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Sieving metal powders: Using ultrasonic deblinding to sieve powders
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Application
Filtration+Separation October 2008
Sieving metal powders:
Using ultrasonic deblinding to sieve powders B
oth an international producer of materials for the chemistry and metallurgy industry and a titanium and alloy powders supplier for the medical industry were in need of a system to sieve metal powders. Looking to remove contaminants and reduce particle sizes through sieving, they turned to filtration and separation specialists Russell Finex for the ultrasonic deblinding equipment to do this.
Treibacher Industrie AG, an international producer of materials for the chemistry and metallurgy industry, produces ingredients such as Tungsten, Tantal, Niobium, Titanium and mixed carbides, Ticarbonitrides and special carbides for high wear-resistant tools and parts. Used across the world, these ingredients are needed for a diverse range of products such as car paint, dental fillings, steel and casting products, hard metals, functional ceramics, coatings, catalysts and detergents. With so many ingredients being manufactured on a high scale, Treibacher is committed to attaining the highest quality standards. With ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accreditation, Treibacher aims to maintain the quality of its products, environment and staff.
Sieving fine powders In order to ensure high product quality, Treibacher try to use the best processing methods available. One quality assurance step is sieving its powders. This enables the company to remove contaminants and supply particle sizes as specified by its end customers. However, as is common with many fine powders, Treibacher noticed that sieving at fine mesh sizes posed a challenge to supplying high volumes at repeatable qualities. Due to the nature and characteristics of the particulates of many powders, particles can often clog the mesh
frame, reducing sieving efficiency and damaging the equipment.
Continual development Looking to find a solution to this, in 1989 Treibacher installed filtration and separation specialists, Russell Finex’s, ultrasonic deblinding technology on its sieving machines, and was one of the first companies to do so. Since then, this technology has proved indispensable in allowing Treibacher to manufacture its specialised metal powders. The company has upgraded Russell Finex’s ultrasonic equipment each time it has undergone considerable developments. One such development was the Vibrasonic® Deblinding System, ultrasonic vibration technology which ensures the sieve mesh stays free of clogging, even at the finest sizes. The result is consistently high throughput, enabling for finer and more precise sieving than many other deblinding methods currently available. Treibacher has also successfully used Russell Finex sieves and separators for its high valued powders as they achieve the same level of quality. Russell machines and the Vibrasonic® Deblinding System can also adapt to different products, and therefore companies using a range of products range are able to use the technology. The latest Vibrasonic® 2000 Deblinding System, allows for the settings of the ultrasonics and base machine to be adjusted, and tuning the system can accommodate the characteristics of particular
Russell Finex Vibrasonic® Deblinding System.
The Finex Separator™ with Vibrasonic® Deblinding System.
Application
Filtration+Separation October 2008
powders. With this feature Treibacher can maintain product quality for very fine particle sizes, essential for sieving materials such as nitrides used as coatings for cutting tools and medical technologies. Treibacher have recently invested in the expansion of its production line manufacturing Tungsten Carbide, and operations manager Jürgen Eckhart, wanted to ensure the company selected Finex SeparatorsTM and Vibrasonic® Deblinding Systems to help meet its new requirements. In addition to providing technology to sieve metal powders, Russell Finex products have helped fine raw powder producers optimise particle size distribution, throughput and material recoverability.
Producing fine grade powders As an aging population requires more hip, knee and teeth replacements, suppliers to the growing medical implant industry are noticing an increased demand for fine grade titanium. Whereas powders in the range of 150 µm/100 mesh are suitable for many industries, the medical field requires even finer material, and many suppliers, such as Reading Alloys, a provider of high purity titanium and specialty alloy powders, is responding to demand. “Medical customers such as plasma spray coaters increasingly require unique particle size distributions (PSD) below 75 µm/ above 200 mesh because they are looking to produce very fine coatings to help join bone to the implant surface,” explained Dr. Colin McCracken, development manager of powder products at Reading Alloys. “This is often the case for fine grade powders where laser PSD measurement is preferred.” According to Dr. McCracken, different coating process equipment and process routes require, exceptionally narrow PSD for fine powder to correctly bond with the implant surface. Medical coating users often choose five or more PSD specifications depending on the medical device treated. To satisfy this need, Reading Alloys sought to ramp up its capacity to produce titanium and alloy powders from 300 µm/50 mesh to 45 µm/325 mesh. However, the company noticed its existing vibratory screeners were experiencing problems attaining the necessary particle size distributions, throughput, and material recoverability.
