Industry first - New robot ensures consistent sunscreen In Vitro testing

French laboratory HelioScreen has developed a ‘robot’ that ensures consistency when performing in-vitro UV protection tests. The technology will act as a solution to a major obstacle currently facing this area of the industry.

This area of testing has greatly progressed in the last decade due to EU and new international ISO standard requirements, however, CEO Dominique Lutz tells CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that meeting these standards on a consistent basis has been difficult for his institute before developing the ‘HD Spreadmaster’ technology.

Lutz spoke to this publication at in-cosmetics in Hamburg this week about how he believes the creation will be a game changer if it is given the go ahead by ISO.

“We developed this technology as a solution to an issue we having been facing for years - ensuring the consistency of testing a product in regards to pressure and temperature every time,” he tells this publication.

“But we know that this is a worldwide problem for labs working on In Vitro sunscreen testing, so we have also sought out ISO approval to make it a global industry reference for labs,” he adds.

Potential game changer

Helio’s R&D team specializes in formulation and quality control In Vitro screening of SPF/UVA and established that developing an automated way to spread products onto 'plates' would ensure a reliable outcome compared to human spreading results.

"We knew we needed a new way for spreading that allows mastering room and pressure as it was impossible to get two of the same results, and the best solution was to introduce a robot," says Lutz.

Click here to see the difference the technology makes to testing in this area.

ISO approval could make it industry practice

The CEO adds that the system has been validated by leading French cosmetics companies and was presented to the ISO in a workshop on sun protection test methods back in January.

"We set up several robots alongside experts in this area and compared the results to the human made applications. Results came back overwhelming positive for the device but we are still waiting to hear from the ISO on it."

Whether the ISO approves the device for other industry use, Lutz says his company will continue using it either way as it was specifically developed to cater to their needs in the first place.

Helio's Asia based team has also followed this approach to cater to Asian customers and has implemented the HD Spreadmaster in Bangkok.