vape is in high demand for automated production

The reasons for the obstruction of the vape automation process are the rapid product update iterations, the large volume and variety of production equipment, which occupies large space, and the high investment cost. For small and medium vape and e-liquid manufacturers, the production line Upgrading requires a certain cost investment, which is a high threshold.

For large vape and e-liquid manufacturers with relatively strong financial resources, the layout of automated production can optimize and improve the production efficiency of the product, which is conducive to strengthening and consolidating their leading position in the industry.

The layout on the patent can reflect the strategic direction of the enterprise to a certain extent. Therefore, in order to understand the current vape and e-liquid manufacturers 'concerns and layout of automated production, Xiaobian simply searched about 50 common vape and e-liquid manufacturers' automation-related patents on Google Patents.

It was found that most vape and e-liquid manufacturers have not yet deployed automated production on patents, while a few companies, such as Heyuan, Jerry, Maxwell, New Yikang, Zhuo Li Neng, Skoll, etc. The layout has been made in advance.

The above results are based on the keyword search of "Company Name & Automation". After a comprehensive analysis of the editor, we found that the layout of vape and e-liquid manufacturers in automated production mainly involves two aspects: product improvement and equipment research and development.

Product improvement refers to the improvement of the structure of the vape, such as changing the thin and soft wire connection method to a thimble plug connection method, which is greatly beneficial to automated production. Enterprises such as McWell, Zhuo Lineng, and New Yikang use this method to lay out automated production.

Equipment research and development refers to the independent research and development of vape and e-liquid manufacturers, including, but not limited to, automated equipment such as assembly, oil injection, and testing. Jerry, Heyuan, Skoll and other companies all involved in this way to deploy automated production.

Below we further elaborate and analyze from the two aspects of product improvement and equipment research and development, how vape and e-liquid manufacturers layout the automated production.

First, Product reformists

The first is product reformers. This part of vape and e-liquid manufacturers has improved the structure of vape products so that the structure has the advantages of automated production, which is conducive to the introduction of automation technology into the production system.

These improved solutions involving automation are designed to solve the disadvantages of difficult positioning, complicated assembly, and tedious steps, such as:

Improve liquid storage structure to facilitate automatic liquid injection;

Improve the cross section of the air outlet at the end of the cigarette holder to be non-circular to facilitate identification and positioning;

Improve the plug-in method between battery components, air switches and heating elements to facilitate automated production;

The devices are changed from traditional bonding and fixing methods to plug-in methods;

Improve the outer wall of vape to facilitate positioning and identification and facilitate automated production;

The development of ceramic atomizing core from leaded to leadless is also conducive to the improvement of automated production and so on.

Second, Equipment R & D School

The equipment research and development school is to independently develop equipment and apply for patents during the production and assembly process, so as to apply automation technology in its own production system.

The first is the e-liquid filling device, and then it involves the automatic spring separation equipment, the protective cover automatic assembly equipment, the resistance automatic test equipment, the oil storage cotton core manufacturing equipment, the automatic cotton winding equipment, the cotton core cutting equipment, the seal / O-ring assembly equipment, resistance wire assembly equipment, column cotton processing equipment, metal tube processing equipment, etc.

In addition to individual automated equipment, vape automated assembly lines are also involved.

Third, the demand for vape automation equipment is growing

Based on the analysis of vape and e-liquid manufacturers' automation related patents, we can see that very few companies will involve equipment in vape automation. Most vape and e-liquid manufacturers belong to " Product Reformers. "

This means that as the vape industry continues to grow, the demand for automation equipment applications is also increasing. This can be seen from the increase in the number of patents.

2018 is a year of booming vape, so we can also see that the number of vape automation equipment patents in 2018 is double that of 2017, which has more than doubled. It is foreseeable that with the development and upgrade of the vape industry, the demand for vape automation equipment is expected to continue to grow.