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
Avoid segregation downstream in a tumble blender (double cone mixer)
Q: My material goes through a wet granulation step in a tumble blender (double cone blender) to avoid segregation downstream. But the granulated material contains agglomerates, formed by liquid droplets in the blender, and I have to treat the agglomerates before I can use the material downstream. How can I avoid the agglomerates?
A: Wet granulation to prevent later segregation is a tricky operation because it’s difficult to disperse the liquid, uniformly through the batch to get good liquid-solid contact. The agglomerates you describe are usually formed when the liquid is introduced within an unfluidized or only partially fluidized portion of the material bed. When improperly fluidized, the material can block the liquid‘s entrance, forcing the formation of droplets and, hence, agglomerates. To prevent agglomerates in your tumble blender (double cone mixer), you can add the liquid through a stationary spray device, which is a hollow pipe located in the mixer’s void space (above the material bed). To ensure that the material passing the high-speed processing bar is well fluidized, you can also reduce the material bed‘s depth. The spray device then adds the liquid to the most aerated portion of the material bed, significantly improving granulation and preventing the formation of liquid droplets and, hence, agglomerates. However, reducing the material bed can slow productivity because you add less material to the mixer.
Ask An Expert
