An Indian company specializing in metal powder production mainly manufactures 316L and 304 stainless steel powders, widely used in 3D printing, powder metallurgy, and metal injection molding (MIM). However, the customer faced clear bottlenecks in their existing stainless steel powder classification process:
- Feed particle size: < 69 μm, with ultrafine particles < 10 μm accounting for 25–30%
- Product requirement: More than 97% of particles > 10 μm (i.e., < 10 μm fines < 3%)
- Traditional vibrating screen + air classifier systems showed low efficiency, unstable capacity, high energy consumption, and poor fine powder recovery, resulting in significant raw material waste.
Project Requirements
The customer aimed to:
- Remove < 10 μm ultrafine particles efficiently in a single step
- Retain > 10 μm coarse powder as qualified product
- Achieve a capacity ≥ 200 kg/h (based on 316L stainless steel powder)
- Stably control fine powder content within 2–3%
- Ensure excellent corrosion resistance for long-term stainless steel powder processing
Solution
In 2025, the customer introduced Epic Powder’s latest-generation HTS 100 Air Classifier, specifically designed for precision classification of stainless steel powder.
Main Equipment Specifications：
- Modèle: HTS 100
- Rotor diameter: 100 mm
- Applicable particle size range: 3–100 μm
- Capacity (stainless steel powder): 150–300 kg/h
- Material of construction: Full 316L stainless steel with ceramic lining (high wear and corrosion resistance)
Classification Performance
After on-site commissioning and optimization, the final operating parameters were as follows:
- Feed material: 316L stainless steel powder, D50 ≈ 25 μm, < 69 μm
- Classifier rotor speed: 12,500 rpm
- Cut point: D97 = 10.2 μm (< 10 μm fines ≤ 2.8%)
- Coarse product yield: approximately 72–75%
- Fine powder yield: approximately 25–28% (recoverable for other applications)
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