The outcome of my bachelor thesis is a freely customizabled tobacco pipe targeting smokers aged between 18 and 30 years who are new to pipe smoking. An application allows the customer to modify and build his pipe according to his personal preferences. Using mathematical formulas and algorithms, every single pipe is unique.
The material used for the pipe‘s body is polyamide. After the bowl has been sintered using SLS technology, the tobacco chamber made of briar wood is being added.
According to the Federal Statistc Office, almost one out of four people smoke tobacco in Germany, that makes it 13.5m in total.
With 96,6% of people smoking primarily cigarettes, it is by far the most popular form of tobacco consumption.
However, the share of pipe smokers is only around 0.9%, that‘s approximately 109.000 pipe smokers, but only 12.000 of these are below the age of 40.
These numbers show that there is a huge potential of growth within younger age groups. Pipe smoking could experience a comeback with the help of modern, customizable pipes.
There are 2 different types of chamber holes; 25mm and 32mm deep. On the one hand, it‘s a personal choice whether the customer wants to pack his pipe with more or less tobacco, on the other hand it has the followingconstructional value:
After the inserts were glued in, the draft hole has yet to be drilled to the deepest point of the tobacco chamber.
If, for example, the flatter chamber is selected and the shank is strongly bent, it may happen that there is no straight way to drill the draft hole. In this case the selection of a deeper chamber is necessary.
Each generated pipe is unique, but all of them have the same basic structure. The briar wood inserts are identical in size and shape, only the depth of the tobacco chamber and the length of the shank piece can vary.
This special application allows you to generate your custom-built pipe.
You can change the shape, size and color according to your personal wishes. The interface of the app is split in four main categories; bowl, shaft, shank and surface finishing.
The first step is to change the size and the shape of the bowl through various anchor points. In the second category you can soften or harden the transition between the shaft and the bowl by modifying the curves. After that, one out of six prefabricated stems can be chosen and colored.
In the surface category, you can select whether you want your surface being structured by a positive or negative Voronoi structure or keeping it smooth.
At this time it is unclear if Vauen wants to implement this concept, but patent and rights discussions are hold.