Clients often come to us with questions like, “Why won’t my powder come out faster? I even tried speeding up the feeder!” or “Why is my powder flowing out of my hopper like a liquid?” Very frustrating!

These strange behaviors – problems with “not enough flow” when fine powders are rate-limited and won’t discharge any faster, or “way too much flow” when powders act like liquids and flood uncontrolled through the process – are all too common in processes across a variety of industries, including chemicals, cement, consumer products, food products, pharmaceutical production, powdered metals, and even in battery manufacturing.

At Jenike & Johanson, we refer to these behaviors of fine powders as “two-phase” flow interactions, where the two phases are (1) the powder and (2) interstitial air or gas. When not properly accounted for, two-phase flow interactions of powders can be highly problematic and result in product loss, quality control problems, process non-uniformity and segregation, decreased production rates, and significant safety and maintenance concerns.

Join Senior Project Engineer Josh Marion of Jenike & Johanson while he discusses why these fine powder flow problems occur, how they can be predicted, and how they can be prevented.