COVER STORY
UNLOCKING EFFICIENCY:
THE ROLE OF HIGH SHEAR MIXERS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY
Silverson Machines explains how two companies manufacturing different food products have revolutionised their processes by switching from conventional mixers to Silverson High Shear mixers
s manufacturers of food products, it is no longer enough to simply create a great tasting product. To be successful in these competitive markets, products must be scalable, sustainable, reproducible and easily manufactured cost effectively. The mixing stage of production can be crucial to this success. Inefficient mixing can easily add to costs and processing times and lead to further issues such as stability. In other cases, the mixing process may be adequate, but could be optimised to become more efficient and profitable. For example, Silverson High Shear mixers can reduce mixing times by up to 90% when compared to conventional agitators. This not only saves time, but also money and it further increases profitability with more batches able to be processed in a quicker time by simply swapping the mixing equipment.
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For example, a company specialising in the production of flavourings has purchased a Batch mixer after successful tests with a L5M-A Laboratory mixer. Before contacting Silverson, the company were using a process that relied on mixing ingredients for a long time using a conventional agitator as a pre- mix, before being passed several times through a high pressure homogeniser in order to obtain the particle size they desired, which was around 5 microns.
The manufacturer wanted to know the best particle size that could be achieved using Silverson High Shear mixers, so a laboratory
trial using a L5M-A was arranged. Using a General Purpose Disintegrating Head, the laboratory mixer reduced particle size to under 5 microns, and as low as 1.5 microns in some samples, within five minutes of mixing. The manufacturers were very impressed with these results and the reduction in mixing time, so much so they scaled-up straight away to a Batch mixer. The Batch mixer has been able to produce high quality flavourings for them in a much faster time. In most cases, the company now bypasses the high pressure homogenisation stage completely! But when they do choose to use the high pressure homogeniser, the pre-mix created by the Batch mixer is very uniform in particle size so it passes through at a much faster rate and in a single pass.
In the second example, a nut coatings manufacturer got in touch with Silverson Machines as they’d been searching for a mixer that could eliminate agglomerates when adding powdered ingredients into liquid. They had been using a traditional agitator but now they wanted to add a tacking agent into water to produce a coating for one of their nut products. Their existing agitator couldn’t incorporate the ingredient, causing a great deal of agglomerates to form and clump together. This also led to viscosity of the mixture becoming extremely high and mixing having to be abandoned. The manufacturer wanted to improve their process and eliminate the problems to achieve the required quality,
The Silverson L5 Series is the latest
development in high shear lab mixing
Below: Particle size analysis of mixture
processed with a Silverson L5M-A
See Silverson at the PPMA Total Show Stand G60
reduce waste from failed batches, and minimise production time to reduce costs. Silverson visited the customer at their site so they could test a L5M-A laboratory mixer on the mixture. They wanted to mix water with a maltodextrin and Xanthan gum mixture called a “tack mix” to help the coating stick and remain on the nuts. During the trial the L5M-A worked well and was able to achieve the desired mix in 15 minutes. It easily incorporated all of the powder with no agglomerates, and it kept the viscosity low (between 1000 – 2000 cps) so that the product continued to flow. The company was so pleased with the results that they began discussing replicating the results on a larger scale for their production line. It was decided that an in-tank Batch mixer would be most suitable, and the customer immediately ordered the mixer. Since then, they have been successfully manufacturing the nut coating in larger batch sizes without the need for reformulation of the mixture, achieving the same great results as the laboratory mixer achieved in the trials.
To put Silverson mixers to the test, please get in touch to arrange a trial.
Silverson Machines
sales@silverson.co.uk
10 JULY/AUGUST 2025 | PROCESS & CONTROL
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