In July, we introduced you all to Shu Powders’ latest innovation, Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder, unveiled at the prestigious Plansee Seminar 2025 in Reutte, Austria.
Then, it was about potential: safer handling, greener processing, and cleaner tool performance.
Now, with the full technical study published in the Plansee Seminar 2025, we can tell the complete story: from the challenge that sparked development, to the rigorous trials that proved its clear advantage over conventional granulated cobalt powders.
The challenge of meeting tougher safety standards
Across the globe, dust exposure in particular cobalt limits are becoming more stringent:
These tighter limits are driven by growing recognition of the health risks of dust in particular metals, cobalt in particular, where prolonged inhalation can cause serious respiratory conditions, allergic reactions, and long-term lung damage. In response, regulators and industries alike are acting to protect workers, especially in high-exposure sectors like hard metal manufacturing.
For decades, conventional granulated cobalt powders have been the industry’s answer to dust reduction. While marketed as “dust-free” and “non-flammable,” conventional granules are made under high compaction pressure, creating hard particles that are difficult to disperse in milling during the short cycles needed to protect fine tungsten carbide (WC) grains.
The Shu Powders solution
Shu Powders Africa identified the need for a product that lives up to its identification and engineered Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder: formed without compaction pressure, bound with 6% wax or PEG, and typically over 400 μm in granule size.
Soft granules are spherical particles composed of cobalt powder and a binder which is either paraffin wax or polyethylene glycol. The binder plays a critical role in the formation and stabilisation of these granules.
It keeps the benefits of the traditional conventional granulated cobalt (dust-free, free-flowing, non-flammable) but disperses easily, even in short milling times, enabling cleaner and more uniform microstructures.
Why granule formation is key
The way granules are formed determines the behavior of the powder, from handling safety to milling performance. As mentioned, cobalt powder is compacted under high pressure, producing hard granules in conventional granulation. While these granules reduce dust, they are often difficult to break down in short milling cycles, leading to uneven cobalt distribution, pooling, and weaker tool performance.
Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder takes a different approach. By binding cobalt particles with paraffin wax or PEG without compaction pressure, the granules remain:
- Strong enough to withstand handling, packaging, and long-distance transport.
- Soft enough to disperse rapidly and completely during milling, even with fine WC grain sizes and short milling times.
This balance between mechanical stability and dispersibility is what makes the product unique. The spherical shape and controlled size (typically >400 μm) also ensure free-flowing properties, consistent feeding, and reduced dust release.
It’s there, in the formation of the granules, that the foundation of the product’s success is found. It is what allows Shu Powders to meet tough regulatory dust standards while still delivering superior microstructure and tool performance to customers.
Key enhancements to granule handling
To ensure reliable product quality and efficient production, Shu Powders also focused on how granules are solidified and handled after formation:
Rapid Solidification: Granules are processed quickly after formation to prevent deformation and to ensure they are stable before classification.
Controlled Flow: Granules are discharged in a steady, regulated manner to avoid overloading downstream equipment and to maintain consistency.
Improved Classification: Solidification and flow improvements support effective screening, ensuring a consistent product size and performance profile.
These enhancements help the powder remain uniform and reliable without compromising safety or quality.
Equipment design tailored for granule perfection
The success of Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder doesn’t just lie in the binder-based formation method, though. It also lies in the specialised equipment designed to control and optimise each step of the process. Shu Powders invested in equipment modifications and installations to ensure the granules achieve the right balance between mechanical stability and dispersibility.
The proven advantages
(Based on the Plansee study with Boehlerit GmbH & Co KG)
Non-Flammable & Safe
- Passed EU, UN, and Japanese safety tests. Soft enough to disperse rapidly and completely during milling, even with fine WC grain sizes
- 40 min smoulder time vs 8 min for non-granulated cobalt
Transport-Ready Stability
- Survived 1 m drop tests intact
- Maintained size after 1000-tap ASTM-B527 test. The granules maintained their structure and survived long sea shipments from South Africa to customers in Europe, Asia, and the US
Superior Dispersion
- Paraffin binder: 100% disintegration after 2 hrs stirring vs just 5% for conventional
- PEG binder: fully dissolved in 15 min
Cleaner Microstructure
- 40% fewer cobalt pools
- Large Co areas cut in half from 6 to 3 (>650 pixels)
- ~40% less total pooling
Strong industry interest: A promising start
In the weeks following the seminar, industry feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Customers from Europe, Asia, and the US have engaged with Shu Powders to explore testing and potential integration of our soft granulated powder into their existing production lines.
Many cited three common key reasons for their interest in our Soft Granulated Powder:
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- Improved dispersion and consistency, making production more reliable at scale.
- Reduced energy demand during milling, supporting ESG targets.
- Enhanced worker safety and regulatory compliance, especially in regions tightening controls on cobalt dust exposure.
One early adopter, a European tool manufacturer, has already reported smoother blending cycles and more uniform carbide microstructures, even with short milling times and fine WC grain sizes.
Why customer feedback matters to us
Customer feedback is critical to the success of any new material, especially in industries like hard metals, where consistency and reliability directly affect tool performance and safety.
For Shu Powders, the early positive feedback confirms three essential points:
Validation of Performance: Real-world testing shows that the seminar results translate into tangible benefits on the factory floor.
Market Readiness: By demonstrating reliability in customer environments, soft granulated cobalt powder proves it is not just a research concept but a commercially viable solution.
Continuous Improvement: Feedback provides direction for the next phase of R&D — such as adjusting binder content, improving dispersion properties, and tailoring the granules for different customer needs.
This two-way exchange ensures that Shu Powders not only delivers innovation but also evolves alongside customer requirements, building trust and long-term partnerships.
The journey & what’s next
Born from years of R&D in South Africa and validated in Austria, Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder was designed to meet modern safety, performance, and sustainability demands.
With success proven in both lab and industrial settings, Shu Powders is now scaling production and exploring broader applications. As next step we will target to reduce the binder content towards 4% with improved binder dispersion to assist customers that have concerns with 6%.
The Plansee Seminar was the perfect launch platform. The data now confirms it: Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder is not just an innovation, it’s a tested, reliable, and industry-ready standard for the future of hard metals which is commercially used by leading hard metal producers.
That’s a future we’re honoured to help build.
Reach out to us if you want to explore the impact of Soft Granulated Cobalt Powder.
