New Generation E-cig Tests

Source from:  Tobacco Asia  03/18/2014

Cerulean, the UK based manufacturer of testing equipment, entered the e-cigarette testing business recently with the launch of its vapor generation machine CETI8 (Cerulean E-cigarette Testing Instrument).

The company identified what it saw as a gap in the market, its position being that because the characterization of deliveries by e-cigarettes is still in its infancy, specialized instrumentation to test the vapor quantity and composition has not been easily available.
"Much of the published research on how much, and what, is being delivered in the vapor of e-cigarettes has been carried out using well established smoking machines," says Cerulean Technical Director Ian Tindall.

But there are problems with this approach. First, there is the inherent high cost of a smoking machine, including the specialized laboratory space. And second, there are concerns about contamination by regular cigarettes when using a smoking machine to look for trace compounds in the inherently cleaner e-cigarette vapor.

"Cerulean designed the CETI 8 with a simple design brief," Ian continues. "Make it small, make it easy to use, make it flexible for e-cigarette testing. And make it at a sales price at least a third of a conventional smoking machine."

The first prototype was shown to potential users at TSRC in Colonial Williamsburg in September and after what Tindall calls "overwhelming customer feedback", some changes were made to increase the utility of the design. "Needless to say the design brief was met and even exceeded in some areas."

As the CETI8 is a bench top mounted unit it no longer has to reside in the smoke lab, avoiding accidental contamination. And, as it is used only for e-cigarettes, the vapor paths are pristine when delivered.

The machine works with a single puff engine – the device that delivers the controlled puff to the e-cigarette – cycled around eight individual ports. The flow generated by the puff triggers the e-cigarette and the vapor produced is drawn onto a collection pad for off system analysis.

The puff comes in two shapes – ISO bell and square – and users can programme it for volume (up to 70ml on the standard machine and 210ml on the extended volume machine). It is also programmable for duration.

Control is through a touch screen, and the controlling PC can interface with a laboratory information management system or store collected data in a secure MS SQL Express database. A key variant allows the addition of four sets of impingers or electrostatic traps, which will be available in the first quarter, 2014.

"The vast array of e-cigarette devices proved a challenge for the designers," Ian reveals. "It was met by using the latest 3D printing technology. Where an e-cig device is unusual in size, shape or weight, a custom support can be printed overnight in the UK. This allows rapid manufacture of specialized parts.

"The challenge of button activated vaping devices was solved by an accessory that uses a rubber membrane to open and close on the button, triggering a vaping action co-incident with the drawing of a puff."

Testing e-cigarettes is still new, and Cerulean says it is already developing a pipeline of specialist e-cigarette products to meet the requirements of laboratories and manufacturing environments. The CETI8 is just the first of their new generation of e-cigarette testers. Enditem