Industrial Co., Ltd. has achieved a significant technological breakthrough in the field of heat-not-burn tobacco, collaborating with China Tobacco Group and Tsinghua University to develop the world's first heated tobacco device with an automatic stick ejection feature, ELIO, making an important contribution to the development of new tobacco products.
 

Heat-not-burn, abbreviated as HNB, involves heating special tobacco sticks containing tobacco extracts and smoking substances to 250-350 degrees Celsius, releasing the flavor and vapor of tobacco. Traditional tobacco products, when not fully burned—such as when lit but not inhaled—reach temperatures of 600-800 degrees Celsius, producing tar that contains a large number of carcinogenic substances. Heat-not-burn tobacco reduces tar content by over 90% due to the absence of incomplete combustion, and with a taste close to real tobacco, HNB has achieved tremendous commercial success in the international market, with sales doubling every year. Philip Morris International's IQOS captured 15% of the entire Japanese tobacco market within just three years, with global sales reaching 44 billion sticks last year.

According to experts, Yuyan Industrial's product not only addresses the current technical shortcomings of heat-not-burn tobacco regarding stick ejection, providing consumers with a more convenient and comfortable experience, but also breaks through multiple international patent barriers, reversing China's long-standing passive situation of being monopolized by international giants in the core technology of heat-not-burn tobacco devices.

Heat-not-burn tobacco has developed quite maturely abroad. The slow development in China is primarily due to core technologies being monopolized by internationally renowned brands like IQOS. Although many electronic cigarette companies in the industry have made significant technological breakthroughs in recent years, they have encountered considerable resistance in core areas, including stick ejection methods. Yuyan Industrial has applied automation technology to the electronic cigarette field for the first time globally, breaking through the technical blockade of international tobacco companies and establishing its own patent barrier in the automatic stick ejection domain.

According to public information from the National Patent Office and Yuyan Industrial, Shenzhen Yuyan has not only developed the world's first automatic stick ejection heat-not-burn tobacco product, ELIO, but also the world's first automatic cleaner suitable for heat-not-burn tobacco, greatly enhancing the cleaning effectiveness and user experience of devices including ELIO and IQOS. Yuyan Industrial has also collaborated with China Tobacco Group to develop a self-cooling tobacco stick for heat-not-burn, which has already obtained relevant patents. The three breakthrough technologies have the following characteristics:

1. Fully Automatic Stick Ejection
 

The mainstream heat-not-burn products on the market require the heater to be inserted into specially designed tobacco sticks. Since the tobacco part comes into direct contact with the heater, some tobacco residue will stick to the heater during the heating process. To reduce the amount of residue left on the heater, most products on the market, including IQOS, use a manual push stick, also known as an extractor, to separate the tobacco stick from the heater. The extractor is one of Philip Morris International's key patents in the heat-not-burn tobacco field, and most other manufacturers' products are restricted by this patent. Yuyan Industrial's fully automatic stick ejection device perfectly avoids this patent barrier. After heating is complete, the control mechanism automatically separates the tobacco stick from the heater and then ejects the stick. The entire process is fully automatic, easy to operate, and greatly enhances user experience.

2. Self-Cooling Tobacco Stick

Heat-not-burn tobacco products reduce the temperature of the vapor at the filter tip. The traditional solution is to set a cooling section within the tobacco stick, alternating the tobacco section with the filter tip, allowing the vapor produced in the tobacco section to cool in the cooling section before passing through the filter tip. This is another important patent of Philip Morris International. Under the guidance and assistance of the Henan Tobacco Technology Team, Yuyan Industrial has developed a new self-cooling tobacco stick for heat-not-burn tobacco, completing the patent application together with Henan Tobacco. This technology cleverly utilizes the cooling effect of the tobacco itself, allowing the tobacco to cool the high-temperature aerosol generated during heating without requiring complex assembly processes, making it easy to produce tobacco sticks with cooling effects that are fully compatible with traditional cigarette machines, thus reducing the significant costs associated with modifying tobacco production equipment.

3. Automatic Cleaner
 

Heat-not-burn products are prone to residue and tar accumulation in the heating chamber. If not cleaned promptly, this can affect the heating performance of the heater during repeated use and may produce harmful gases, significantly impacting the subsequent smoking experience and user health. Yuyan Industrial creatively introduced automatic control technology into the cleaning process of tobacco devices, using a bracket inserted into the heating chamber that surrounds the heater. It innovatively employs two types of bristles attached to it, one for friction cleaning of hard-to-reach areas and the other for dust and tar absorption. Driven by a motor, it rotates to achieve cleaning; by controlling the motor's output speed and torque, combined with the length and material of the bristles, the friction between the bristles and the device is kept within an appropriate range, quickly cleaning deposits and residues while ensuring that the heater is not damaged, greatly reducing the time cost of cleaning and maintenance.

Although Yuyan Industrial has not officially promoted its breakthrough technologies, the company states that these two globally pioneering products—the automatic stick ejection heat-not-burn electronic cigarette and the automatic cleaner for heat-not-burn electronic cigarettes—will be showcased under its ELIO and Little Duke brands at the Hong Kong Global Mobile Electronic Exhibition on April 18, 2019, and will subsequently be available for purchase through the ELIO Yuyan brand flagship store on e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, or by adding the official WeChat: vapeos or calling: 15611665151.