Mixing & Blending Focus - March 09

Ribbon Blenders
The unit shown is a 515-cu-ft working capacity model constructed in stainless steel. This blender is driven by a 200-hp drive and includes a jacket for heating or cooling of the product. The blender is also designed for internal pressure operation. Blenders from ½ to 515-cu-ft capacities are available. The entire line is offered with features such as vacuum construction, special discharge valves, covers designed to customer requirements, sanitary finishes, etc. Units are available for testing in the company’s test and development center, or for trial rentals prior to purchase.
Charles Ross and Son Co., Hauppauge, NY 800-243-7677 www.mixers.com

Fluidized Zone Twin-Shaft Paddle Mixers
Bella fluidized zone twin-shaft paddle mixers achieve fast, high-capacity, low-shear, precision mixing and include a liquid addition option. They offer long life and are ideal for mixing powders with liquids. Each mixer consists of twin drums that have two counter-rotating agitators with specifically angled, replaceable, and adjustable mixing paddles. The mixing paddles are custom built to prevent buildup of material and are set up for close-tolerance mixing and a close sweep of the mixer bottom.
Dynamic Air Inc., St. Paul, MN 651-484-2900 www.dynamicair.com

Sanitary Shaft Seals for Mixers and Blenders
Meco AH-series custom shaft seals for mixers and blenders are ideal for use in food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries where frequent product changes and washdowns are required. The seals are designed to simplify installation, routine cleaning, and maintenance. Fully split models can be easily removed for bench sanitizing and reinstalled on the shaft without readjustment. Often fitted with flush water inlet and drain ports for CIP, the seals can retrofit ribbon blenders, paddle mixers, and similar powder and bulk solids processing equipment. A simple adjustment mechanism allows operators to perform preventive maintenance before any product leakage can occur. At least 6 mm of shaft run-out tolerance is built into every seal.
Woodex Bearing Company, Inc., Georgetown, ME 800-526-8800 www.woodex-meco.com

Horizontal Blenders
These horizontal blenders are custom fabricated with several optional agitators, depending on the intended application. Single- or double-ribbon agitators can be furnished for free-flowing solids or heavy slurries. The double-ribbon option provides two-way mixing. Paddle agitation is effective for mixing slurries and provides excellent top-to-bottom mixing. All agitator options can be furnished with scraper blades to give positive action to the bottom trough area, as well as minimizing “burn on” for jacketed blenders.
Process Systems & Equipment, Div. of Lee Industries Inc., Philipsburg, PA 814-342-0470 www.leeind.com

Lab-Sized Batch Mixers
The RK Labmaster is specifically designed for smaller continuous-batch powder blending operations. It features touch screen control, tip speeds up to 5800 fpm, and process modules from 1 to 12 qt, which allows scalable production to larger-sized units, as well as easy operation, monitoring, and cleanup. The RK-1 is a lab-sized mixer that specializes in continuous mixing. It is a 1-in.-diam continuous mixer of up to 10 lb/hr and allows mixing of one or more dry or liquid ingredients. The RK-1 discharges a homogenous product.
Readco Kurimoto LLC, York, PA 717-848-2801 www.readco.com

Conical Screw Blender
This conical screw blender is used for mixing and blending powders in the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, and plastics industries. Conical screw processors can be supplied in carbon steel, stainless steel, and other exotic alloys. Sizes are available from 2 to 2650 cu ft. The blender has a tapered screw that is more efficient than the straight screw. This design reduces the total overall height, decreases blending time, and improves the efficiency of the mixer.
Jaygo Inc., Union, NJ 908-688-3600 www.jaygoinc.com

Large-Capacity Mixing System
The Jumbo Quik Mix provides a homogeneous mix of large-volume dry-material batches with its vertical mixing screw and material dispersing paddle. The mixer easily handles a variety of items, such as plastic pellets, granules, regrind, and many other materials. This system is integrated and includes a lift and seal container discharger to transfer material from gaylord containers into a surge bin. After the batch mixing cycles the ma-terial is discharged into either gaylords or a pneumatic conveying pickup point. 
NBE Inc., Holland, MI 616-399-2220 www.nbe-inc.com

Mixer and Disperser
Reactron systems are used in lab, pilot plant, and production environments for reactions requiring simultaneous wet mixing, dispersing, and homogenization. The systems are complete processing plants, with working volumes from less than 1 liter up to several thousand liters, including all the necessary accessories. Control can be either manual or automatic. A key component of the system is the Polytron batch, the Megatron in-line processing disperser, or both in combination. Systems are designed according to customer specifications. Applications include the formulation of pharmaceutical and cosmetic lotions and crèmes, dispersion and suspension of solids or additives in liquid media, and many others.
Kinematica Inc., Bohemia, NY 631-750-6653 www.kinematica-inc.com

Horizontal Blenders
These 900-cu-ft horizontal blenders are 9 ft wide × 9 ft long, and 2 in. tall × 25 ft long with 125-hp direct-connected drives. Multi-Pitch agitators blend granular polypropylene with additives to exact mixing requirements. Accessories furnished with each blender include a temperature gauge, temperature transmitter, and four 15,000-lb-capacity load cells, all of which are prewired to a local control panel.
Young Industries Inc., Muncy, PA 800-546-3165 www.younginds.com

Continuous Blender
The Vibra blender utilizes a combination of a rotating paddle and material fluidization to blend dry solids with the ease of liquids. Gentle controlled vibration of the mixing trough fluidizes ingredients on entry where a cut-and-fold mixing rotor provides agitation. Gravity causes material to flow through the blender, thereby making it completely self-regulating to changes of infeed rate. The unit’s simple, rugged design offers dust-tight operation, easy cleanout, and maintenance-free operation. The blenders are available in capacities up to 1500 cu ft/hr.
Vibra Screw Inc., Totowa, NJ 973-256-7410 www.vibrascrew.com

Sanitary Rotary Batch Mixer
The 700-TH-40-SS sanitary rotary batch mixer gently blends batches of ingredients in parts down to one per million with 100% uniformity in less than three minutes. The mixer evacuates 100% of the batch and sanitizes rapidly with no tools. It has a usable capacity of 40 cu ft and is equally effective blending from 100 down to 5% of rated capacity. Intended for 3-A, USDA, and contamination-sensitive industrial applications, and frequent product changeovers, the mixer features stainless contact surfaces, continuous-polished welds, external removable seals, and a CIP vessel cleaning nozzle. It is also equipped with a spray line for liquid additions.
Munson Machinery Company, Inc., Utica, NY 800-944-6644 www.munsonmachinery.com

Horizontal Mixer
This horizontal Ploughshare mixer features an easy clean design. The full access door across the front of the mixer provides for greater access to perform frequent cleaning operations. Available on batch or continuous mixers, this design provides a benefit to manufacturers that are concerned with cross-contamination from batch to batch in their operation due to allergens, flavors, colors, and formula changes.
Littleford Day Inc., Florence, KY 800-365-8555 www.littleford.com

Pneumatic Blending Systems
These pneumatic blenders are equipped with 6 or 12 wear-resistant aerators mounted around a housing cone. These aerators inject gentle blasts of compressed air into the center of an unblended batch at various angles to gently lift the materials upward and outward until the blending target is achieved. Built with few moving parts, the blenders have long service lives and require minimal maintenance.
Nol-Tec Systems Inc., Lino Lakes, MN 651-780-8600 www.nol-tec.com