The author considers firstly some of the aspects of powder behaviour which are particularly relevant to powder handling, for example flow properties and explosibility. Secondly, the design of equipment involved in the conveying and storage of powders as well as some of the equipment involved in the ancillary operations such as metering, granulation and mixing, is considered. Thirdly, the author illustrates by example that every operation carried out on a powdered material has implications for the consequent steps and thus the optimum design of a process can only be achieved by consideration of the whole process or system. (from paper)