powder processing

Here’s the Nitty Gritty on Remeshing Your Old, Worn Out Fine Mesh Screen

Here’s the Nitty Gritty on Remeshing Your Old, Worn Out Fine Mesh Screen

By Jeff Hochadel

Oct 07

As a manufacturer of vibratory and ultrasonic screening systems, screen wear is a huge issue for any fine mesh equipment. One frequently asked question we get from customers is, “How often should I replace my screen or mesh frame?” That can be a complicated question to answer since there are many variables to consider, including:

What type of material are you screening?
How often and how long do you run your screening equipment?
What mesh are you using? i.e., How fine is the mesh or micron size?
Are you running your screener with ultrasonics?

What Is On Size Sieving?

By Jeff Hochadel

Jan 24

Many times, a customer’s problem with product throughput can be solved with some simple solutions. I am not going to discuss screener ball decks, screen rings, or ultrasonic sieving but rather some simple solutions for those applications where the powder wants to sieve but is just not going through the screen! First, let’s discuss on size sieving.

What is On Size Sieving?

On Size Sieving is a problem that occurs when the actual particle that should pass through your sieve or screen is just a hair too big or too small for the screen you’re using.

For example, the lab indicates that your sieve analysis shows 70% of your powder is passing through a 53-micron sieve (270 mesh), but you can only achieve 45% passing through the 270 mesh in production.

Small Batch Screening is Still a Big Deal

By Jeff Hochadel

Apr 09

The typical customer who calls or emails with a process question has either hundreds of pounds per hour or tons of material per hour to screen. Although these may be the majority of the applications, I do get many inquiries where the customer only has to process maybe 20 or 30lbs/hr. (or less) but still needs a vibratory screener. These small-batch screening applications are sometimes a little more challenging to solve than the typical large-batch application. Some applications may require a much finer mesh, there’s not much room to work with, or the material is extremely valuable. Besides our standard screeners, we also have the capability to manufacture a special screener around the customer’s process. I don’t know how many times I have seen an overly large vibratory screener handling an application where a screener half the size would suffice.

So, we first need to determine how much material the customer plans on running through the screener per hour or per shift, then we need to determine the mesh size requirements. We need to answer two questions: Read More…

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.

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The Nitty Gritty of 3D Printing & Powder Sieving

The Nitty Gritty of 3D Printing & Powder Sieving

By Jeff Hochadel

Jul 06

Here at HK Technologies, we have been sieving powder metal for quite some time. Our Ultrasonic Sieving Systems allow for sieving very fine atomized powders – down to 20 micron on conventional wire mesh and in some cases finer –using electroformed material provided by PrecisionForm, Inc. As the 3D printing industry has exploded, so has the need for finer powders. While I am no expert in the field of 3D printing, I have been involved in several areas requiring finer and finer mesh sieving.

Many of the 3D printing manufacturers install a very simple inline vibratory screener system in the powder feed system. These simple screeners typically sieve the powder through a 74 micron or 200 mesh screen. This ensures that no large foreign objects are being fed into the powder part building process. Many times the end-user needs finer powder to create the intricate parts they are producing. This powder is typically said to be +20 -25 micron powder. We are also told this powder is classified through an air classification process. The process, while quick and relatively easy, leaves a powder that is not always what it is claimed to be. When asked to check the accuracy of the particle size, we find there is almost always a significant amount, 10% or more, of finer material than claimed. Read More…

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.

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The 8 Steps of Ceramics Processing and Industrial Vibration

By CVC Team

Apr 06

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn vos Savant

You know those ceramic dishes your mom uses to serve Sunday dinner? What if I told you that Industrial Vibration played a part in making those dishes possible?

The Ceramics Industry covers a wide range of products from traditional ceramics, such as pottery and chinaware, to technical ceramics for chemical, mechanical or thermal applications. I will provide you with a brief overview of the manufacturing process of traditional ceramics. I will help you see where Industrial Vibration fits into the processes as well, so brace yourself; here we go!

What exactly is Ceramics?

