Ask An Expert
Frequently Asked Questions
A Ploughshare Mixer is often suitable for materials that tend to agglomerate.
Its plough-shaped mixing tools generate intensive circulation of the material, while optional high-speed choppers can break up lumps and agglomerates during mixing.
The final selection should be based on the material characteristics and process requirements.
Vortex mixers are designed for a wide variety of powders, granules, and powder-liquid mixtures.
Typical applications include chemical powders, food ingredients, pharmaceutical powders, animal feed, dry mortar, ceramics, battery materials, fertilizers, pesticides, minerals, refractory materials, and other bulk solids. The actual mixer configuration should be selected according to the physical and chemical properties of the material.
Vortex manufacture a wide range of industrial powder and bulk solids mixing equipment, including:
- Horizontal Ribbon Mixers
- Ploughshare Mixers
- Double Shaft Paddle Mixers (Paddle Mixers / “No-Gravity” Mixers)
- Conical Twin-Screw Mixers
- Vertical Screw Ribbon Mixers
- Double Cone Mixers
- V-Type Mixers
- 3D Motion Mixers
- Customized mixing systems and complete mixing lines
The most suitable mixer depends on your materials, production capacity, mixing ratio, required mixing time, and process conditions.
Mixer capacity should be evaluated using both the total vessel volume and the effective working volume. The required volume depends on material bulk density, batch weight, filling ratio and the mixing principle of the selected machine. A mixer should not normally be filled to its total geometric volume because sufficient space is required for material movement and effective mixing. For this reason, selecting a mixer based only on vessel volume can result in an unsuitable configuration.
The appropriate industrial powder mixer depends on several factors, including:
- Material characteristics
- Bulk density
- Particle size
- Required mixing uniformity
- Batch size or production capacity
- Moisture content
- Whether heating or drying is required
- Whether liquid addition is required
- Required discharge configuration
- Production and automation requirements
Vortex provides different powder mixer designs so that equipment can be selected according to the specific process requirements.
Vortex powder mixer selection depends on several factors, including:
- Material type and characteristics
- Bulk density and particle size
- Material flowability
- Moisture content
- Viscosity
- Mixing ratio
- Batch size or required production capacity
- Whether liquid addition is required
- Required mixing uniformity
- Temperature, pressure, vacuum, or other process requirements
Vortex engineers can recommend a suitable powder mixer based on your material and process requirements.
Yes, We can supply simple stand alone panels or automated PLC controlled systems. We normally install and test all controls on our mixers before they are shipped.
Yes, we normally test the mixers before they are shipped and mark out the wire need to connect on the control box.
We manufacture specialty mixing equipment for powder & bulk materials. Included are ribbon blender, plough mixer, conical screw mixer, twin shaft paddle mixer, V blender, double cone blender and other auxiliary equipment such as screw conveyor, quantitive auger filler.
We sell across the world, our cusotmers distribute 5 continents.
Share Us With Your Network
Cosmetics and Personal Products
Our mixers and blenders are applied for many development and production operations in the cosmetics and personal care industries. A few examples are listed below:
• Carbopol Gels – Carbopol resins are a family of water-soluble acrylic acid polymers, available in dry white powder form. It is used in many applications as a thickening agent producing a wide range of viscosities to suspend insoluble ingredients and to stabilize emulsions. Applications in the cosmetic industry include hand and body lotions, sunscreens, skin cleansers, moisturizing creams, shampoo, medicated gels and other personal care products. Although laboratory scale batches of Carbopol Solution can easily be made using bench type agitators, large-scale production of these thickened solutions can present problems. If the white Carbopol powder is not sifted very carefully into a typical agitated vessel, the Carbopol can clump together. The clumps solvate to form a tough outer layer, which prevents complete wetting of the interior polymer particles. This can result in solution defects such as grainy texture, reduced viscosity, or the presence of insoluble particles resembling “fish eyes”. The high shear conditions usually needed to break up these agglomerations can also shear the hydrated polymers and result in a permanent viscosity loss. The VersaMix has been extremely successful at producing consistent, high quality Carbopol formulations. In addition, the SLIM System, used by itself or in combination with the VersaMix is a practical solution to preventing fish eye formation.
• Lipsticks – One the largest cosmetics manufacturers in the world standardizes on Three Roll Mills for their diverse line of lipstick products.
• Powder Foundations – The PowerMix equipped with a planetary stirrer and four-blade chopper has been tested to thoroughly coat talc powder and titanium dioxide with a blend of water and silicone. These materials are used in the cosmetic industry for powder foundations and sunscreen coatings. The customer’s pony mixer displayed inadequate coverage of both the titanium and talc. Problems were experienced with material clinging to mix can sidewalls and unprocessed material at the bottom of the mix vessel. The PowerMix’s planetary mixing action and shearing capabilities solved these problems.
• Skincare Creams – The X-Series Ultra-High Shear Mixer is utilized in various cosmetic plants for final grinding of creams. Product coming out of large mix tanks is passed once through the X-Series to obtain the desired smoothness and optimal particle size.
• Toothpaste – High Speed Dispersers, High Shear Mixers and Double Planetary Mixers are widely used in the manufacture of toothpastes – from preparation of low-viscosity intermediates to the final paste product.
• Wax Emulsions – Wax emulsions serve as a solubilizer in skin cleaning products or as a gloss modifier in hair care and styling products. Waxes also stabilize the shape of decorative pencils or sticks and adjust the viscosity of creamy products. The line of High Shear and Ultra-High Shear Mixers, available in batch and inline configurations, are an excellent choice for the preparation of wax emulsions.
Ask An Expert
