Case Studies

Powder Processing & Technology, LLC was invited to develop a process for a revolutionary material used as a electrode in a metal smelting furnace application. The conventional process was environmentally insensitive and had relatively high operating expenses due to energy costs and expensive consumable materials that had a short life cycle. Our customer’s new material technology was more energy efficient, very environmentally friendly and exhibited a longer life. The customer was in the development stage, but did not have the ceramics processing background or the facility to produce pilot quantities.

The customer developed the composition in the lab and tested it in a simulated small smelting furnace. They wanted to test their material in a proto-type production unit which would provide a more realistic test environment. PPT’s Innovative Materials Center had appropriately sized equipment to handle the initial scaling of the process.

The next challenge the customer faced was caused by the requirement that material or process modifications for the actual application needed several hundred thousand pounds of material for each trial. The technical input from the PPT engineering team was invaluable to this massive scale up because the customer had a limited understanding of the processing of ceramic powders. The process required raw material formulating, batching, calcining, milling, and spray drying of their patented materials. The final blended powder was sent out for pressing into the desired form and then returned to PPT for sintering in our tunnel kiln in both air and atmosphere conditions. PPT was able to sinter very large parts with few physical defects by precise control of binder burn-off, heating and cooling.

The customer was very satisfied with PPT’s powder processing technology, quality control, and data collection. PPT provided numerous trials in the Innovative Materials Center until the customer finalized the material composition before the production scale up. Even during mass production, the customer benefitted from our flexibility in processing and scheduling whenever they needed to change their plans or modify their material.

The entire program was carried out under a non-disclosure agreement and the intellectual property protected to the satisfaction of the client.

Powder Processing & Technology, LLC was presented with a new and innovative battery material that could potentially revolutionize the rechargeable battery market. This new material did not present the usual potential to overheat and catch fire if charging were done too rapidly or the battery case damaged. The customer had manufactured small quantities in the lab but was unable to scale up to prototype production quantities that would permit them to get batteries into the real world for testing.

PPT saw the problem needed to be addressed in two steps. First, produce the battery material in small innovative materials center quantities to verify we had the capability to duplicate the technology. Second, to manufacture the innovative material in prototype production quantities that would permit the customer to manufacture cells and ultimately batteries for evaluation by some of their major customers.

Per the above, the first goal was to manufacture the material in small quantities of several kg to duplicate at the PPT facility what the customer had developed.

This involved getting from the customer the exact raw materials used in their location, and verifying that these could be purchased ultimately in large production quantities. Once done, we decided on a lab process that was thought to be able to be scaled up to prototype production quantities using equipment available at PPT. The process involved blending the raw materials, specialized grinding of the raw materials, inert atmosphere firing of the raw materials, and a final grind of the finished product to the customers required size.

After several iterations, PPT was successful in the lab scale duplication.

Now the challenge was to produce prototype production quantities on the order of several hundred kg per week of the quality needed to meet their short term battery requirements. In addition PPT was required to test the battery material using test methods that were new to PPT.

The customer transferred appropriate test equipment to PPT and trained our technical staff to do the needed electrochemical testing.

From the knowledge learned during pilot scale manufacturing, PPT was able to readily transfer the manufacturing to larger sized equipment capable of producing the prototype production quantities. After a couple of iterations the quality was realized and PPT was routinely producing the quality and quantity that the customer needed to qualify this material in the marketplace.

Powder Processing & Technology, LLC was presented with a ceramic mullite type material whose use was very unique in the refractories industry. The material was being manufactured in Europe and because of the unfavorable exchange rate at the time, was becoming prohibitively expensive to import into the United States.

So PPT was asked to duplicate this material and produce it in very large production quantities at a price competitive or better than the import price of the OEM material.

As usual, the first part of the program was to manufacture the material in pilot scale quantities. The problem was to locate and use North American raw materials that were competitively priced and could develop the exact quality of the finished product as the OEM material from Europe. This was not an easy task as it was determined there were at least 7 raw materials being used in the formulation with interactions between each.

Once knowledgeable about the general type of raw materials the OEM manufacturer was using, PPT was able to locate and procure a range of similar raw materials that had the possibility of producing a similar final product. The key was the pricing of the raw materials as a few pennies were critical to making this program a success.