Ceramics can be defined as a class of inorganic, nonmetallic solids that are subjected to high temperatures for manufacturing use. I spoke about the term “traditional ceramics” which will be the focus of this post. These are ceramic products that are produced from unrefined clay, and combinations of refined clay and powdered or granulated non-plastic minerals. This includes pottery, stoneware, chinaware, porcelain, etc. To create these end products, the ceramic matter needs to go through the traditional manufacturing process, which goes as follows:

The Importance of Product Testing for Fine Mesh Screening

By Jeff Hochadel

Dec 08

Many times a potential customer will call our office or email asking for a quote and delivery on a specific type of equipment. Our standard response involves asking the customer a series of questions ranging from what the product is, estimated throughput rates, percentage of plus and minus screen size, and others. We typically also ask for an application data sheet to be filled out. All this helps remove the guesswork out of equipment sizing. Sometimes the customer thinks he knows what is required based on past experience or what someone else has told him he needs. While many times these assumptions may be correct, we want to make sure what we sell the customer will ultimately meet or exceed their expectations. While filling out forms and asking questions definitely assists in proper screener selection, I have found asking for a sample of the product for in house testing eliminates all the guesswork out of the equipment selection process. If time permits and the customer requires we can also send out a demonstration model for a short in-house testing period.

Running tests on a sample or sending out a demonstration model will ultimately remove all the guesswork out of equipment selection. Read More…

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.

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Ultrasonic Sieving Solutions For Product Contamination Complications

Ultrasonic Sieving Solutions For Product Contamination Complications

By Jeff Hochadel

Sep 23

If you are familiar with ultrasonic sieving and have concerns over contamination of your product then this blog will grab your attention. Recently, one of our customers approached us with a difficult request. They needed to have an ultrasonic screener that consisted of 100% stainless steel contact parts. A traditional screener consisting of all stainless steel contact parts did not produce the yield and throughput needed for their process and inquired about providing a screener with ultrasonics. This request included the screen frame and the sieving surface (wire mesh) had to be free of any adhesives, etc.

Since our standard ultrasonic frames are machined aluminum this posed a challenge for us. Although we have tried making stainless steel screen frames in the past, the density of the stainless gave us some issues in transmitting out ultrasonics through the frame and across the screen surface. The second requirement of the screen surface is clear of any transducers which was an easy one for us since we currently do not attach our Read More…

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.

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Innovative Solutions to Industrial Fine Mesh Screening Challenges from Cleveland Vibrator Co.

Innovative Solutions to Industrial Fine Mesh Screening Challenges from Cleveland Vibrator Co.

By Jeff Hochadel

Feb 10

Over the years I have handled hundreds of sales calls. Some are looking for new equipment while others are looking to improve upon an existing application. The majority of the customers who are not looking for new equipment want to increase their “yield” or “productivity” of the final product they are trying to produce. My first question when addressing their issue is what is the percentage of “good” product are they losing in the oversize material in their screener? While some have a good idea of this amount others have no idea what the correlation between yield and oversize has to do with each other. Read More…

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.

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Powder Metal Fine Mesh Screening Customizations

Powder Metal Fine Mesh Screening Customizations

By Jeff Hochadel

Aug 20

As a custom equipment manufacturer, we have quite a bit of flexibility in what we can offer. Sometimes a screening application calls for requirements that a standard vibratory screener just cannot accommodate.

Recently, a customer asked us to redesign his powder metal screening operation in order to provide additional headroom for an additional piece of equipment. His application requirements were a vacuum, two-deck screening, and ultrasonics on both screen decks PLUS he wanted to increase production. He currently was also Read More…

Jeff Hochadel

Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.

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Avoiding Costly Problems in Screening Ceramic Powders

Avoiding Costly Problems in Screening Ceramic Powders

By Jeff Hochadel

Jan 29

As the Sales Manager here at HK Technologies, I run across many unique and challenging screening applications on a weekly basis. While this is my first post and I have a lot of interesting applications to discuss, I want to begin with a recent application where a customer was using ultrasonic sieving to screen a high-value ceramic powder used in the electronics industry. The screen mesh was fairly coarse – 80 mesh. The ceramic powder was agglomerating and forming hard nodules of ceramic material from the current supplier’s ultrasonic system. The customer could not tolerate these hard nodules contaminating the final product. They approached us for a solution.

Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 – HK Tranducer – no screen contact

What is On Size Sieving?

What exactly is Ceramics?

Solutions in Motion!

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