Achieving particle size “It was difficult to prevent the screeners from blinding, especially at the finer mesh sizes,” said Charles Motchenbacher, technology manager for Reading Alloys. “We tried using a ball deck to agitate the bottom of the screens, but this contaminated the
The Russell Vibrasonic® Deblinding System being used at the Reading Alloy plant, with one of the company’s existing screener.
undersized powder, so it could not be used.” Screening multiple times lengthened the company’s manufacturing process, which hindered its high production, 24 hour/ seven days a week operation. In search of a solution, Reading Alloys decided to install an ultrasonic screening deblinding system from Russell Finex of Pineville, North Carolina, USA. The Vibrasonic 2000® system has been designed to enhance screening efficiency and is ATEX certified to operate within areas designated as zone 20, 21, 22, 0, 1 and 2. The system uses a combination of ultrasonics and conventional vibration and can be retrofitted onto any new or existing vibrating separator or screener. By using an acoustically developed transducer, an ultrasonic frequency is applied directly to the screener mesh to break down surface tension, effectively rendering the stainless steel wires friction free. This eliminates mesh blinding and enables accurate separation down to 20µm on even difficult powders, while maintaining product consistency. Downtime is also reduced and screen life prolonged as the machine does not have to be stopped for operators to manually clean and handle the mesh. “The Vibrasonic system has helped eliminate blinding at the fine mesh sizes/ narrow particle size distributions required by the medical market, all the way to 45 µm/325 mesh,” said Motchenbacher. “It has enhanced our material throughput to the point where we can meet specified
requirements in virtually a single screening pass, while improving material recoverability.” Motchenbacher highlights the ultrasonic screener deblinding system’s ease of operation and its ability to provide precise control over the production process. “By attuning the system’s controls to meet the different setups of our material and equipment, this has enabled us to match speed and feeding parameters to our processes,” commented Motchenbacher. “As a result, we have optimised production.” “With the Vibrasonic system, we have been able to work with medical customers to achieve their specifications for fine powders and tight particle size distributions,” added Dr. McCracken. “Any manufacturing process requiring precise, efficient screening below 150 µm or above 100 mesh should consider such a system.” After inventing ultrasonic deblinding of meshes over 30 years ago, Russell Finex’s Vibrasonic technology is now used in the processing of metal powders, pharmaceuticals, food, chemical powders, toner powders, electrostatic powder paints, ceramics and in a variety of industries.
•
Contact: Russell Finex Ltd Russell House Browells Lane Feltham Middlesex, UK TW13 7EW E-mail: [email protected] www.russellfinex.com
41
Application
Filtration+Separation October 2008
Sieving metal powders:
Using ultrasonic deblinding to sieve powders B
oth an international producer of materials for the chemistry and metallurgy industry and a titanium and alloy powders supplier for the medical industry were in need of a system to sieve metal powders. Looking to remove contaminants and reduce particle sizes through sieving, they turned to filtration and separation specialists Russell Finex for the ultrasonic deblinding equipment to do this.
Treibacher Industrie AG, an international producer of materials for the chemistry and metallurgy industry, produces ingredients such as Tungsten, Tantal, Niobium, Titanium and mixed carbides, Ticarbonitrides and special carbides for high wear-resistant tools and parts. Used across the world, these ingredients are needed for a diverse range of products such as car paint, dental fillings, steel and casting products, hard metals, functional ceramics, coatings, catalysts and detergents. With so many ingredients being manufactured on a high scale, Treibacher is committed to attaining the highest quality standards. With ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 accreditation, Treibacher aims to maintain the quality of its products, environment and staff.
Sieving fine powders In order to ensure high product quality, Treibacher try to use the best processing methods available. One quality assurance step is sieving its powders. This enables the company to remove contaminants and supply particle sizes as specified by its end customers. However, as is common with many fine powders, Treibacher noticed that sieving at fine mesh sizes posed a challenge to supplying high volumes at repeatable qualities. Due to the nature and characteristics of the particulates of many powders, particles can often clog the mesh
frame, reducing sieving efficiency and damaging the equipment.
Continual development Looking to find a solution to this, in 1989 Treibacher installed filtration and separation specialists, Russell Finex’s, ultrasonic deblinding technology on its sieving machines, and was one of the first companies to do so. Since then, this technology has proved indispensable in allowing Treibacher to manufacture its specialised metal powders. The company has upgraded Russell Finex’s ultrasonic equipment each time it has undergone considerable developments. One such development was the Vibrasonic® Deblinding System, ultrasonic vibration technology which ensures the sieve mesh stays free of clogging, even at the finest sizes. The result is consistently high throughput, enabling for finer and more precise sieving than many other deblinding methods currently available. Treibacher has also successfully used Russell Finex sieves and separators for its high valued powders as they achieve the same level of quality. Russell machines and the Vibrasonic® Deblinding System can also adapt to different products, and therefore companies using a range of products range are able to use the technology. The latest Vibrasonic® 2000 Deblinding System, allows for the settings of the ultrasonics and base machine to be adjusted, and tuning the system can accommodate the characteristics of particular
Russell Finex Vibrasonic® Deblinding System.
