VAPOUR SUPPLY SYSTEM AND CORRESPONDING METHOD Russian patent published in 2024 - IPC A24F40/50 

FIELD: electrical engineering.

SUBSTANCE: vapour supply system, a control circuit for use in a vapour supply system, and a method for operating the control circuit. The vapour supply system comprises a heating element for generating steam from a vapour precursor material and a control circuit configured to supply power to the heating element to perform a heating operation in order to generate vapour and compare the measured resistance value of the heating element for the heating operation with a predetermined threshold value of the heating element resistance used to detect a faulty condition. The control circuit is configured to: monitor the resistance of the heating element during at least one heating operation of the heating element, to determine a plurality of controlled resistance values over a period of time; comparing each of the plurality of controlled resistance values with a predetermined threshold resistance value; and detecting a fault condition of the heating element based on comparing the plurality of monitored resistance values with a predetermined resistance threshold value. The control circuit is configured to detect the said heating element failure condition if a plurality of monitored resistance values exceed a predetermined resistance threshold for a specified period of time.

EFFECT: prevention of false detection of the heating element failure condition due to one erroneous controlled resistance value.

15 cl, 4 dwg