The Benefits of a Powder Production Line

Metals are processed into powdered form through one of several methods. The goal of powder metallurgy is to create highly uniform and precise parts that are easy to reproduce.

Blending and mixing powders with binders and lubricants is the first step. Various blending techniques exist such as a rotating drum, tumbling blender, and ribbon mixer.

Process Control

Powder processing technology transforms primary materials into a variety of products, from metals and minerals to pharmaceuticals, ceramics and chemicals. To create these products, the raw materials are ground into a fine particle size by crushing technology and milling equipment. To remove contaminants and unwanted binders, separation technology is also employed.

The powder particles are then combined into a coherent product by blending. Depending on the type of powder being processed, this can be done in either one of two machines: a tumble blender, which is fashioned like a box, or a ribbon blender, which is a cylinder equipped with blades to scrape and combine the ingredients.

Once the powder has been thoroughly mixed, it is then ready to be packaged. A conveyor system will transfer the material from the mixing machine to a packing machine, which will perform all of the bag-making, filling, sealing, coding and bag-cutting operations in a single pass.

Process control in a production line is essentially the use of automated sensors, programs and computers to adjust Powder Production Line any given feedback loop. Whether it is the temperature of a rubber compound as it is being molded or the timing of when to pasteurise milk, it allows the systems of an industrial plant to handle the minor adjustments without any human intervention beyond setting up each system and overseeing them.

Hygiene

Despite a high demand for powder products worldwide, manufacturers face a number of challenges when producing these items. This includes the need to maintain a high standard of hygiene, reduce downtime and deliver a quality product that consumers want. Hygiene failures can cause expensive recalls that threaten the profitability of a manufacturer.

Powder detergents are made by combining dry components into a puffed substance that can be easily distributed. This is typically accomplished using spray drying, which produces a light and free-flowing material with a low risk of caking. In this process, dry detergent ingredients are sprayed with hot air and allowed to fall back together in a conical-shaped container.

Other common techniques for making Powder detergents include the blender method and the agglomeration method. The blender method involves placing the components into a huge vat that mixes them. This is favored by smaller businesses. Agglomeration, on the other filling machinery hand, is a continuous process that makes large amounts of powder detergent in short periods of time. It uses a combination of agglomerating agents, surfactants, optical brighteners, chelating agents, fabric softeners and bleaches.

In a market where product contamination has devastating consequences, manufacturers need hygienic production machinery that will not introduce foreign particles into the product. This is why they should look for equipment that has no exposed lubricants, can be visually inspected and features large access doors to reduce cleaning-related downtime. In addition, they should choose seaming technology that can handle multiple types of containers. JBT’s full line of processing and packaging solutions can do just that, handling cans, glass jars, plastic containers and bags.

Safety

Any metal fabricator knows that safety is paramount to quality production. There are a variety of regulatory agencies that look out for the well-being of manufacturers. Among them, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is dedicated to keeping workers in safe facilities without getting hurt, while the Environmental Protection Agency looks at ways to protect the environment and keep it free of chemicals that threaten humans and animals alike. With the heightened awareness of safety issues, plenty of attention is given to equipment design and installation. This is especially true of powder coating lines.

Dust explosions are a common problem in powder processing plants, and many of them are caused by the handling of combustible materials. If the right conditions are present, they can lead to dangerous fires that can destroy entire plants.

Often, a dust explosion is caused by a spark that ignites the combustible material. In such cases, the best way to prevent a fire is to ensure that the material does not ignite in the first place. The use of a spark arrestor can significantly reduce the chance of an accident by ensuring that the spark is stopped before it can ignite combustible dust.

Other prevention measures include the use of engineering controls, like local exhaust ventilation, to control exposure to airborne dust and fumes to levels below occupational limits. Another good practice is the proper storage temperature of chemical powders, since certain temperatures can trigger an explosion.

Efficiency

The building blocks of matter have driven the imaginations of philosophers and scientists for millennia. But for manufacturers, these elements have a more concrete existence as powders, the raw material that forms many of our everyday products and equipment. Powder processing technology conditions these primary materials to make a wide range of products, from chemicals and foods to pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. These raw materials are then downsized to flakes, chips or granules through crushing technology and separated from gangue materials using separation technologies like magnetic separators for metals and froth flotation for hydrophobics.

A stride towards effective process control for these powder mixing processes involves the observation and recognition of identified process quality factors that require real-time monitoring. These physical and chemical features are often captured in the form of AE signals.

Taking a case study of an agglomeration process within a mix drum, this paper presents the development of a signal processing framework that can be used to estimate the PSD (particle size distribution) from the acquired AE signal. The AE signal is then used to feed into a process model that can be used to self-regulate the machinery in real time.

The results have shown that the AE signal can be reliably classified into Small and Big by filtering out the high amplitude signals. The signal can also be reliably tracked over time, allowing the machine to recognize when the PSD changes and adjust the processing parameters accordingly.