Powder Processing Issues for High Quality

Advanced Ceramics

Makio Naito, Masatar o Okumiya, Hiroya Abe and Akira Kondo

Joining and Welding Research Institute, Osaka University1
C.C. Huang
Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems2

Abstract
In this paper, the effect of powder processing conditions on the fracture strength of advanced
ceramics is discussed. Manufacturing processes of silicon nitride ceramics and alumina ceramics are
utilized to explain the relationship between powder processing conditions and major fracture origin
in the ceramics. The preparation conditions of powder slurry are found affecting the structure and
strength of powder granules, which can influence the properties of green compact and thus the quality
of sintered ceramics. These phenomena can be investigated by using new characterization tools such
as the liquid immersion method and the observation technique using thinned ceramics specimen
under the transmission mode. Also, very small amount of coarse particles contained in the powder
slurry is found starting the fracture in ceramics by using wet sieve analysis and the observation
technique with thinned ceramic specimen. As a result, it is found that the major ceramics fracture is
originated from the large pores and coarse particles in powder granules, green compact and sintered
ceramics. They can be unintentionally introduced in the manufacturing steps of ceramics, such as
powder slurry preparation, spray drying, and forming process of green compact. By making use of
these characterization tools, effective processing conditions to eliminate the large pores and coarse
particles can be identified for producing high quality advanced ceramics.
Keywords: Powder processing, Sintered ceramics, Green body, Granule, Slurr y, Coarse par ticle, Fracture
strength, Fracture origin

cates that non-uniform structure, such as large pores

1. Introduction
or coarse particles in the green compact, can become
Powder processing technology has been widely fracture origin 2, 3), which affects the reliability of sin-
used in many industries. However, it needs a lot of tered ceramics. On the other hand, powder packing
know-how to make high quality and low cost products structure, such as particle orientation or apparent
by making use of powder materials. For example, density distribution in the green compact, also influ-
manufacturing process can have a significant influ- ences the deformation of sintered body; thus leads to
ence on the properties of advanced ceramics. For a its fracture strength and near-net shaping. Therefore,
given production method, a minor change in the pow- the manufacturing process of green compact before
der processing condition can cause a great difference firing is crucial for producing high quality advanced
in the ceramic quality. Fig.1 shows a typical powder ceramics.
granule compaction process used in the ceramic In this paper, the manufacturing process of silicon
manufacturing 1) to make sintered ceramics. It indi- nitride ceramics and alumina ceramics is used to elu-
Accepted: September 8th, 2010 cidate the relationship between the powder process-
1
11-1, Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka, 567-0047 Japan ing conditions and the fracture origin in the ceramics.
2
10 Chatham Road, Summit NJ 07901 USA
For examples, the effects of powder slurry prepara-
Corresponding author
TEL: 81-6-6879-8660, F AX: 81-6-6879-8680 tion conditions and small amount of coarse particles
E-mail: [email protected] in the powder slurr y on the properties of sintered

2010Hosokawa Powder T echnology Foundation

KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010) 143
 Powder
Large pore

Coarse Fracture origin

particle Reliability

Slurry
Particle Deformation
orientation Near-net
shaping

Green
body Density
distribution
Granules
Non-uniform structure
Sintered
ceramics

Fig.1 PowderFig. 1 Powder

granule granule
compaction compaction
process process
to make to make
sintered sintered ceramics.
ceramics.

