Reactivity Hazards of Heat-Treatment Baths

Many powder materials in bulk form can exhibit self-heating when subjected to high temperature conditions. Self-heating of powder could be a potential ignition source for a fire and/or explosion event in addition to affecting the product quality and creating environmental issues. Understanding the behavior of product in powder or granular form is the first step in controlling the risks associated with the self-heating. This article provides an overview to the self-heating phenomena and discusses practical experimental techniques to understand powder behavior that are subjected to high temperature conditions. The article focuses on determining the onset temperature for self-heating under varying experimental conditions.