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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.
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Mixing and direct compression
Q: Our pharmaceutical process currently requires a granulation step. We’d like to skip this step and the processing and equipment it requires and go to direct compression. What should we consider before making this change?
A: With pharmaceuticals, using direct compression (transferring a mixture from a mixer directly to a tablet press) typically involves a mixture with a low concentration of active ingredients. This can cause the same problems as with mixing minor ingredients. For instance, if the size difference between the largest and smallest particles is 5 to 1 or greater, the mixture is likely to segregate. In some situations, direct compression can be dangerous because it makes controlling mixing quality difficult. With certain pharmaceuticals with a particle size difference 200 to 1 or greater (such as 200-micron excipients mixed with l-micron active ingredients), segregation is so significant that you may have to avoid direct compression and use granulation to maintain the final product’s integrity. In some cases, you can avoid segregation problems by reducing your material‘s particle size difference (for instance, by grinding the larger particles) to less than 5 to 1.
If you can’t reduce the particle size difference, reduce segregation problems by using few transfer points and remixing the material in the hopper or other container just prior to loading the tablet press. (The material can be remixed by using equipment designed to rotate and tumble-blend the hopper or other container.) If making these changes doesn’t eliminate segregation problems, use granulation – either wet, by adding a liquid binder, or dry, by compressing the mixture between rollers. In either case, you’ll need additional equipment, which will raise the system’s cost.
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