Background
A wide variety of products such as medicinal tablets, tool inserts, electronic components, automobile parts, and food pellets are manufactured by subjecting a fixed mass or volume of dry cohesive particulate material, poured into a die, to high pressures. This technique is referred to as compaction or pelletization. The quality of the product made by pelletization is recognized to be dependent upon many factors such as intrinsic material properties, particulate material properties, nature of applied load, and die geometry. Many pelletization defects such as lamination, capping, and stress cracking, are caused by anisotropic compaction of the particulate material. Anisotropic compaction also contributes to non-uniform pre-compaction fill density of the particulate material in the die.

Invention Description
The subject invention represents a relatively low cost, compact, robust, and portable test equipment designed to solve the problem of determining pre-compaction fill density distribution in dies. This invention is based on the principle that an anisotropic fill density distribution would result in an uneven particulate vertical pressure distribution on the inside face of the bottom surface of the die.

File Number: 1707