Feature Article

Powder spreading in powder bed fusion is a recoater-powder interaction shaped by cohesion, particle size distribution, and particle shape. This article maps streaking, short-feeding, and layer non-uniformity back to their underlying mechanisms and separates powder-driven causes from blade wear and spreading speed.

As aerospace metal additive manufacturing capacity expands, more reused powder is going back into qualified builds. The virgin-to-reused blend ratio decision depends on PSD shift, satellite formation, and morphology drift, and cannot be settled by a single powder check disconnected from the part's stress state.

Dense-phase and dilute-phase pneumatic conveying create different particle contact mechanics, and the resulting attrition and segregation risk depends on velocity, solids loading ratio, and the powder's own attrition sensitivity, not on a fixed assumption about which mode is gentler.

Cement fineness is not a single number. Blaine surface area, particle size distribution, grinding aid chemistry, and moisture history each pull on hydration reactivity in different ways, and a fineness specification that ignores any one of them will eventually let a bad batch through.

Geldart classification, minimum fluidization velocity, bubble dynamics, droplet-to-particle size ratio, and permeability all determine whether a fluidized bed process delivers controlled granule growth, uniform coating, or consistent drying at production scale.

Process analytical technology combined with machine learning is changing residual moisture control and yield prediction in pharmaceutical and food spray drying. The gains are real but bounded, and the off-line test panel has not been replaced.

Sintered contacts, additive manufactured heat exchangers, EV motor components, and conductive pastes each require a different copper powder. This article explains why morphology, particle size distribution, oxygen content, and packing density are engineering variables, and how to specify them correctly for electrification applications.

Poorly soluble APIs now represent the majority of the pharmaceutical development pipeline. Dissolution and oral bioavailability are determined by molecular solubility, surface wetting behavior, solid-state stability, and how the formulation interacts with the GI environment from first contact onward. Amorphous dispersions, lipid systems, nanocrystals, and co-crystals each rely on different surface mechanisms to deliver their intended advantage.

Dust suppression oil can reduce airborne calcium carbonate dust, but it may [...]

Real-time particle characterization is moving powder processing from delayed laboratory checks toward [...]

Fine powder fluidization can support controlled pneumatic conveying, especially in dense phase [...]

Sustainable powder metallurgy depends on controlled powder loops, not on powder processing [...]