During the powder bed melting, impurities can be trapped by the rapid solidification of the melting pool. This can cause discontinuity in the sintered products and consequently lead to breakdowns over time. Cross contamination process is difficult to identify along the supply chain with traditional technologies. The focus of the project is the development of a contaminant concentrator.

The project led to the creation of a functional prototype able to deflects the falling trajectory of powders on a vibrating inclined plane, by the action of permanent magnets according to the material ferromagnetic characteristic. The demo highlighted potential results. Tests showed that to reach TRL8 condition (demonstration in the operating environment), in other words “workshop test”, the prototype has to be equipped with control systems such as:  entity of vibration; adjustable inclination; variability of the magnetic field also by frequency variation so as to provide induced currents when processing paramagnetic materials polluted with ceramics. The pollutant concentration makes it detectable before the use of the powders.