Spray drying technology for production of hardmetal powder and tungsten carbide
GEA Niro is a world leader in spray drying technology for production of hardmetal powders with expertise gained from more than 125 plants supplied to the hardmetal industry.
Spray drying is the preferred technology for production of ready-to-press hardmetal (tungsten carbide) powders and is applied by most of the industry because of its ability to control particle formation, and because it gives a free-flowing powder in a single operation.
GEA Niro has the knowledge and competences to supply plants complying with the highest requirements for powder quality; particle size distribution, residual moisture content, bulk density, particle morphology and other product related requirements as well as to plant efficiency and reliability.
GEA Niro’s product range includes spray dryers in open configurations for water-based materials and closed cycle configurations for solvent-based materials. The closed cycle spray dryers come in sizes ranging from a production capacity of 60- 600 kg/h. - all pre-erected and tested before shipment.
Advantages of GEA Niro plants for spray drying of hardmetals The hardmetal particles are very heavy and in order to keep the particles in suspension, it is necessary to use a feed tank with agitation. The feed tanks used for the hardmetal spray drying plants are specially designed to deal with this issue.
A fluid pressure nozzle is used to atomize the hard metal suspension. The nozzle is placed pointing upwards in the conical part of the drying chamber. This allows that the spray can be dried without semi-wet deposits in drying chambers of limited volume.
A PC/PLC based operator system with recipe colour pop-up menus are used to control and monitor the plant operation, ensuring the constant conditions necessary to obtain a reproducible free-flowing press body powder of high uniform quality.
All GEA Niro plants comply with the strictest requirements to health, safety and environmental compliance. GEA Niro’s expertise in explosion control design is unequaled and an invaluable aid whether looking at ATEX, other European safety directives or at local regulations.
An advantage of operating with an inert atmosphere is the reduced risk of oxidation degradation of the hard metal powder and the reduced emission of solvents and solids.
The closed cycle drying plants for hardmetals supplied by GEA Niro also include automatic CIP (Cleaning-In-Place) of the essential parts.
Hardmetals
Hardmetals are most often carbides primarily of tungsten. Hardmetals are typically used for manufacturing of cutting or mining tools, but hardmetal powder can also be used to spray coat other materials.
Hardmetal powders for cutting and mining tools are mainly produced as ready-to-press powder in one single drying operation from a formulated suspension of hardmetals.
Brochures
Hard Metal Powders
Drying and Particle Formation Technologies
Pilot & small-scale spray dryers