Shaping up for improved product performance

Major advances in digital imaging technology have accelerated the development of fully automated, high-speed systems for the sensitive measurement of particle shape as well as particle size. Replacing laborious, unrepresentative and largely unworkable manual methods, these new systems are opening up a whole range of possibilities for improving product and process understanding and control.

Many industries require the ability to accurately char acterize particulate materials. Sometimes the correlation between particle size or shape and a product property or behaviour is known and understood. However, in many instances it is not. This is mainly because, until recently, the analytical tools capable of identifying subtle relative differences between samples were not available.

Particle shape can influence significantly the physical characteristics and behaviour of a wide range of materials. So much so, that shape analysis is now routinely applied in the pharmaceuticals, toner, abrasive, ceramic and column packing industries to support optimization of product and process performance. The use of image analysis-based systems that not only provide size and morphological information on individual particles, but also store high resolution images of each, is becoming widespread. This capacity for visual inspection brings further insight into the process, allowing for example the detection of broken particles, agglomerates and fines.

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