ceramics are discussed. Detailed characterization of sieve (32 m) to remove undesired large agglomer-
powder raw materials, powder slurry, powder gran- ates or inclusions, the slurr y was divided into two
ules, green body, and sintered body is found neces- groups; one was spray-dried in the as-dispersed state
sary to understand and control ceramic processing and the other in the flocculated state. For the floccu-
conditions and is essential to open the black box of lated one, the pH of the slurry was adjusted to 9.4 by
ceramic manufacturing processes. slowly adding a HNO3-H2O solution with continuous
stirring at room temperature. The slurr y was then
dried to form powder granules using a spray dryer.
2. Ef fect of Powder Processing Conditions on
Fig.3 shows a micrograph of the granules prepared
Ceramic Properties
from a well-dispersed slurr y (pH 10.5, apparent
2.1 Powder slurr y preparation conditions viscosity: 300mPa s) and that of flocculated slurr y
Slurr y preparation conditions can directly affect (pH 9.4, apparent viscosity 6500mPa s), respec-
the powder granule properties made by spray drying tively 4). They were observed by liquid immersion
and lead to non-uniform structure of green compact. method 5). Most of the granules prepared from well-
Fig.2 shows the fabrication process of silicon nitride dispersed slurry had distorted spherical shapes and
ceramics by powder granule compaction 4). Commer- contain dimples, which were also clearly visible in
cially available silicon nitride, alumina, and yttrium the micrograph taken in the optical transmission
oxide powders were used as the starting materials. mode, as shown in Fig.3 (a). On the contrast, the
Average particle size of each powder measured by granules prepared from flocculated slurry were es-
X-ray sedimentation was 0.44 m, 0.33 m, and 0.29 sentially spherical and no dimples as shown in Fig.3
m, respectively. Silicon nitride powder (270g) was (b). However, when observing the SEM micrographs
mixed with alumina (15g) and yttrium oxide (15g) by of theses granules, some dimples shown in Fig. 3(a)
ball-milling with distilled and deionized water (155g) were apparently absent, because they were placed
for 24 hours. Dispersant was not added because the on the specimen holder with the dimple down. It
pH of the slurr y moved to the basic region (up to indicated that conventional characterization tools
10.5) during mixing, at which silicon nitride could were insufficient to observe the granule structure as
be deflocculated electrostatically due to the reaction shown in Fig.3.
of silicon nitride and water. After passing through a The slurry dispersion state strongly influences the

144 KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010)

 granule structure 6). Droplets injected into a spray granule deformation and the formation of a dimple
dryer are dried with evaporation of water from the structure on almost all powder granules made from
sur face. In case of dispersed slurr y, water flows dispersed slurry.
from the interior to the surface of a droplet and the On the other hand, droplets made from flocculated
particles are carried along with the flow to the area slurry are considered to be composed of agglomer-
near the surface, leaving behind an internal void, as ates in which primary powder particles are touching
drying proceeds. It is believed that a partial vacuum each other. Because water can migrate and evapo-
is formed in the internal void, leading to the collapse rate easily from the source without distributing the
of the granules near the end of the drying cycle. As loosely packed structure in and between agglomer-
can be seen in Fig.3 (a), the mechanism results in ates, solid granules are easily formed. As a result,
the granules tend to have a spherical shape without
dimples as shown in Fig.3 (b).
Fig.4. shows the Weibull distribution cur ves of
the fracture strength of sintered bodies 4). Average
strength of sintered body fabricated from flocculated
slurry (717MPa) was obviously higher than that from
well-dispersed slurr y (607MPa), although the cal-
culated Weibull moduli were high for both of them.
The fractographical analysis for the fractured speci-
men clearly indicated that large pore defects were
responsible for fracture origins in the silicon nitride
ceramics 4). Such larger pore defects were developed
in the ceramics originated from the structure and
strength of powder granules. In this case, large pores
developed starting at the centers of granules origi-
nated from dimples through powder packing during
compaction and those at the boundaries caused by
incomplete adhesion between granules affected the
fracture strength of ceramics. In the experiment,
large pore size was apparently larger in the thinned
specimen of the sintered ceramics made by well-
dispersed slurr y. However, such difference cannot
be observed by microstructure analysis alone even at
higher magnification 7, 8).
Although the structure of powder granules is simi-
lar, the fracture strength of the sintered bodies may
still be affected by the slurry preparation conditions 9).
Fig. 2 Fabrication process of silicon nitride ceramics. Table 1 indicates the preparing conditions of the
Fig.2 Fabrication process of silicon nitride ceramics.

50m 50m

(a) (b)

Fig. 3 Internal
Fig. 3structure of granules
Internal structure observed
of granules observedbybyliquid immersion
liquid immersion method
method
(a) prepared from well-dispersed slurry ; (b) prepared from flocculated
(a) prepared from well-dispersed slurry; (b) prepared from flocculated slurry. slurry.

KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010) 145

 three slurries with some difference in apparent vis- ness of the specimens. The values are almost the
cosity 9). Alumina powder (AL160-SG4, Showadenko, same for these ceramics. Fig.5 shows the strength
Japan, average par ticle size: 0.46m ) was mixed distribution of the alumina ceramics 9). However, a
with 0.2, 0.5, 2.0mass% of polymer dispersant (Ammo- significant variation of strength associated with the
nium polyacrylate, CELUNA-D305, Chukyoyushi, Ja- slurry preparing condition was noted. The average
pan) and distilled and deionized water for 24h by ball strength is 486, 430 and 363MPa respectively for
milling. The solid concentration of the slurry was 35 specimens made from the three slurr y preparing
vol%. The pH of slurry with 0.2 mass% dispersant was conditions.
increased to 10 by adding dilute NH 4OH solution, Fig.6 shows a comparison of the compressive
which also decreased its viscosity to 43mPa s. The strength of the granules prepared from the three
slurries were spray-dried for granulation. The gran- different slurries 9). The strength of granules was
ules were uni-axially pressed at 9.8 MPa, and then measured with a micro compression test machine
isostatically pressed at 176 MPa. The green compact (MCTM-500, Shimadzu Co., Japan) and the compres-
were sintered at 1550 C for 2hr in air. As indicated in sive strength was calculated by applying the model
Table 1, three kinds of slurries showed low apparent proposed for the elastic deformation of spherical par-
viscosity; and, the granules made by the slurries had ticle 10,11).
distorted spherical shapes and contained dimples, Fig.7 shows the transmission optical micrograph
which were also clearly visible in the micrograph of the thinned ceramics specimens 9). The dark fea-
taken under the optical transmission mode, as shown tures are pores in the structures. Clearly, the present
in Fig.3 (a). Also, no big difference was observed ceramics have defects at the center and boundaries
in size distribution of granules made from the three of granules. They are developed from the irregulari-
slurry preparing conditions, and their average sizes ties of packing structure of powder particles in green
were all about 60m. compact. The pore structure was similar for the three
Table 1 presents the density and fracture tough- specimens, except for the size of the pores associ-
ated with the slurry preparing condition. The relation
between the pore number density versus the pore
size of the sintered specimens made from the three
slurries was measured 9). The pore number density
was defined as the number of pore per unit volume of
specimen per unit size interval. The effective volume
of specimens under the analysis was about 0.5 mm3.
In this study, relatively large pores were subjected to
the analysis. Pores were assumed to have a spherical
shape and their sizes were represented by the equiva-
lent diameter.
Accor ding to the fracture mechanics, the strength
of ceramics , can be related to the size of fracture
origin, c, by the following equation:

K IC Yc1/2 (1)

Fig. 4 Weibull distributions of the fracture strength Where KIC is the fracture toughness and Y is the
measured for sintered specimens.
Fig. 4 Weibull distributions of the fracture
Table 1 strength measured for
Slurry preparing sintered and
conditions specimens.
properties of the sintered ceramics
Table 1 Slurry preparing conditions and properties of the sintered ceramics

146 KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010)

shape factor. As expected from the equation, fracture large pore increases with the granule strength, which
strength of ceramics should change depending on was strongly affected by the amounts of dispersant in
the size of fracture origin, provided that the fracture slurry as shown in Fig.6.
toughness and the shape factor are the same. Focus- The granule strength is influenced by various
ing on large pores, the size as shown in Fig.7 (b) is factors, such as the powder packing structure as
1.29 times larger than that in the specimen shown well as the amount and distribution of dispersant
in Fig.7 (a). Provided the shape factor is the same, in granules 12). In this study, the difference of the
the average strength of the sintered sample made granule strength can be ascribed to the latter factor
from the slurr y of pH 10 is estimated 1.34 times dominantly, since the granule structure was almost
higher than that made from the slurry of pH 8.1. This similar. It is considered that the amounts of disper-
estimate is in good agreement with the measured sant added, 0.2, 0.5 and 2.0 mass %, are insufficient, a
strength as shown in Fig.5. little excess and excess for covering the powder sur-
The change of the large pore size can be ascribed faces based on the relation between the amounts of
to the difference in the granule strength as shown in dispersant and the slurry viscosity, respectively. With
Fig.6. In compaction of harder granules, less defor- excessive dispersant, the non-adsorbed dispersant
mation can occur at a certain compaction pressure becomes free polymers in the slurry. In spray drying,
and this leaves larger pores in compacts. The size of the free polymers form solid bridges between powder

Fig. 5Str
Fig. 5ength distribution
Strength distributionofofthe
the alumina ceramics.
alumina ceramics. Fig. 6 Compressive strength distribution of alumina
granules
Fig. 6 Compressive strength associated
distribution with granules
of alumina differentassociated
slurry pre-
with different slu
paring conditions.
preparing conditions.

