ABSTRACT

Agglomeration is a generic term used for processes of mechanical particles size enlargement, whereby fine primary particles are bonded together to form particles collectives, using different binding mechanisms and forces. This work tries to see how the particle sizes, the mass of the agglomerate ball, the surface area of the agglomerate ball affects the compressive strength of the moist polymer powder agglomerate. A better understanding of the relation between the powder preparation technique and the strength of the resulting agglomerates should certainly be of substantial value in choosing the proper powder preparation route; such a relationship. It also gives recommendations on what should be done to improve the strength of the moist polymer powder agglomerate. Moist polymer powder agglomerate was prepared with a mixture of cellulose acetate, kerosene, alcohol and water as the control using the balling disc as the machine for preparation and addition of hand in order to produce the ball shaped agglomerate. The agglomerate ball was prepared using different sieve sizes of the cellulose acetate. The contact angle was determined using the sessile drop method. The compressive and crushing strength of the different sieve sizes of the halls were determined using the universal testing machine. A further factorial design was carried out using the MINITAB versionl8 in order to ascertain the factors that has effect on the strength of the moist polymer powder agglomerate and results were obtained. From the results, there are factors which contribute to strength of this moist: the sieve size, the mass, the diameter, the surface area and compressive force. Among these factors, the compressive force has the main effect in the moist polymer powder agglomerates. Therefore, industries responsible for agglomerate preparation should use cellulose acetate as the mixing powder, this is because the primary particle of this powder offers a strong bonding .effect and also it is very absorbent and allows flow of fluid.