Fully automated powder flow testing

Freeman Technology has launched the first in a new range of 'plug and play' accessories that will fully automate powder flow testing on the company's FT4 Powder Rheometer.

Freeman Technology has launched the first in a new range of 'plug and play' accessories that will fully automate powder flow testing on the company's FT4 Powder Rheometer.

The FT4 is used in a wide range of manufacturing industries including pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, ceramics, powder coatings, toners and personal products.

Its applications range from optimising new formulations and improving the efficiency of the manufacturing processes to the establishment of QC criteria for raw materials, intermediates and final product.

The new automated aeration accessory for the FT4 allows the flow properties of powders to be measured at different levels of aeration to determine how flowability depends on the amount of entrained air.

Its full automation eliminates the need for operator intervention, thus removing the major source of measurement variation and error.

This important advance has been made possible by the recent development at Freeman of a highly sophisticated universal control card that provides a seamless interface between the instrument, the accessory and the user.

Users of the FT4 Powder Rheometer will be able to add a series of accessories that streamline powder assessment, bringing closer Freeman's goal of providing the powder processing market with a universal powder testing solution.

In a further development towards this goal, Freeman recently added fully automated shear testing capabilities to the FT4, broadening its applications.

The shear cell allows users to accurately and reproducibly assess powders in terms of shear strength, providing information that is additional and complementary to the dynamic flowability data generated in a standard FT4 measurement.

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