(a) (b)
Fig.Fig.
7 7 Microstructures
Microstructures ofofalumina
aluminaceramics
ceramics examined
examined with with optical
optical transparent
transparent technique,
(a)technique,
specimen made from the slurry prepared with #1 condition
(a) specimen made fr om the slurry prepared with #1 condition
(b) specimen made from the slurry prepared with #3 condition
(b) specimen made fr om the slurry prepared with #3 condition

KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010) 147

 particles, increasing the granule strength consider- pan) was used as raw material. The nominal average
ably. Clearly, polymeric additives have critical effects particle size was 0.5 m. The powder was placed in
on the cohesive force between particles and thus on alumina pot mill (SSA-999, Nikkato, Japan, volume
the powder compaction process. 2000ml) with 2kg of alumina balls (SSA-999, Nik-
kato; diameter 5mm) and 400g of aqueous solution
2.2 Coarse particles in powder slurr y (2 mass%) of dispersant of polyacrylic acid type (CE-
The control of particle size distribution of powder RUNA D-305, Chukyo Yushi, Japan), and mixed for
is also important in slurr y preparation. Powder is 24h to make a slurry with the solid content 50vol%.
processed using mechanical method such as ball mill- The slurry was passed through a mesh (2mm open-
ing. Very few numbers of coarse particles can affect ing) to separate the balls. Weighed slurry was placed
the fracture strength of sintered ceramics; therefore, in a container and stirred continuously with a stir-
particle size control is very important to achieve high rer while small amount of coarse particles (0.01-0.1
quality advanced ceramics. mass%) was added. The coarse particles for addition
A fundamental study was conducted to understand were prepared from the unground raw material used
the effect of coarse particles on the fracture strength in the production of the present fine alumina powder.
of ceramics. The specimens were prepared through The coarse particles were classified into three frac-
the procedure as shown in Fig.8 13). Low soda alu- tions by sieving before being used. Each fraction of
mina powder (AL-160SG-4, Showa Denko K.K., Ja- coarse particles was added to individual slurry; there-
fore, three kinds of slurries with coarse particles
were prepared. Each slurry was kept stirring for 2h
after the coarse particles were added. Finally, each
slurry was cast in gypsum molds (100 x 100 x 9mm)
to prepare green compacts with coarse particles. Af-
ter drying, the compact was heated at 1550 C for 2h
in an electric furnace to sinter the model ceramics 13).
In the micrograph, at high magnification, platelet-
shape particles form aggregates of porous structure
with the size of 10-20m 13). At lower magnification,
these aggregates form the coarse aggregates in large
scale. In this experiment, such coarse aggregates
are referred to as coarse particles. Table 2 shows
the measured densities of green compact and ceram-
ics 13). The densities were approximately the same
for all compacts. The densities of all ceramics were
again the same. Clearly, addition of a small amount
of coarse particles has no effect on the densities of
ceramics.
Fig.9 shows the Weibull plots and the fracture
toughness for all specimens 13) . The specimen
strength decreased with increasing size of coarse
particles added. The Weibull moduli were similar and
Fig. 8 Fabrication process of alumina ceramics.
Table 2 Densities of green bodiesover
and20sintered
for all specimens.
bodies All ceramics basically have
Fig. 8 Fabrication process of alumina ceramics
Table 2 Densities of green bodies and sintered bodies