The Finex Separator™ with Vibrasonic® Deblinding System.
Application
Filtration+Separation October 2008
powders. With this feature Treibacher can maintain product quality for very fine particle sizes, essential for sieving materials such as nitrides used as coatings for cutting tools and medical technologies. Treibacher have recently invested in the expansion of its production line manufacturing Tungsten Carbide, and operations manager Jürgen Eckhart, wanted to ensure the company selected Finex SeparatorsTM and Vibrasonic® Deblinding Systems to help meet its new requirements. In addition to providing technology to sieve metal powders, Russell Finex products have helped fine raw powder producers optimise particle size distribution, throughput and material recoverability.
Producing fine grade powders As an aging population requires more hip, knee and teeth replacements, suppliers to the growing medical implant industry are noticing an increased demand for fine grade titanium. Whereas powders in the range of 150 µm/100 mesh are suitable for many industries, the medical field requires even finer material, and many suppliers, such as Reading Alloys, a provider of high purity titanium and specialty alloy powders, is responding to demand. “Medical customers such as plasma spray coaters increasingly require unique particle size distributions (PSD) below 75 µm/ above 200 mesh because they are looking to produce very fine coatings to help join bone to the implant surface,” explained Dr. Colin McCracken, development manager of powder products at Reading Alloys. “This is often the case for fine grade powders where laser PSD measurement is preferred.” According to Dr. McCracken, different coating process equipment and process routes require, exceptionally narrow PSD for fine powder to correctly bond with the implant surface. Medical coating users often choose five or more PSD specifications depending on the medical device treated. To satisfy this need, Reading Alloys sought to ramp up its capacity to produce titanium and alloy powders from 300 µm/50 mesh to 45 µm/325 mesh. However, the company noticed its existing vibratory screeners were experiencing problems attaining the necessary particle size distributions, throughput, and material recoverability.
Achieving particle size “It was difficult to prevent the screeners from blinding, especially at the finer mesh sizes,” said Charles Motchenbacher, technology manager for Reading Alloys. “We tried using a ball deck to agitate the bottom of the screens, but this contaminated the
The Russell Vibrasonic® Deblinding System being used at the Reading Alloy plant, with one of the company’s existing screener.
undersized powder, so it could not be used.” Screening multiple times lengthened the company’s manufacturing process, which hindered its high production, 24 hour/ seven days a week operation. In search of a solution, Reading Alloys decided to install an ultrasonic screening deblinding system from Russell Finex of Pineville, North Carolina, USA. The Vibrasonic 2000® system has been designed to enhance screening efficiency and is ATEX certified to operate within areas designated as zone 20, 21, 22, 0, 1 and 2. The system uses a combination of ultrasonics and conventional vibration and can be retrofitted onto any new or existing vibrating separator or screener. By using an acoustically developed transducer, an ultrasonic frequency is applied directly to the screener mesh to break down surface tension, effectively rendering the stainless steel wires friction free. This eliminates mesh blinding and enables accurate separation down to 20µm on even difficult powders, while maintaining product consistency. Downtime is also reduced and screen life prolonged as the machine does not have to be stopped for operators to manually clean and handle the mesh. “The Vibrasonic system has helped eliminate blinding at the fine mesh sizes/ narrow particle size distributions required by the medical market, all the way to 45 µm/325 mesh,” said Motchenbacher. “It has enhanced our material throughput to the point where we can meet specified
requirements in virtually a single screening pass, while improving material recoverability.” Motchenbacher highlights the ultrasonic screener deblinding system’s ease of operation and its ability to provide precise control over the production process. “By attuning the system’s controls to meet the different setups of our material and equipment, this has enabled us to match speed and feeding parameters to our processes,” commented Motchenbacher. “As a result, we have optimised production.” “With the Vibrasonic system, we have been able to work with medical customers to achieve their specifications for fine powders and tight particle size distributions,” added Dr. McCracken. “Any manufacturing process requiring precise, efficient screening below 150 µm or above 100 mesh should consider such a system.” After inventing ultrasonic deblinding of meshes over 30 years ago, Russell Finex’s Vibrasonic technology is now used in the processing of metal powders, pharmaceuticals, food, chemical powders, toner powders, electrostatic powder paints, ceramics and in a variety of industries.
•
Contact: Russell Finex Ltd Russell House Browells Lane Feltham Middlesex, UK TW13 7EW E-mail: [email protected] www.russellfinex.com
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