Virtual instrument for statistic control of powder tribo-charging processes

The paper demonstrates that statistic process control (SPC) techniques could be of great use for monitoring the tribo-charging of pulverulent materials in compressed-air transportation systems or in electrostatic deposition devices. A virtual instrument was developed using LabView® in order to process the data acquired by an electrometer connected to a modified Faraday pail. By sampling the charge of the powder collected in the pail, it was possible to build up SPC charts that appropriately reflect the tribo-charging phenomena related to the processing of finely divided materials.