Particle size, cohesiveness and charging effects on electrostatic and nonelectrostatic powder coating

Ten powders, differing in protein, carbohydrate and salt contents and ranging from 19 to 165 μm were coated by nonelectrostatic and electrostatic coating. Nonelectrostatic transfer efficiency (TE) increased to a maximum before leveling off with increasing particle size. Electrostatic TE either decreased or increased then decreased with increasing particle size. Powders became more free flowing as particle size increased. Since TE increases as powders become more free flowing, TE increased with particle size for both nonelectrostatic and electrostatic coating. For electrostatic coating, the effect of charge decreases with increasing particle size. Thus, the conflicting effects of ability to pick up charge and flowability caused an increase then decrease in the TE for powders coated electrostatically, and can also explain the exceptions. The average improvement in TE by electrostatic coating was 20%, with the improvement increasing as particle size decreased.