MACHINERY | MIXERS
Figure 1: Mixaco’s Multi Tool container mixing system showing (left) the loading position, (centre) the upside down mixing position, and (right) the cleaning position
downstream pelletizing equipment is also available. Several other mixing equipment suppliers have also been investing in improved testing rooms in the past year or two, including the Italian compa- nies Plasmec and Promixon.
Container mixing Container mixers – in which material is weighed, mixed, and transported to the next processing step within the same container – are ideal for rapid changeovers and for improving efficiency of preblending processes, says Markus Frantzen, General Manager at Mixaco USA. “Container mixers reduce the risk of contamination, because of less material handling. They reduce downtime by shortening cleaning time and allowing offline quality control testing of the preblend while the next batch is being mixed. If testing reveals a problem, colour or formulation can be easily corrected by bringing the container back to the mixer,” he says. Mixaco’s Multi Tool container system (Figure 1) has been optimised over the years since its introduction. The geometry of the tooling has been adjusted to prevent material build-up, which reduces the batch-to-batch inconsistencies that can result from material sticking to the tooling or mixing head, says Frantzen. “Excellent dispersion of pigments leads to more efficient usage of pig- ments and thus cost savings. Some customers find that they don’t have to use as much pigment to get the same coloring,” he explains. In combination with the Multi Tool system, a new fill-level monitoring unit ensures that the mixer is at least 55% full, thus meeting ATEX requirements without the need to use nitrogen to create an inert atmosphere. “We’re finding that more customers require ATEX certification, but creating a nitrogen- inert atmosphere adds expense and adds time to the process. Although some applications may still require nitrogen, many can use this alternate method,” says Frantzen. As the naming implies, Mixaco’s new Flexible Container is made of a flexible material rather than
20 COMPOUNDING WORLD | November 2017
stainless steel, allowing the use of external agita- tors. This allows materials in the discharge station to be agitated as it is fed to the extruder, prevent- ing bridging or rat-holing in applications with poor flowing materials. Speedy MT is a new Mixaco sack and drum
mixer that comprises a stainless-steel container with a plastic disposable internal liner inside eliminates the need to clean the mixing vessel. This reduction in cleaning time can result in a consider- able efficiency gain. “Many of our customers spend 60% of their time cleaning and only 40% of their time making product,” says Frantzen. MTI Mischtechnik’s C tec Pro system, intro-
duced at the K fair last year, takes a different approach to container mixing by using an industrial robot to separate mixing vessel from machine. The company’s first move into the container mixer sector, the design allows a number of different container sizes to be used in a single system, eliminating cleaning stoppages.
Bulk solutions Coperion’s MIX-A-LOT mechanical bulk material mixer can considerably simplify compounding plant design, in the process reducing cleaning and maintenance costs. The company says that one mixer and loss-in-weight (LIW) feeder can be used to replace multiple buffer hoppers and LIW feeders for polymer pellets (Figure 2). The mixer’s weighing function ensures accurate dosing and, because the MIX-A-LOT uses a vacuum and pressure-resistant construction, direct pneumatic feeding is possible without the need for a separate reception bin for pneumatic conveying (additives or colour in powder form continue to be added via a separate feeder for dosing accuracy at low addition levels). The new unit offers a very short mixing time due to the design of the mixing rotor, which provides low circumferential velocities and an optimised gap to the housing that Coperion says allows gentle handling without particle destruction or heating of the product. A large inspection door on the front of
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PHOTOS: MIXACO
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