While pilot scale quantities could not be sampled to the customer for actual testing due to the inability of our Innovative Materials Center spray dryer to produce the required particle size, pilot scale development was critical to develop the correct formulation. Refractory materials are typically pressed in a compacting die, and the part sintered at a high temperature to develop the needed density, porosity, strength, and size after sintering. Many iterations were needed in our Innovative Materials Center to duplicate all of these requirements and still be cost competitive.

Once we felt we had the correct formulation, it was now time to manufacture a several metric ton lot in our production equipment.

While our production spray dryer normally produces production at the rate of tens of thousands of pounds per day, it is adaptable to run a few thousand pounds of trial materials. This permits both PPT and the customer to produce true production materials in reasonable quantities at reasonable prices.

Several iterations were necessary, but PPT was able to very closely duplicate the OEM material.

Powder Processing & Technology, LLC was presented with a patented novel EMI absorbing composite material that would be used to make distributed networks in both automotive and consumable electronics. The purpose of this material development was for suppression of electromagnet/radio (EMI/RFI) interference. With proper metallization, surface mount or feed-through filter elements could be fabricated with attenuation characteristics continuing out to gigahertz frequencies. Several patents had been filed for this composite material and its unique component design by our customer, the R&D Center for one of the big three US automotive manufacturing companies.

Although the customer developed the composite material, it was all in bench-top lab scale. The customer did not have the necessary scale up equipment or the industrial powder processing technology.

PPT had established a good reputation in manufacturing of quality NiZn ferrite powders when this customer approached us. This was after they had been disappointed with one of their component manufacturers who had a powder facility and then was awarded a license to produce composite components.

As we had experienced on many occasions, the very first 14 kg sample was qualified by the customer, so we jumped on 227 kg Pilot Plant scale production. The challenge was to be compatible to the counterpart material in composite. The counterpart material alone was already established in the market so change in that material did not seem to be an option. However, the customer decided to keep PPT's material and persuaded the counterpart to modify their material to be compatible to PPT's since ours showed superior characteristics that the customer would not want to trade.

The process involved raw materials formulating, calcining, milling, and spray drying and then blending homogeneously with the counterpart. PPT has been awarded a license to produce this novel composite material from this success.

Powder Processing & Technology, LLC was presented with a material that would be used in existing commercial fuel cells to vastly improve their longevity before needing major refurbishments. While not a new material, the unique processing presented the opportunity to vastly improve the homogeneity and uniformity of the grain structure and to potentially improve the lifetime of the cell within the fuel cell.

As usual, the first part of the program was to manufacture the material in pilot scale quantities using similar methods as the customer. Unfortunately the customer had performed all initial development in gram size quantities rather than reasonably sized real world development quantities.

It was quickly determined that the customer's method of manufacture was not adaptable to the real world. Accordingly a realistic method of production had to be developed that would be scalable to production quantities and throughputs.

Using existing blending and calcining equipment at PPT, and within a reasonable time frame, we were able to duplicate the quality of the customer's development material and well within their projected cost goals. Fortunately all measurement test requirements were within our existing test capabilities.

Now the goal was to scale up to meet the customer's production requirements. Several pieces of production sized equipment were lacking. An agreement was reached with the customer that PPT would fund the purchase of one of the items, and the customer would fund the purchase of the other, as it was particularly unique to their process.

Again within a reasonable time frame PPT was able to scale up our pilot quantity manufacturing process to a prototype production process that was capable of producing metric ton sizes lots, within the quality and cost requirements that the customer required.Although the customer developed the composite material, it was all in bench-top lab scale. The customer did not have the necessary scale up equipment or the industrial powder processing technology.

PPT had established a good reputation in manufacturing of quality NiZn ferrite powders when this customer approached us. This was after they had been disappointed with one of their component manufacturers who had a powder facility and then was awarded a license to produce composite components.

As we had experienced on many occasions, the very first 14 kg sample was qualified by the customer, so we jumped on 227 kg Pilot Plant scale production. The challenge was to be compatible to the counterpart material in composite. The counterpart material alone was already established in the market so change in that material did not seem to be an option. However, the customer decided to keep PPT's material and persuaded the counterpart to modify their material to be compatible to PPT's since ours showed superior characteristics that the customer would not want to trade.

