A MEASURE OF THE NUMBER OF PARTICLES IN AGGLOMERATES

At small particle sizes persistent errors arise in automatic particle size analysis techniques because of the natural agglomeration tendenci es for small particles. This paper introduces a parameter to measure t he number of particles in agglomerates during particle size analysis u sing an independent gas adsorption specific surface area determination . Although the idea is presented for spheres, it can be generalized fo r many powders. Application of the calculation to several powders show s that agglomeration is widespread in most laser, sedimentation, time- of-flight and screening particle size determinations.