Rapid Prototyping of Miniaturized Powder Mixing Geometries

Continuous manufacturing is an important element of future manufacturing solutions enabling for both high product quality and streamlined development process. The increasing possibilities with computer simulations allow for innovating novel mixing principles applicable for continuous manufacturing. However, these innovative ideas based on simulations need experimental validation. The use of rapid prototyping based on additive manufacturing opens a possibility to evaluate these ideas at a low cost. In this study, a novel powder mixing geometry was prototyped using additive manufacturing and further, interfaced with an in-line near-IR spectrometer allowing for investigating the residence time distribution (RTD) in this geometry.