New analyser from Stable

UK manufacturer of testing instrumentation Stable Micro Systems​is to launch the powder flow analyser at Powtech/Technopharm this year. The company claims that the new instrument can help manufacturers avoid problems such as batch and source variation of ingredients, caking during storage, bridging in hoppers and sticking during production.

The powder flow analyser can be used to assess any product capable of flow. Samples are conditioned at the beginning to eliminate any variations in loading, and the patented blade is then rotated through the sample, causing "controlled flow". Sophisticated mixing and testing cycles enable users to test their products in realistic conditions. During a caking test, for instance, compaction of the sample forms a cake-like layer of powder which can then be analysed, giving an indication of how the sample may flow out of a silo after prolonged storage.

Users of the powder flow analyser can fully program the instrument to carry out slicing, shearing, compressing, compacting, mixing and aerating cycles in any combination, and in any sequence.

Testing is possible with very small sample volumes. The samples are placed in a borosilicate glass sample vessel allowing users to monitor what is happening to the powder as the sample is displaced. During the test, axial force, time and distance are measured by a sensitive transducer and data is displayed and analysed in real time by 16 or 32 bit software. Manufacturers can test characteristics such as mixing kinetics, granule surface friction, resistance to compression and particle cohesion after compaction. The results from different samples can be ranked and compared to assess the impact of external conditions including batch or source variation, humidity and moisture content, surface properties, electrostatic charge and particle or granule size, shape and distribution.