A novel microwave sensor to determine particulate blend composition on-line.

Due to the ease with which particulate blends tend to segregate, blend uniformity and chemical composition are two critical control parameters in nearly all solids manufacturing industries. The prevailing wisdom has been that microwave sensors are not capable of or sensitive enough to measure the relative concentrations of components in a blend. Consequently, it is common to turn to near infrared sensing to determine material composition on-line. In this study, a novel microwave sensor was designed and utilized to determine, separately, the concentrations of different components in a blend of microcrystalline cellulose, acetaminophen, and water. This custom microwave sensor was shown to have comparable accuracy to a commercial NIR probe for both chemical composition and moisture content determination.