Powder and Bulk Solids Engineering Guides

Coperion K-Tron built two mobile batch-feeding stations for Johnson Matthey.

Each unit docks for vacuum refill, then moves between mixers, so one feeder serves several process points.

Solukon’s SFM-PCU collects recovered metal powder after automated depowdering.

An integrated vacuum conveyor draws the powder from a sensor-monitored pickup point through a hose into a level-monitored 50 L container, creating a closed handoff toward recycling.

Two Piab piFLOW f vacuum conveyors took over the transfer of corn-seed coating powder at Bayer Hungaria's Nagyigmánd plant, replacing manual movement of 25 kg bags to equipment 20 m above floor level.

Piab reports a requested rate of 350 kg/h and a maximum achieved rate of 440 kg/h after commissioning.

Repco replaced the bucket elevator between its mixer and packaging line with a Coperion K-Tron Omniveyor dense-phase pressure-vessel system.

Full-scale trials at the Bulk Solids Innovation Center, operated with Kansas State University, showed that representative premix blends transfer without the segregation the old process caused.

Choose dense-phase pneumatic conveying only after the material, flow regime, complete pipe route and acceptance limits have been tested together.

A low conveying velocity on its own proves very little: stability depends on permeability, air retention, pressure gradient and route, and representative loop testing is normally the deciding evidence.

Size a rotary valve from required mass flow, not from valve diameter: convert mass flow to volume with a realistic bulk-density range, then match that volume to pocket displacement, speed, and an evidence-based fill factor.

Selection also depends on pressure differential, leakage tolerance, temperature, wear, cleanability, and safety constraints.

Diagnose rotary airlock problems from the symptom and the full process context, not from the valve alone.

Leakage, jamming, wear, product damage, and unstable capacity can originate in the valve, the handled material, the pressure conditions, or connected equipment.

Select a vacuum conveying system from measured material behavior and a written duty, not from pipe diameter alone.

The design basis states the required rate, route, lift, pickup method, destination pressure, cleaning expectation and hazard controls.

Pharmaceutical continuous manufacturing integrates material feeding and one or more processing steps into a continuously operating system.

Product quality depends on stable mass flow, residence time behavior, process monitoring, and the ability to trace and divert affected material.

Pfizer’s HighCon facility in Freiburg is a highly automated, high-containment oral-solid-dose plant that connects powder handling, production and packaging.

Pfizer reported an investment of almost €300 million and up to seven billion additional tablets and capsules per year when the plant opened in May 2022.

A reliable pneumatic conveying design starts with representative material testing and a complete process duty.

The conveying regime, pressure or vacuum arrangement, feed method, pipe route, air mover, receiver, filtration, controls, and protection concept are then selected as one system.