In high, dry Salt Lake City, USA, a salt shaker is a salt shaker. Turn it upside down, and the little grains pour out. In rainy Seattle, when you flip and shake, you are much more likely to hear a "thunk" and get next to nothing. Even around the house, clumping and caking can cause problems. On the production line those problems get big and expensive.rnA specialist dry soup manufacturer was determined to avoid clumped-up soup base. One day he was processing a base with 3% moisture content. He measured some newly received pepper and found it to also have 3% moisture content. Sure that is was safe to mix the two components, he did so and headed out to lunch. On return he discovered that the whole batch had clumped and had to be thrown away. His loss felt even worse as he spent considerable time cleaning up his equipment.
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