The process involved raw materials formulating, calcining, milling, and spray drying and then blending homogeneously with the counterpart. PPT has been awarded a license to produce this novel composite material from this success.

Powder Processing & Technology, LLC was asked to develop low temperature sintering ferrite materials by a worldwide leading electronic component manufacturer. This material was for multi-layered co-firing chip inductors and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding beads for SMD applications. We named this material LSF (Low Temperature Sintering Ferrite). At the time of inquiry, there were no such raw materials commercially available while a few component manufacturers produced for their own consumption.

The challenge for this material development was to co-fire with silver electrode with a melting temperature of 963°C. The customer approached PPT since PPT was the biggest manufacturer of NiZn ferrite ready to press powders in the world. Although PPT had many years of experience producing NiZn ferrite powders, developing LSF sinterable at 900°C or lower was new at the time and the customer was not able to input any knowledge for such material development.

PPT began experimenting on various compositions, producing a few Kilograms each and evaluated electromagnetic properties after sintering pressed toroids at 900°C. The process parameters were fine-tuned after the selection of best composition.

Then PPT processed a 50 Kg sample for the customer's evaluation. The evaluation involved organic system selection, tape casting, silver printing on ferrite sheets, stacking, cutting, sintering, and plating, etc. The challenge was the ferrite powders had to be compatible to each process at the customer's site. The first attempt was a success, fortunately.

The next step was to produce a few hundred kilograms for the customer's fine tuning of their process and dispatching chip samples to end users. The challenge was to produce microscopically homogeneous material throughout the lot since the multilayered chip size was very small such as 16 x 32 mm. And now it's more challenging since chip size has been reduced to 1.0 x 0.5 mm. PPT has successfully produced mass quantities very homogeneously by using a big slurry holding tank with a capacity of 4.5 MT.

Since PPT achieved this first success, we have been able to develop 9 kinds of LSF materials and to commercialize 7 kinds for covering wide frequency range applications. One particular material among these is LSF220. More than 400 MT have been produced since it became commercially available in 1994 and it was the first of its kind in the world. Considering such small size chips, several hundred metric tons of LSF powders could generate an unaccountable number of chips.

We are pretty sure anyone who has small electronic gadgets such as a wireless phone has benefited from our materials. We are proud to be in your life!As usual, the first part of the program was to manufacture the material in pilot scale quantities using similar methods as the customer. Unfortunately the customer had performed all initial development in gram size quantities rather than reasonably sized real world development quantities.

It was quickly determined that the customer's method of manufacture was not adaptable to the real world. Accordingly a realistic method of production had to be developed that would be scalable to production quantities and throughputs.

Using existing blending and calcining equipment at PPT, and within a reasonable time frame, we were able to duplicate the quality of the customer's development material and well within their projected cost goals. Fortunately all measurement test requirements were within our existing test capabilities.

Now the goal was to scale up to meet the customer's production requirements. Several pieces of production sized equipment were lacking. An agreement was reached with the customer that PPT would fund the purchase of one of the items, and the customer would fund the purchase of the other, as it was particularly unique to their process.

Again within a reasonable time frame PPT was able to scale up our pilot quantity manufacturing process to a prototype production process that was capable of producing metric ton sizes lots, within the quality and cost requirements that the customer required.Although the customer developed the composite material, it was all in bench-top lab scale. The customer did not have the necessary scale up equipment or the industrial powder processing technology.

PPT had established a good reputation in manufacturing of quality NiZn ferrite powders when this customer approached us. This was after they had been disappointed with one of their component manufacturers who had a powder facility and then was awarded a license to produce composite components.

As we had experienced on many occasions, the very first 14 kg sample was qualified by the customer, so we jumped on 227 kg Pilot Plant scale production. The challenge was to be compatible to the counterpart material in composite. The counterpart material alone was already established in the market so change in that material did not seem to be an option. However, the customer decided to keep PPT's material and persuaded the counterpart to modify their material to be compatible to PPT's since ours showed superior characteristics that the customer would not want to trade.

The process involved raw materials formulating, calcining, milling, and spray drying and then blending homogeneously with the counterpart. PPT has been awarded a license to produce this novel composite material from this success.