148 KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010)

the same fracture toughness. Fig.10 shows SEM ing size of coarse particles added. Again, the sizes
micrographs of representative fracture origins found of coarse particles are the same as those added in
in this study 13). The specimen contains coarse par- the preparation of specimens 13). Actually, the esti-
ticles of the size range 75-90 m. The fracture origin mated values of strength obtained by linear fracture
was noted in the specimen of the lowest strength mechanics, assuming that the fracture was always
(370MPa) as seen in Fig. 10(a) and Fig. 10(b) initiated at the coarse particles in the matrix, agreed
shows that with the average strength of 406MPa. ver y well with the measured strength 13). It means
They were both coarse particles. Lower strength was that small amount of coarse particles governs the
observed for the specimen containing larger coarse strength of ceramics. Therefore, carefully preventing
particles. Similar results were obtained for all speci- the coarse particles is crucial to improve the strength
mens examined in this study. of high quality advanced ceramics.
Fig.11 shows the IR photomicrographs 14) for the
internal structures of ceramics containing the coarse
3. Importance of Powder Characterization Tools
particles of various sizes 13). The size of coarse par-
ticles in the ceramic matrix increased with increas- As already explained, small amount of large pores

Fig. 9Mechanical pr operties of sintered bodies.

Fig. 9 Mechanical properties of sintered bodies.

(a) (b)
100m 60m
Fig. 10 Examples of fracture origins in alumina ceramics having 7590m coarse par-
ticles. (a)370MPa, (b)406MPa.
Fig. 10 Examples of fracture origins in alumina ceramics having
7590m coarse particles. (a)370MPa , (b)406MPa.

KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010) 149

and coarse particles has large effect on the material with milling time. The 10mm sized media ball is the
properties. Therefore, coarse particles in raw pow- most effective to grind coarse particles. It means the
der materials or in powder slurry must be carefully wet sieve analysis would be a reliable method to mea-
controlled. This is critical to obtain not only higher sure even just a few particles in the ground powder.
quality of advanced ceramics but also other kind of From Fig.14, we can identify the processing condi-
materials such as toner and polishing materials. tions to effectively grind very small amount of coarse
However, conventional characterization tools are particles. As a result, the method to measure coarse
insuf ficient to detect such small amount of non- particles in advanced ceramic powder was developed
18, 19)
uniform components. For example, Fig.12 shows , and it has been already filed as an international
the particle size distribution of ground silicon nitride standard in advanced ceramics (ISO/TC206). By re-
powder by wet ball milling 15). It was measured by X- lating the coarse particle information of raw powder
ray sedimentation method 16, 17). The obtained particle or powder slurry to that of sintered ceramics, we can
size distribution indicates the ground powder has no easily understand how small amount of coarse par-
particles coarser than 45 m. And, Fig.13 shows the ticles lower the reliability of sintered ceramics thor-
relationships between average particle size of ground ough its manufacturing process.
powder and ball-milling time 15). It shows that aver- Characterization of large pores in powder granules,
age particle size decreases with the milling time, and green compact and sintered ceramics is also very im-
media ball size has no effect in this case. However, portant for producing high quality advanced ceramics
20)
the situation was quite different when using wet sieve . Conventional characterization tools such as SEM
to examine the 45 m oversize mass fraction of the or mercury porosimetry are not sufficient to evaluate
ground powder with ball-milling time 15), as seen in the small amount of large pores in granules, green
Fig.14. Different from Fig.12, it shows that coarse compact and sintered ceramics. Liquid immersion
particles larger than 45m are apparently contained method 5) is a very powerful tool to observe the large
in the ground powder. Media ball size has effect on pores in granules and green compact. And, thinned
the change of its mass fraction in the ground powder specimen obser vation is also ver y effective for de-

Fig. 11 Mid-infrared micrographs of sintered bodies having coarse particles of (a)38

Fig.4511 Mid-infrared
m, (b)5363m,(c)7590 m.
micrographs of sintered bodies having coarse particles
of (a)3845m, (b)5363m,(c)7590m.

Fig. 12 Fig.Particle
12 Particlesize distribution
size distribution of the
of the powder powder
ground with 5mmground
withmedia
5mm balls.media balls.

Fig. 13 Relationships between average particle size of

Fig. 13 Relationships between average particle size of ground powder
ground powder and milling time.
and milling time.

150 KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010)

 pores and coarse particles, which are generated in
the manufacturing steps of ceramics, such as powder
slurr y preparation, spray dr ying, and forming pro-
cess of green compact. By making use of these char-
acterization tools, effective processing conditions to
eliminate the large pores and coarse particles can be
identified for producing high quality advanced ceram-
ics.

