When a rotary airlock valve leaks, wears, or jams, the cause usually lies in the powder rather than the equipment. This insight maps cohesion, abrasiveness, bulk density, and particle size distribution to distinct failure patterns and explains what each pattern tells you about the powder state.
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.
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