What to buy before you start

The equipment for powder blending is inexpensive relative to the testing, and one item on the list determines whether your product is uniform.

The short list

Two scales: one reading to 0.01 g for small components, one larger for bulk. A tumbling or V-blender sized to your batch. Sieves for de-lumping incoming material. A sampling thief for drawing samples from depth. An induction sealer and compatible liners. Sealed storage containers. A fitted particulate mask.

The blender is the one to get right

A tumbling or V-blender mixes by repeated folding, which distributes without generating fines. That matters because fines widen the particle size distribution and a wider distribution is what causes segregation later.

A ribbon blender works and is harsher. A food processor or a paddle in a bowl does not: the first grinds while it mixes and the second produces something that looks uniform and is not.

Buy for gentle, thorough folding rather than for speed.

What you do not need

Any laboratory equipment. Identity and potency testing go to a contract laboratory and always will.

A filling machine, until open time or check-weight drift says otherwise. A stick-pack machine, which is contract work at this scale.

And not a wide ingredient range, because every material is inventory that ages and a supplier to qualify.

Where to spend more

The small scale, because your smallest component is the one your claim depends on. The blender, for the reason above. And the sealer, because for a hygroscopic powder the seal is the shelf life.

Everything else can wait for a bottleneck to prove itself.

References