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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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Why choose a vertical ribbon mixer
Selecting a powder mixer can appear to be a simple task, the importance of which is often under-estimated. Although there are a few common varieties that seem to work well for powders and other solids, hastily choosing any blender can result in process inefficiencies or poor product quality. In a competitive market, gains in process efficiency and quality can be the difference between profits and losses. Therefore, choosing wisely is an important decision. The first step is to look at the candidates. The three most popular powder blenders are ribbon blenders, vertical ribbon mixer, and tumble blenders.
Ribbon blenders consist of a horizontal agitator mounted in a U-shaped mixing trough. The agitator shaft has an outer ribbon, which is located in close proximity to the trough. The pitch moves product toward the discharge opening. A second ribbon on the agitator shaft is located closer to the axis of rotation. This inner ribbon is pitched so that it motivates product in the opposite direction of the outer ribbon. Ribbon blender is capable of blending solids in very short cycle times.
The vertical ribbon mixer vessel is cone shaped and includes a single auger agitator. The auger, which has a constant diameter and pitch, is located parallel and in close proximity to the vessel sidewall. In addition to rotating on its own axis, the auger agitator is also rotated around the center axis of the vessel, which sweeps the vessel sidewall over the full circumference. The auger lifts materials from the bottom of the vessel to the top. As a result, material opposite the auger cascade down toward the bottom of the vessel to fill the void created. The type of agitation is very gentle on the materials and consumes low energy.
Tumble blenders are either double-cone- or V-shaped and rotate on a horizontal axis approximately mid-height on the vessel. With an appropriate batch volume, the contents are split every time the vessel is inverted. The speed of rotation is adjusted so the contents slide to the lower portion of the vessel as it is rotated. The V-shaped tumble blender offers a thorough and gentle mixing action that can be optimized using mathematical formulas, since the splitting of the batch is somewhat predictable.
Each of these three basic designs has comparative strengths and weaknesses. In selecting the appropriate solids blender, it is important to consider the advantages of each design and carefully select the blender that will offer the most benefit for the intended application. The first step toward making a prudent choice is to list and prioritize the characteristics and parameters that are most important to you. Some common examples include:
- Completeness of discharge.
- Ease of cleaning.
- Easily degradable solids.
- Reduction of lumps.
- Space limitations.
- Quantity of each material contained within the batch.
- Heating or cooling requirements.
- Cost.
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