SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF METALLIC POWDERS : A COMPARISON OF DIGITAL IMAGING AND LASER DIFFRACTION

Automated image analysis of particles under controlled orientation (SIA) is becoming a challenging technique for laser diffraction (LD) in the field of sizing metallic particles above 5 μm. Thanks to optimal particle dispersion and fully automated microscopic imaging, it is now possible to gather individual measurements on thousands of particles within a minute. The aim of this paper is to compare results obtained with both image analysis and laser diffraction from a selection of powders (figure 1) in the range between 5 μm and 250 μm.