Emulsifier image courtesy of Admix.
Compared to other kinds of less distinct mixing equipment, such as batch mixers or homogenizers, emulsifiers are used to serve a very specific purpose. Just as a review: emulsions are mixtures of at least two liquids that cannot be joined in a homogenous solution. The difference between an emulsion and a solution is that there is no dissolving of a solute into a solvent. Instead, emulsions are mixtures of Continue reading
Batch mixer image courtesy of IKA.
The term “batch mixer” is kind of an imprecise term. If you were to look in Google’s image search function and search for an image of a batch mixer, you’d see a wide variety of products that don’t really look like each other. There might be mixers with rotating chambers that look like the cement mixers you might see at construction sites. You could also see simple mixers that look, from the outside, like suspended hoppers or funnels. Or, you could see batch mixers that look like the mixer in the image above. There’s a reason why there’s so much variability when it comes to Continue reading
Agitator image courtesy of Patterson Industries (Canada) Ltd.
“Agitator” is kind of an ironic name for a thing that actually is used to induce harmony amongst many different materials. I’ll think of the easiest example I can in order to prove my point. And bear this assurance in mind: I promise this will relate to industry’s uses for agitators. I love guacamole, and I’ve found that the process is the least time-consuming and labor-intensive when I use my food processor. When I lay all of the ingredients out on the counter, there’s chaos there. Unpeeled avocados, un-skinned onions, packages of ingredients unopened and limes un-squeezed. What I have before me at this stage is a decidedly heterogeneous mixture of ingredients. When it comes to making guacamole, heterogeneousity is chaos. I don’t want the relationship between my Continue reading
Mixing blade image courtesy of Marion Mixers.
There are many different kinds of industrial mixers, and this is because the need for mixing processes is varied. For example, the kind of mixing equipment required for pharmaceutical ingredients mixing would not necessarily be appropriate for the mixing of petrochemical products. Because the need for industrial mixing equipment can vary from one situation to another, engineers in the industrial mixer research and development field have developed a number of different industrial mixer configurations to meet Continue reading
Homogenizer image courtesy of ARDE Barnico.
Have you been to the apothecary recently? Unless you’ve needed some leeches for bloodletting or a dandelion infusion, the answer is likely to be no. It’s much more likely that if you’re ill you pay a visit to a physician, a pharmacist or some other licensed medical professional. In their offices there are probably no mortars or pestles to speak of, except perhaps for decorative purposes. The mortar and pestle has become an icon – a relic of the earliest days of pharmacology. These tools were used by Continue reading
Industrial mixer image courtesy of Pope Scientific, Inc.
There’s a huge need for mixers within industry, and if you take a moment to look around you, you can easily and quickly see why. I, for example, am sitting at a cubicle, surrounded by office furniture, plastic products and a stainless steel hot pot. The office furniture includes woven synthetic fibers, composite wood desk slabs, fabric cubicle upholstery and plastic trim. Industrial mixers could have been involved in the production of each Continue reading
Not all mixers are equipped with motors. This is lucky, because there are some situations in which the use of a power mixer is not appropriate. In these cases, appropriately-named mixers called static mixers are used. Static mixers are what they sound like: mixers that are static. Specifically, what this means is that instead of using a moving rotor, auger, paddles or other rotating or spinning equipment, a static mixer features a tube or pipe through which materials are passed, and within that pipe is a permanent set of obstacles that cause objects that pass over them to be mixed with Continue reading
Many billions of dollars of revenue are generated each year by the food industry in the United States. A massive infrastructure is necessary to support our national complex of food growers and processors, and that infrastructure includes a very large variety of equipment. No one kind of equipment can be considered to be the most important to the food industry, but there are some kinds of equipment whose Continue reading
I asked for a home brewing kit for my birthday last year. I had done some reading on the subject, and I became enamored with the idea of buying my own ingredients and equipment and finding new and exciting ways to combine them to make something unique and boast-worthy. To my delight, my family bought me a kit that included all of the necessary ingredients and equipment as well as instructions on how to end up with the best quality finished product. It struck me as a great way to introduce one’s self to brewing. It was, but when I opened the kit and undertook my first brewing experiment, something became Continue reading