According to authoritative reports, the HNB export data in 2017 was 180 million U.S. dollars. And the HNB export data in 2018 has exceeded 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. As well, it is predicted that it will reach 2 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. The foreign tobacco giants are fighting, and the domestic China Tobacco is now in full swing

To judge whether a heat-not-burn e-cigarette is of high quality, the heating element technology is particularly important. Just like heating non-combustion products, the heating patent categories are mainly concentrated in: electric heating technology, fuel heating technology, and physical and chemical reaction heating technology.

By 2017, there have been 400 patents for electric heating inventions. This is currently the mainstream technology with the most mature development and the largest number of applications in heat-not-burn patents.

Baking technologies that have appeared on the market are: resistance wire heating, electromagnetic induction heating, magnetic particle soaking and so on. According to the shape of the heating element, it can be divided into heating sheet (similar to IQOS, MC, Kung Fu), heating needle (similar to LiL, Bodie, QOQ), heating cup, heating barrel, heating pot (similar to GLO, IUOC), etc. Among them, the two prominent ones are thick film heating sheet and needle heating. As well, according to the form of heating and baking, it can be divided into internal heating, external heating, and independent internal and external heating.

1.Thick film heater
The heating plate is directly inserted into the cartridge to heat from the inside to the outside, and the heat radiation path is from the inside to the outside. This kind of internal heating is also the earliest heating method used.

2.Needle fever
Needle heating uses the central heating needle to generate heat. Heating needles can also be divided into two-wire heating needles and four-wire heating needles. The four-wire heating needle is an upgraded version of the two-wire heating needle, which is more stable and safer.

3.Fever around
Heating cup\heating tube\heating pot are typical representatives of surrounding heat. The biggest problem with this method is the low heat utilization rate. Part of the heat is absorbed by the tobacco and the other part of the heat is dissipated. If the heat insulation is not done well, the smoking set will be hot.

4.Independent heating inside and outside
The internal and external independent heating uses two heat sources, the structure is complex, the control difficulty increases, the baking can be more fully, and the internal and external heat conduction fits better.

5.MIX 3D vertical full-enclosed heating
The MIX vertical full-enclosed heating uses relatively low temperature “fried” cigarettes, and uses smart chip temperature control to control the temperature of the cigarettes in all directions. Heating from the bottom to the top of the cigarette, just like the way real smoke is lit so that each strand of tobacco is fully squeezed out, carbonized evenly, and the utilization rate of the cigarette is as high as 100%.

Note: The above heating methods are all forms of adjusting the voltage or current to allow the resistance wire to generate heat.

6.Magnetic particles soaking
Magnetic particle soaking technology uses non-contact magnetic energy delivery to achieve low-temperature homogeneous heating. Applying the principle of magnetic induction AC frequency conversion can solve the problem of uneven heating and smoking of tobacco products.

7.Electromagnetic heating
This uses the principle of electromagnetic induction to heat cigarettes and the heating tube is wound with a magnetic induction coil for providing an alternating magnetic field. A current is passed through the induction coil and a high-frequency magnetic field is generated in the coil so that the heating tube is induced to generate heat by the magnetic field.

At present, there have been many patents for electromagnetic heating. In 2018, the State Intellectual Property Office published an invention patent: electromagnetic induction low-temperature heating smoking set. In addition, the Silicon Valley startup Loto Labs is the world’s first company to use electromagnetic induction-powered atomizers. In 2015, its flagship product “Evoke” brand atomizer electromagnetic induction heating system patented technology.

Furthermore, there are the following types which are less used due to factors such as technology and market product equipment:

1. Fuel heating technology
Fuel heating technology can be classified into gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels. As of 2017, there are nearly 200 patents for combustion-heating inventions, but currently there are fewer applications on the market.

2. Physicochemical reaction heating technology
Physical and chemical reaction heating can be divided into physical crystallization chemical reaction, etc. As of 2017, there are 54 invention patents for physical and chemical reaction heating technology.

3. Ultrasonic atomization technology
Research on ultrasonic atomization technology breaks through the patent constraints of traditional heating atomization technology and is developing a new generation of electronic cigarettes with ultrasonic atomization cigarettes.