Inline mixers that rely on high rotational speeds and tight tolerances will wear much quicker on abrasive products.
Any rotating piece of equipment will wear overtime, so dynamic inline mixers are no different. Abrasive products cause equipment to wear even faster. And when you are talking about inline mixers with very tight tolerances and high rotational speeds, this only exacerbates the issue and drastically reduces the life expectancy of the equipment.
So how do you select a mixer that will give you the best performance while also maximizing its lifespan and minimizing the costs to maintain the equipment due to the abrasive nature of your products?
First and foremost, you need to select a mixer that will give you the best mixing result. The product comes first. That means that you need to determine the appropriate amount of mixing energy required for the perfect mixing result.
Too little mixing energy can leave you with undissolved powders or “fisheyes” or even inconsistent mouth feel and taste. To much mixing energy can damage inclusions or negatively affect viscosity and product integrity.
Does mixing chopped nuts into peanut butter require the same level of mixing energy as hydrating gums and thickeners? Does dispersing minute amounts of flavoring into a delicate dark chocolate require the same rigorous mixer as a suspension of cheese powder flavoring in oil for a potato chip coating? Does dispersing pumice into a facial scrub require the same mixing energy as distributing flavoring into toothepaste?
Of course the answer is “no”. So why choose a mixer that only has tight tolerances and is meant for high shear when it is not needed?
At INFINI-MIX, we pride ourselves on offering the widest range of inline, dynamic mixing solutions. We can dial-in the perfect mixing result from less than 30 -1/s to more than 30,000 -1/s of shear! Aside from our high rotational speed (3500+ RPMs) H series mixer with very tight clearances (<0.5mm), we offer the entire spectrum of solutions with varying speed ranges, clearances and designs.
High speed and tight tolerances on an abrasive products translates into a short lifespan. While most inline mixer companies only offer “HIGH” shear options (like our H mixer), they only have the ability to vary speed and (in some cases) changing a static screen. With INFINI-MIX, there are many more options when selecting an inline, dynamic mixer: the rotor & stator design, the clearances between the rotor and stator, the number of mixing stages and the range of rotational speeds.
Our M series mixing elements are designed to simulate manual stirring and imparting <30 -1/s of shear. These designs only use a rotor without a stator. The smooth sidewalls of the mixer combined with the flat paddles and rounded edges of the rotor provide a delicate mixing solution at speeds less than 500 RPMs. These mixing solutions are ideal for blending inclusions into viscous liquids while maintaining the integrity of the inclusions and the viscosity of the primary liquid with little to no temperature change. Since the tolerances between the rotor and sidewalls are so large and the rotational speeds are relatively low, abrasive products have little wearing effect on the mixer, similar to what the pipelines are experiencing.
The P series mixing elements are characterized by multiple stages of pin-shaped mixing elements on the rotor and stator. The pins are round with no sharp edges and the gap between the pins can range from 5mm up to 1” in order to maintain small to medium size inclusions while also fully dispersing fine powders. Imparting up to 300 -1/s of shear, these pin-shaped mixing elements are ideal for heavy batters, nut & seed butters with flavoring and stabilizers and chocolate with a wide range of inclusions. With the relatively large gap between the rotor and stator combined with the rotational speed capabilities (<500 RPMs), this mixing solution is very resistant to abrasive wear.
The workhorse of the INFINI-MIX offering, the S series mixer, utilizes star-shaped mixing elements with gaps varying from 2mm up to 5mm. This is a higher rotational speed device with maximum speeds up to 1800 RPMs. The combination of multiple mixing stages with moderately high speeds and larger gaps makes this mixer the ideal alternative for applications where higher shear is required. The S Series Mixer is highly resistant to abrasive products because of the wider gap and lower speeds. The multiple mixing stages and rotor / stator combination make up for the larger tolerances.
Common Abrasive Products & Applications
- Dispersing pumice and other exfoliants into lotions, body washes & scrubbing agents
- Blending silicone carbide into a lithium grease for grinding pastes
- Mixing aluminum oxide powder into temperature transfer pastes
- Hydrating CMC gums other surfactants for toothpaste
- Evenly dosing and dispersing various flavoring powders and inclusions in to Nut & Seed Butters
- Mixing anything into chocolate
- Blending chunks of meat and vegetables into pet food
- Dispersing calcium, citric acid, flavoring & coloring into molten sugar masses
- Titanium dioxide into various personal care products, cosmetics & paints
