Characterising Powder Flow Properties for Pharmaceutical Applications

Freeman Technology specialises in systems for measuring the flow properties of powders and has over 20 years’ experience in powder flow and powder characterisation. The company invests significantly in R&D and applications development, and provides detailed know-how to support its range of products. Expert teams guide and support users around the world in addressing their individual powder challenges, focusing on delivering the most relevant information for the process. The result is world-leading solutions for understanding powder behaviour - in development, formulation, scale-up, processing, quality control, or anywhere that powders have a role. Freeman Technology’s solutions include the FT4 Powder Rheometer®, a uniquely universal powder tester, and the Uniaxial Powder Tester, a complementary tool for quick and robust powder assessment. Systems are installed around the world in the chemical, pharmaceutical, toners, foods, powder coatings, metals, ceramics, cosmetics, and many other industries. They deliver data that maximise process and product understanding, accelerating R&D and formulation towards successful commercialisation, and supporting the long term optimisation of powder processes. Founded in 1989 as a developer of automated testing systems for materials characterisation, the company has focused exclusively on powders since the late 1990s and in 2018 became part of Micromeritics Instrument Corporation.

Transitioning from ‘trial and error’ to a more cost-effective, sustainable approach with the FT4 Powder Rheometer® Researchers from De Montfort University (Leicester, UK) have successfully correlated the quality of 3D printed polyamide specimens with powder properties measured with the FT4 Powder Rheometer® from Freeman Technology paving the way to more cost-efficient, sustainable powder feedstock selection. Powders are currently selected for 3D printing via print trials, but these are costly, time-consuming, and wasteful. Key observations from this latest research are that the: * quality of polyamide 3D printed specimens is dependent on the packing efficiency and flowability of the associated powder feedstocks * packing efficiency and flowability can be reliably differentiated via the measurement of bulk and dynamic powder properties with the FT4 Powder Rheometer * key mechanical properties of printed specimens such as dimensional accuracy, tensile strength, and surface roughness correlate robustly with polyamide powder properties measurable with the FT4 Powder Rheometer In

Freeman Technology, the global leader in powder characterisation, will focus on the industrial value and application of the FT4 Powder Rheometer at POWTECH 2022, at Booth #3-532 (Shared with Micromeritics) Highlighting the industrial application of powder testing and demonstrable ROI. Freeman Technology, the global leader in powder characterisation, will focus on the industrial value and application of the FT4 Powder Rheometer® at POWTECH 2022 (Nuremberg, 27 – 29th September) sharing a portfolio of new case studies and introducing Dr Guy Stimpson, the company’s newest Applications Scientist. “It will be great to be back at POWTECH,” said Mr Jamie Clayton, Operations Director, Freeman Technology, “and we’re looking forward to introducing Guy to customers old and new. Since the last event in 2019 we’ve continued to advance our understanding of how the FT4 Powder Rheometer delivers a healthy return on investment, particularly in developing industries such as Additive Manufacturing and battery production. We’re grateful to FT4 users who help us rigorously explore value added and we enjoy sharing the resulting case studies with anyone wishing to learn

New Application Note from Freeman Technology draws together studies that illustrate the application of the FT4 within this context Powder manufacturers, powder reprocessors and users of additive manufacturing (AM) all share the need to optimise powders for superior print performance. Strategies for improving performance range from changing atomisation conditions to the application of proprietary rejuvenation processes but successful application relies on being able to robustly evaluate impact. Powder testing can be extremely cost-efficient, relative to a print trial, when it comes to addressing the critical issue of whether a proposed processing step or strategy delivers a worthwhile gain. A new application note, ‘Applications of the FT4 Powder Rheometer in Additive Manufacturing -Part 2’, now available from Freeman Technology, draws together studies that illustrate the application of the FT4 within this context. Experimental data from the case studies below, show how the instrument can relevantly quantify the impact of processing strategies to support the optimisation of AM powders. *

Using the FT4 Powder Rheometer® to answer the question ‘Can I print with this powder?’ Recently published papers (see references below) highlight the potential to use multiple properties measurable with the FT4 Powder Rheometer® from Freeman Technology, a Micromeritics company, to quantify an Additive Manufacturing Suitability (AMS) factor capable of ranking the printability of metal powders in laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) processes. Can I print with this powder? Answering the question ‘Can I print with this?’ is vital for those working with popular AM processes such as LPBF but can be surprisingly difficult. The AMS factor approach is simple, effective, and efficient. It combines dynamic, shear and bulk powder properties measured with the FT4 into a single metric to sensitively differentiate printability in a way that conventional powder testers cannot. This valuable approach is summarised in a new application note which is freely available for download. Measuring instead of trying AM powders, in development or alternative commercial supplies,