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17) Naito, M., Hayakawa, O., Nakahira, K., Mori, H. and of Dewaxing Procedures, J. European Ceram. Soc.,
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R., Morrell, R., Ewsuk, K.G. , Hackley, V., Freiman, S. ramics on its Microstructure and Fracture Strength,
and Uematsu, K. (2002): Characterization of Coarse Advanced Powder Technology, Vol.14, pp.505-517.
Particles Contained in Fine Powders at Very Low Con- 28) Abe, H., Hotta, T., Naito, M., Shinohara, N., Okumiya,
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published by Am. Ceram. Soc. Strength Variation of Silicon Nitride Ceramics with
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an Optical Method - For Understanding the Origin of tion procedures on defect structure, fracture strength
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21) Shinohara, N., Okumiya, M., Hotta, T., Nakahira, K., 31) Shinohara, N., Ohsaka, S., Hotta, T., Abe, H., Naito,
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Naito, M. and Uematsu, K. (1999): Seasonal Varia-

152 KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010)

 Author’s short biography

Makio Naito
Makio Naito received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from
Nagoya University, Japan in 1980, 1982 and 1987, respectively. He was with Hosoka-
wa Micron Corp. from 1982 to 1993 and engaged in the R&D of powder processing
technology. He joined Japan Fine Ceramics Center (JFCC), Nagoya, Japan in 1993,
where he focused on powder characterization and powder processing technology
in ceramics manufacturing. He was Vice Director of JFCC from 2000 to 2002, and
then became a professor at the Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI),
Osaka University, Japan in 2002. He continued focusing on important studies on in-
novative powder and nanoparticle processing to develop advanced materials about
energy and environmental issues. He was promoted to be the Director of Smart
Processing Research Center, JWRI in 2007, and is also the Vice Director of JWRI
from 2009. In addition, he has served as a Director of Hosokawa Micron Corp.
from 2005. His publications cover a wide range of studies in the fields related to the
advanced materials. He has authored or coauthored more than 500 technical ar-
ticles, including more than 200 refereed journal articles. He has contributed to 52
books with 13 books as an editor. He has received many awards, and is a Fellow of
The American Ceramic Society.

Masataro Okumiya
Masataro Okumiya received B.S., M.S. and PhD. Degrees in material science from
University of Tokyo, Japan in 1965, 1967 and 1971, respectively. He was with Asahi
Glass Company from 1971 to 1995, and promoted to be a Research Fellow of the
company from 1995 to 2000. He joined the Joining and Welding Research Institute
(JWRI), Osaka University, as a specially appointed associate professor in 2008.

Hiroya Abe
Hiroya Abe received B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from
Nagaoka University of Technology, Japan in 1990, 1992 and 1995, respectively. He
was with Motorola Japan from 1995 to 1998, and with Japan Fine Ceramics Center
(JFCC) from 1998 to 2002. Then, he joined the Joining and Welding Research In-
stitute (JWRI), Osaka University, as an associated professor in 2002. His current
research interest is in the development of smart materials and interfaces for func-
tional joining technologies.

Akira Kondo
Akira Kondo received B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical engineering from Nagoya
University, Japan in 1989 and 1991, respectively. He received Ph D. degree in mate-
rial science from Osaka University in 1999. He was with Hosokawa Micron Corp.
from 1991 to 2005, where he engaged in the R&D of powder processing technolo-
gies. He became a specially designated researcher at the Joining and Welding
Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University, Japan in 2005, and is engaged in the
R&D of powder processing technology for advanced materials.

KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010) 153

 Author’s short biography

C. C. Huang
Dr. C. C. Huang is the Director of Research and Development, Nanoparticle Tech-
nology and Micron Products at Hosokawa Micron Powder Systems, which is an
operating unit of Hosokawa Micron International Inc., a global supplier of systems
and equipment related to material sciences and engineering. He holds an M.S.
degree in engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. degree in
chemical engineering from West Virginia University. He has many years' experi-
ences in industrial R&D, as well as academia, in the field of powder technology
and science. Dr. Huang specializes in powder and nanoparticle processing, pow-
der characterization, powder granulation, and fluidization. He has published over
30 articles and 8 patents, chaired several meetings, and continues to be an active
member in a number of scientific and engineering societies.

154 KONA Powder and Particle Journal No.28 (2010)