The Benefits of Powder Flow & Measurement Tools

It is very important to measure powder flowability and the rheological properties of powder, cereals, grains and other granular material. Industry needs tools to precisely quantify very subtle powder behaviors, for example compactability, burst, relaxation, caking and cohesion for that, special equipment's are put to use.

By employing powder measurement specialty instruments, product manufacturers, research and development organizations and laboratories can measure exceptional variations. They can optimize lubricants and flow along with processing conditions such as tableting, conveying, and capsule and package/vessel filling. They also use these instruments in areas like quality control, source and batch variation, along with preparation and procedure development.

When the need is to directly measure the flow characteristics of powders, a powder fluidization can be used as an attachment with most systems. The Powder fluidization attachment easily attaches to most Texture Analyzers. It has a helical blade which guarantees correct repetition every time, which results in Measured Flow Displacement along with highly repeatable results.

An objective measure of granule and powder flow can help customers avoid problems associated with powder flow. It can help in optimizing product formulations with respect to processing equipments’ limits. It improves product consistency and quality, in turn saving costs by improving packing, storage, handling and transportation. Powder electrostatic testing should be employed.
Powders can be affected by an amazing number of factors, including moisture, consolidation stresses, vibration, attrition, aeration, shear, static electricity, cohesive and adhesive chemical bonds, conveying equipment, storage conditions, particle size distribution. Giving a consistently sampled powder under the same conditions is very hard. That is why you should strive for a system that is flexible. Powder additive manufacturing also needs to be done under intensely controlled environment.

Tap Density Apparatus or Tester (also called compacted bulk density tester) is used to measure packed density or tapped density of powders, as well as flaked or granulated materials by automatic standardization and repeatable procedures. Tapped density is defined as an elevated bulk density reached after mechanical tapping of a container that contains the powder sample. Tapped density is gotten by tapping of a cylinder that is graduated for measuring or some vessel that holds a powder sample. Post noting the initial powder weight or volume, the vessel or measuring cylinder is tapped, and weight or volume readings are noted until little further volume or weight change happens. The tapping is achieved by elevating the vessel and letting it drop due to its own weight. This particular parameter is of a lot of importance for packing of the material. While the powder sample is tapped, the particles that are smaller fit themselves amongst the gaps that the larger particles leave and hence it leads to reductions in total powder volume.