Postless Disposable Vaporizers

Overview

Postless Vaporizers are a new category in the Cannabis vaporization sector and one of the few innovative products in the last two years. The design was inspired by nicotine-based products such as FEELM, a flat ceramic that allows the oil to go downward into the coil. 5 years ago there were attempts to introduce this type of structure into cannabis atomizers. However,?mature products were launched only in the last two years. In 2021, Cureleaf launched Select Cliq, which will give those who have been working on this type of product more courage to continue to invest in it. These products do add new options to the boring cannabis atomization market, especially for brands looking to sell their new oils through materialized hardware.

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The Select Case

In 2021, in order to compete with Trulieve, Cureleaf's Select brand launched a postless pod system, the CLIQ, which was jointly designed and produced by Final Bell and 14th Round, and JSB, and it does look amazing. They claim it is "Breakthrough Vape Technology" and planned to launch it in 16 states by the year 2021. The product did attract a lot of attention, and combined with Select's brand positioning and oils, sales went through the roof in the beginning. But soon they received some negative market feedback: burnt taste!

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"I was so excited for these, as I'm a huge fan of regular Select carts. checked my local dispensaries near daily. soon as they Soon as they arrived, I got three of them. Next day, all three of them went back to be exchanged for regular Select carts. The air bubble which formed in my Cliq pods was The air bubble which formed in my Cliq pods was preventing the oil from absorbing into the wick, so every single hit was just burnt cotton. "

This is an original post from a consumer on REDDIT.

The consumer expressed the problem he was having rather clearly. Due to construction and oil viscosity issues, as well as the cold winter months, the oil in the coli was not being replenished in a timely manner, resulting in being burnt. The emergence of this problem caused no small amount of trouble for Select and its consumers and also taught a lesson to later hardware manufacturers.

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Pros and Cons

The figure below shows a typical structural design of a postless product. The atomizer coil sits flat on the bottom of the chamber, the oil enters from the top of the coil, and when activated, the atomized oil and aerosol flow out of the side airways (single or double) into the mouthpiece and mouth. If properly designed, the oil will continuously and steadily enter the coil and then be atomized.

Compared to the vertical atomizer coil, this design has the following benefits:

1. The center post is removed, which makes the oil tank better integrated and visually more transparent;

2. The contact area between the coil and oil is enlarged, at the same time, the transfer speed of the oil is faster. Therefore the atomization volume per second is higher, which increases the efficiency of the atomization.

3. The heating wire is usually designed at the bottom of the heating body, which physically isolates the oil from the metal and reduces the problem of heavy metal contamination of the oil.

4. Oil injection efficiency will be higher. Thanks to the removal of the center post, the oil filling space will be larger. On the one hand, it allows the larger needles to reduce the oil filling time. On the other hand, it reduces the difficulty of identifying the oil-filling holes and reduces the probability of accidental oil-filling.

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Of course, there are some problems.

1. Although the center tube is eliminated, it always needs an air vent. Currently, the air vents are placed beside the oil tank. It is integrated with the plastic tank. But oil stains will be left on the air vent after use, so most of the manufacturers will cover both sides of the air vent with a metal casing. Postless means central postless.

2. Reliability issues.

Customers may still face the same problems as Select's Cliq. A Burnt taste can occur when gas exchange and oil matching go wrong.

3. Silicone corrodes ceramics.

The oil tank needs to use silicone to seal the connection with the heating coil. However, often the silicone corrodes the ceramic under the dual action of high temperature and oil, and even blocks the oil inlet holes of the ceramic, leading to a burnt taste.

4. Oil and capacity limitations.

This design is currently more suitable for products within 2ml. Too thick oil and too large a capacity will increase the possibility of encountering a burnt taste.

5. Cost concern.

Although in the cannabis sector, customers are not too concerned about the cost of the hardware, this type of product will be about 10% more expensive than traditional forms of disposable products.

4 Main suppliers/producers

1. Maxcore also known as Firstunion's cannabis atomization brand, is currently the main supplier in this space;

2. uKERA USA , 14TH ROUND, INC. , and RELEAFY TECH all have such products available.

3. What is worth mentioning is ECAP TECHNOLOGY . With their INTEG-CERA atomizer coil, they sintered structural ceramic with heating ceramic together. This structurally avoids silicone corrosion issues and is worth checking out.

To summarise, postless is something new that is worth a try. However, it does not mean the improvement of flavor. And brands shall pay some extra time to test it.