Thanks to the heritage acquired in more than 40 years of academic research, ReActive – Powder Technology is capable to offer consultancy and services in several fields. Powder characterization, industrial issues due to disperse systems, raw material quality and supplier change do not represent a problem anymore.
Services for Industries
When using disperse systems at industrial level, several problems may arise. Small changes in the powder characteristics may imply reduced production rates, safety issues and lower quality of the final product. The ReActive – Powder Technology team can find out the problem and the causes of costumer’s powder related issues, leading the client toward the final solution.
Problems require a solution... through understanding!
The ReActive – Powder Technology team provides comprehensive services that are not limited to the filing of a technical report describing the problem and the solution. Our analysis methods and the consultancy protocols have been developed through years to lead the costumer to the comprehension of the problem, thus providing today’s solution and tomorrow’s prevention of its causes.
Do not wait for a damage... fix problems definitively!
QUALITY CONTROL & SUPPLIERS RESEARCH
ReActive – Powder Technology team is composed by engineers with technical background in the aerospace field and in the industry of energetic materials. In these applications the quality of the materials is crucial. Uniformity of different production batches, and of the key characteristics of products when producers are changed are of high importance for the satisfaction of tight requirements.
Independently from the field, quality control is of fundamental importance for companies. Starting from the aerospace field expertise, we developed our powder analysis skills to identify also small changes in the whole material life-cycle (pre- and post-production, transport, storage and recycling). This enables us to assist our costumers to identify new suppliers without time- and money-losses. Our activities are focused on product quality and production efficiency.
Finding new suppliers has never been so SIMPLE
ReActive – Powder Technology brings to the costumers a 40-year heritage in the aerospace field. We use analysis procedures developed studying the details of powder behavior, and selecting the best partners for specific analyses. We provide our costumers with all the relevant data on the used powders (and on those that could be used, based on the client needs and requirements).
Powder Safety
Safety is a primal concern when operating with powders, in particular if new ingredients or compositions are introduced. Possible risks include ingredient toxicity, and creation of flammable or exploding particle dusts.
The ReActive team assists costumers in the assessment of the reactivity of powders. Risks due to disperse systems are identified by procedures and methods developed thanks to the academic work on the characterization and use of energetic materials.
Material Characterization Services
ReActive – Powder Technology offers a wide range of material characterization techniques for powders and non-dispersed systems. The offered services make ReActive a solid partner for costumers requiring material properties enquiry.
Our team offers you detailed reports providing you all the relevant results and discussions, and not only a simple presentation of the findings. Reports by ReActive can be written in English, and (when needed) in other languages.
Theimplemented techniques and methods of analysis are based on a 40-year experience. The pursuit of high quality standards is reflected in the selection of our partners. Our aim is to provide the costumer the best characterization of the used materials.
Discover what we can do FOR YOU!
Particle morphology is a relevant feature for the understanding of powder packing, flowing behaviors and reactivity. For example, powder packing behavior is relevant for the generation of pastes with given particle loads, while the flowability of a disperse system influences the velocity of particles flowing in suspending media. The characterization of the morphology of a powder requires the description of the size and shape of particles, as well as an identification of their surface texture. The team of ReActive – Powder Technology has been developing ad hocmethods for the determination and concise description of the morphology of powders.
The shape of the particles is described by a microscopy-based technique for sizes down to 10 um. The method is not based on automated procedures. ReActive developed an operator-based technique to ease the recognition of possible contaminants and clusters of particles. The reproducibility of the results and the method consistency are granted through the definition of strict rules for the technique application. These rules have been developed through years of powder analysis for the analysis of solid propellants and fuels for space applications. In the morphology investigation, different non-dimensional parameters are used to provide a complete description of the shape of the granules of the powder.
Powder particle size distribution is obtained by laser granulometry. The method is implemented suiting it to the tested material so that aliasing and parasitic effects (as powder milling during the specimen feed to the machine) are avoided.
The surface of the particles is analyzed by qualitative as well as quantitative techniques. Optical and electron microscopy are implemented, and the information from these methods can be combined with specific surface measurement by sorption. When special methods are required due to the characteristics of the powder, our team selects the most suitable methods for the investigation from the portfolio of our partners. Our only aim is to provide our costumers with the best service.
Particle microstructure is of primary ineterst. Some powders, for example, are coated with other substances to preserve their phisico-chemical properties. Metal particles feature a typical core-shell structure: the particle metal core is surrounded by an oxide layer. The latter is purposely created during the powder production, in order to passivate the metal core, preventing its (undesired) reaction with the environment. These particle surface treatments enable to tailor the particle reactivity, granule surface wet ability, and powder behavior during storage (i.e., aging). On the other hand, the presence of these shells limit the active metal metal content in the particles and in the powder. ReActive selects the most effective techniques to provide a detailed insight of the microstructure of the particles. Each technique is selected considering the nature of the particle and the specific needs of the customer.
The actual composition of a powder includes the mass (or molar) fraction of the elements and compounds nominally present, and contaminants. The mass (or molar) mass fraction of the contaminants may influence the powder behavior, its compatibility with other ingredients, and the environmental impact of the powder. Our team selects the most suitable experimental diagnostics to provide the costumers with details on the particle composition and the presence/type of contaminants. Moreover, ReActive – Powder Technology gives access to experimental analyses providing details on the location of the impurities (i.e, surface or bulk of particle structure).
Materials change their properties through time, in particular when stored in unsuitable conditions. Thus, the investigation of the effects of time and of the storage temperature and humidity conditions is of crucial importance. The ReActive team developed different accelerated aging procedures to investigate the effects of storage conditions on powder composition and surface characteristics. Thus, different aging methods and powder diagnostics are implemented to provide the costumer with the relevant information.
Powder may undergo different reactions during their life cycle. Some of these reactions are intended (e.g., oxidation of a metal fuel in a solid propellant composition) while others are undesired (e.g., pot-life reduction in the preparation of thermosetting polymers loaded with powders, ignition of particles accidentally suspended in air). The assessment of powder reactivity is therefore crucial for safety and to grant maximum and uniform final product quality. ReActive – Powder Technology has a strong heritage in the investigation of the reactivity of materials thanks to decades of activity in the study of high energy density materials. Our team masters thermal analysis techniques at slow and fast heating rates detecting fundamental properties like the ignition temperature. This enables us to provide our costumers with details on the ignition temperature of powders, and on the reactions occurring when a material is dispersed in a suspending medium. Detailed investigation on the thermal behavior of materials provide useful data to understand also the mechanical properties of fillers, and the behavior of powders for specific applications as additive manufacturing.