Insight of the Week

Welcome to Insight of the Week, where we spotlight practical, actionable knowledge in powder technology and material sciences. Each week, we delve into a key topic, offering a short analysis, expert perspectives, and innovative solutions tailored to industry challenges.

Featured Insight of the Week

What Rotary Airlocks Actually Do to Powder
Rotary airlocks function as pressure boundaries as much as metering devices. The rotor tip clearance governs particle attrition at the nip zone and the rate of fine-particle bypass under differential pressure. As clearance widens through wear, the downstream particle size distribution shifts in a pattern frequently misread as upstream process variation.
Screw Feeder Dosing Accuracy and Powder Compressibility: Why the Same Screw Behaves Differently on Similar Products
The same screw feeder at the same speed can deliver consistently on one powder and drift by several percent on another. The difference lies in compressibility, wall friction, and cohesion, and in how bulk density shifts as the hopper empties.
Powder Flowability at Elevated Temperature: Why Room-Temperature Results Don’t Predict Hot-Bed Behavior
Temperature shifts surface energy, contact compliance, and residual moisture state in ways that can reverse a powder's ambient flow behavior. This Insight explains the dominant mechanisms across three temperature ranges and what elevated-temperature testing reveals for SLS powder beds, spray dryer outlets, and heated conveying systems.
Vibration as a Flow Aid: When It Helps Powder Flow
Vibration can improve powder discharge when it breaks a weak arch or releases a local obstruction. However, it can also compact the powder bed, increase segregation, change bulk density, and destabilize feeding. Use vibration as a flow aid only when it matches the failure mechanism. Vibration changes the [...]
Powder Residence Time Can Make the Test Result Miss the Failure
Powder residence time matters because the sample and the failure often describe different moments. A powder tested after drying, blending, conveying, or filling may not be the same powder that reaches the feeder, press, filler, or package later. Hold time can change air content, moisture, bulk density, temperature, consolidation, fines distribution, and segregation [...]