In the world of chemical processing there are times when standard particle analysis equipment, which provides information about the number of particles and their spherical diameter, just isn’t enough. For these applications, imaging particle analysis goes above and beyond to deliver the speed of typical automated particle analyzers along with the detail and characterization capabilities of microscopy. To help interested persons learn more about this technology, an “Imaging Particle Analysis: A Primer” workshop will be held on Wednesday from 2 to 2:30 PM in Theater B. The presentation will showcase FlowCAM, a continuous imaging particle analysis system, which automatically characterizes different particle types in a heterogeneous sample using sophisticated pattern recognition software.
Workshop presenter, Lew Brown, director of marketing with Yarmouth, Maine-based Fluid Imaging Technologies, Inc. (Booth 616), says the educational workshop will bring attendees up to speed on the capabilities of an imaging particle analyzer. “Most people are familiar with particle analysis technologies such as electrozone sensing and laser diffraction systems, which are very good at counting particles and telling you how many are in a sample, as well as assigning a single number, called an equivalent spherical diameter, to each particle,” he says. “But these technologies work under the assumption that the world is made up of spheres. This is not a good assumption because most particles are not spheres and there are many applications that require knowledge concerning the actual particle shape.”
Similar to existing particle analysis technologies, imaging-particle-analysis technology can measure length and width of a particle and, if needed, compute spherical diameter. But what is different, according to Brown, is that the system takes a picture of every particle and that enables the analyzer to differentiate different particle shapes from each other. “Our system can actually determine, for instance, if there are 100 particles in the sample, how many are spherical and how many are rods,” explains Brown.
Previously people who needed information that went beyond particle size had to look at a sample through a microscope. This new technology automates that process. For example, Brown says Fluid Imaging Technologies has a customer who needed to use a microscope to examine fibers because the shape of the fibers was critical to the application. “The fibers looked like glass rods under a microscope and the critical parameter was the width of those fibers,” he says. “It took an operator 15 minutes to measure 50 fibers using traditional methods. With an imaging particle analyzer, in one minute they can now measure 50,000 of them.”
Plant personnel most interested in this presentation would include those involved in formulation or development of new chemicals or those looking at new uses for existing chemicals, as well as quality control personnel. “This technology allows QC [quality control] to become more proactive by looking at samples in realtime and to immediately adjust any process parameters that might be necessary based on the particle shape or number of particles versus doing it post process,” says Brown.
Joy LePree