Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/550313
54 tobaccoasia profile shapes and the machines are designed for highest operation uptimes," explained Vitrocell's managing director, Tobias Krebs. "We started to produce the first [in vitro] exposure systems back in 2000 and have since expanded our product range to accommodate different cell culture insert sizes and throughput requirements," he added. Other companies like Burghart have also jumped on the bandwagon. Heinrich H Burghart: "We have recently introduced the SEIVS B-01 Smoke Exposure In-Vitro System." Meanwhile, Borgwaldt's Schmidt asserted that his company has "developed special applications to expose cell cultures and bacteria solutions for toxicological assessments," but didn't elaborate further. Cerulean, on the other hand, currently does not produce machines for biological systems, although its sister company Arista Laboratories in Rich- mond, Virginia, US, is actively involved in this area, according to Glenn. The trick is in the tweak Although generally quite flexible and adjustable, basic models sometimes may be unable to handle specialized applications – for example e-cigarettes – or product-specific testing regimens, in which case they may need to be modified in line with the client's requirements. But manufacturers are rath- er frequently also developing customized variants to address such needs. Cambustion's SCS smoking machine is typi- cally used with combustible tobacco products, running smoking profiles and providing smoke for analysis. It is compatible with multiple ana- lyzer models, including the company's proprietary DMS500, to provide real-time particle size data. "But the SCS is also suitable for e-cigarette test- ing without requiring any modifications," claimed Chris Nickolaus. In his opinion, the only dif- ference between the two product groups is that "particle sizes of electronic cigarettes tend to be rather smaller than combustible tobacco product- generated particles. Typically you get 60nm par- ticles from an e-cigarette compared with 150nm particles from burning tobacco." Borgwaldt's smoking machines generally are regarded for their rather broad application spread, but still the company recognized a demand for smoking machine types or components for par- ticular testing purposes, for example aerosol gen- erators for e-cigarette testing, a "shisha-smoker" for waterpipe tobacco analysis, and a customized cigar smoking machine. Yet the firm remains far- sighted enough to strike the right balance between Cerulean SM450 Vitrocell manual smoking machine VC1 for smaller installations All Vitrocell smoking machines have a linear motor for the pump system to achieve maximum precision