A tester for when you really need to know the flow of your powder
Brookfield Ametek
The Powder Flow Tester (PFT; photo) delivers quick and easy analysis of powder flow behavior. The PFT is ideal for manufacturers who need to eliminate the downtime and expense of erratic powder discharge from hoppers. Users can perform quality-control checks on incoming materials, characterize new formulations for flowability and adjust composition to match the flow behavior of established products. The instrument also offers a solution for small powder samples, which is perfect for pharmaceutical formulators who test expensive powders in limited quantities. The Small Volume Shear Cell requires only 43 mL of powder. Other good candidates include materials that are difficult or messy to handle, such as powdered inks. The Small Volume Shear Cell has an added technical performance advantage, namely the ability to generate higher consolidation stresses, which simulates conditions in larger bins and silos. The PFT includes the Powder Flow Pro v1.2 Software, which has comparison features that allow the operator to combine, display and compare data from both standard and small shear cell tests in a single graph. This gives users the ability to test and compare how powders will respond in small bins with low consolidating stress and in large bins with high consolidating stress. Another feature of Powder Flow Pro v1.2 is the Normalized Flow Function. As more product is added to a hopper, consolidation stress increases raising the potential for stable bridges or “arching” to occur. The Normalized Flow Function enables the technician to predict this behavior and modify the manufacturing process or hopper design to avoid the problem. Booth 2945 — Brookfield Ametek, Middleboro, Mass.