Robots Fill, Mix, and Cap Personalized Skincare Product Containers in Batch Size of One | Packaging World

Oct 29, 2024

Cosmetics and nutraceuticals, like this skincare line, are at the leading edge of hyper-personalization and batch-size-one packaging. SmartSKN is an interesting example using AI-driven data and inventory management to achieve mass packaging customization.

Just north of Boston is a health and beauty products startup called SmartSKN that uses AI diagnostics and robotic on-demand filling/capping to create what it calls “hyper-personalized” skincare formulations based on an individual’s unique skin condition.

In commercializing this futuristic AI-driven skin care concept, SmartSKN partnered with LillyCover, a pioneer in Korean skincare technology. In early October of this year, the company opened the first AI SmartSKN Lab in Beverly, Mass. This innovative, interactive space offers users the opportunity to book complimentary appointments for AI skin analyses. During their visit, guests can witness AI-powered robots in action as they craft personalized skincare solutions tailored to individual needs. "We wanted to create an immersive experience for our customers, and let them see firsthand the power of skincare personalization," says SmartSKN CEO Val Neicu.

Currently five of the robotic filling/capping systems are in place in the Beverly facility, where they fill injection stretch blow molded PET bottles in both 15- and 30-mL sizes whose price points begin at $75. Neicu is the first to admit that manufacturing each product on demand presents Filling nozzles deposit personalized combinations of specialty-formula skincare creams, mixing them into a single PET bottle.real challenges compared to mass production methods that are the norm in the skincare space. But by fine-tuning workflow and relying on advanced technologies such as AI-driven inventory management, she says these challenges can be met. Additional efficiencies can be achieved once the firm is more established and is in a position to scale up its manufacturing activity. Neicu also points out that the firm’s personalized approach to bottle filling is inherently more sustainable than mass production, which currently leads to billions of units of packaging winding up in the landfill each year.

At the heart of this new concept is what’s called the LillyCover Muilli AI Dermascope. It measures pH, wrinkle index, moisture content, and other fundamental skin conditions in real time and sends that data to the SmartSKN lab. There, in less than four minutes, a unique formulation based on this data is generated and sent to a LillyCover volumetric filler that’s tightly integrated with a Nachi collaborative robot whose operational sequence is as follows:

• Pick an empty PET container from a single-file chute infeed

• Bring the container to a cap-removing chuck; the cap remains in the chuck

• Put the container into a shuttle that takes the container beneath a series of nozzles responsible for depositing only those liquid ingredients that are required for this unique, AI-generated formula

• Pick the filled container from the shuttle and return it to the cap-removing chuck so that the threaded cap can be torqued back on

• Put the capped container into a small chamber that vigorously shakes the liquid contents

• Pick the container from the shaker and place it in a discharge chute

Watch the video above to view these operations in sequence.

Caps are torqued off prior to filling, then on after filling in a capping chuck module.

At this point an operator applies a pressure-sensitive label that has had the item’s personalized data printed on it by a Bixolon thermal-transfer printer. The operator also puts the finished bottle into a folding carton.

For those preferring the convenience of at-home use, SmartSKN offers the Muilli AI Dermascope to purchase for the cost of $399. Users can analyze their skin at home, send the data to the SmartSKN Lab, and have their personalized skin care formulas delivered directly to their door. In fact this e-commerce approach, as opposed to consumers walking into a brick and mortar immersive experience lab to buy their skincare products, is where the firm plans to do the bulk of its business in the future. PW