Powder flow, also known as flowability, refers to the movement of a large mass of particles along the container wall or between adjoining masses. A powder’s flowability refers to its ability to flow in a certain piece of equipment in a desired way.
What Is Powder Flow?
In terms of flowability, the movement of a large mass of powder between adjacent particles or along the container wall is referred to as “powder flow”. The ability of a powder to flow in a precise way through a piece of equipment is what is meant by the term “powder flowability.” In order to anticipate the flowability of a powder, it is necessary to study the powder’s properties and the geometry of the application.
Why Characterizing Powder Flow?
Having a predictable powder flow is critical in the powder processing industry for avoiding capacity shortfalls and production interruptions, both of which result in expensive production time lost. Vertical bins or silos are used extensively in the food sector for powder storage, for example. Loss of production capacity and product degradation are both exacerbated when powders are discharged from these devices in an irregular flow. Manufacturing efficiency is strongly related to product quality in terms of product weight and content consistency in the pharmaceutical sector. When using powder bed fusion additive manufacturing, powder flow directly influences the ability to generate layers and, therefore, the quality of the final product. For this reason, measuring flow qualities and acquiring significant knowledge into powder flow characterization is critical to avoiding production line flow issues, optimizing industrial processes, and ensuring consistent output.
How To Characterize Powder Flow
The powder flow cannot be described as a single number or index retrieved from a single simple test procedure because of its multidimensional nature. There are several ways to characterise materials, depending on the application and the procedure. More accurate results may be achieved if a characterisation approach is as near to the real process conditions as possible.
The angle of repose, compressibility index or Hausner ratio, flow in a rotating drum and via an aperture, shear cell, and rheometers for powder are often used to test powder flowability. GranuTools has revised several of these procedures in an effort to improve their accuracy and repeatability by automating the measuring process. GranuTools, in particular, has created instruments that are tailored for use in certain types of applications. They’re simple to use, sensitive, and lead to repeatable readings that aren’t reliant on the user. As a consequence, GranuTools has invested a lot of time and effort into developing techniques that provide significant findings that are easy to understand and use in industrial processes.
When it comes to the study of powder dynamic characteristics and the characterisation of powder flow for applications ranging from additive manufacturing to food processing, GranuTools instruments like GranuDrum, GranuFlow, and GranuCharge are indispensable.
