Mixing of Solids:

Generating flow currents similar to liquids using an impeller is very difficult .

✓Solids do not reach impeller eye during mixing.

✓Homogeneous mixture is not possible.

✓Composition is not same at different places in well mixed solids, where as it

is same in liquids.
Solid Mixing
Cohesive solids

Non-cohesive
solids
Mixing of Non-cohesive Solids:
Ribbon Blenders:
✓ Central shaft with a helical ribbon agitator
✓ Two Counteracting ribbons on same shaft
✓ One moving the solid slowly in one direction and the other moving it
quickly in the other.
✓ Ribbons may be continuous or interrupted.
✓ Effective mixers for thin pastes and for powders.
✓ Some batch units are very large holding up to 34 m3.
Internal Screw Mixers:
✓Helical conveyor that elevates and circulates the material.
✓ Mixing is generally slower than ribbon blenders, but power required is less.
✓ Double motion helix orbits about the central axis of a conical vessel, visiting all parts
of the mix
Double Motion Helix orbits:

• Blending and homogeneity is enhanced compared to ribbon blenders, more

energy required.
• Particles travels through inner and outer helix simultaneously..
Tumbling Mixers:
✓Tumbling barrels resembling Ball mills, effectively mix suspensions of dense
solids in liquids and heavy dry powders.
✓ Others shown here can handle lighter dry solids only.
✓Double Cone Mixer: Popular mixer for free-flowing dry powders.
✓ 50-60% is filled and tumbled for 5 to 20 minutes.

Double Cone
Mixer
Twin-Shell Mixer:
✓ Made from two cylinders joined to form a V and rotated about a horizontal
axis.
✓More effective in some blending operations than double cone blenders.
✓ When mixing time is long, these may lead to a considerable degree of
unmixing and seggregation.
Tumbler mixers draw little less power than the Ribbon blenders.
 Mixers for Cohesive Solids:

Most difficult of all mixing problems involve cohesive solids: Pastes, Plastic
materials, Rubber.

With cohesive solids the mixing elements cannot generate flow currents,
instead they Shear, fold, stretch, and compress the material to be mixed.

✓ Change-can mixers
✓ Kneaders, dispersers and masticators
✓ Continuous kneaders
✓ Mixer-extruders
✓ Mixing rolls
✓ Mullers and pan mixers
✓ Pug mills
 Change-can Mixers:

Double motion Paste mixers: a) Pony mixer b) Beater mixer

 ✓Useful for blending viscous liquids or
light pastes as in food processing and in
paint industries.

✓A small removable can of 5 to

100 gallons in size.

✓ The agitator is mounted

eccentrically.

✓ The blades are slightly twisted.

Pony Mixer
 Beater Mixer

✓The agitator has planetary motion.

✓ As it rotates it repeatedly visits all

parts of the vessel.

✓ Beaters are shaped to pass with

close clearance over the side and
bottom of the mixing vessel.
Kneaders, dispersers and masticators:
Kneading is a method of mixing used with deformable or plastic solids.
Involves: Squashing the mass flat, folding it over on itself and Squashing it once
more.
Most kneading machines also cut the mass and shear it between a moving blade
and stationary surface.

A two-arm kneader handles suspensions, pastes and light plastic masses.

Applications:
Compounding of lacquer bases from pigments and carriers
Shredding cotton linters into acetic acid and acetic anhydyide to form cellulose
acetate

A disperser is heavier in construction and draws more power than a kneader

Applications: additives and coloring agents into stiff materials

A masticator (Intensive mixers) is still heavier and draws even more power.
Applications: can disintegrate scrap rubber and compound the toughest plastic
masses.
Sigma Blade Agitator:

✓ This design is best suited for all round use. This may be positioned with either
tangential or overlapping action.

✓ Saddle shaped bottom in the container.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf1jUvsN_5M
Dispersion Blade Agitator: This agitator is
employed for product which requires less shear
force and provides a smooth folding action and is
excellent for mixing a fiber reinforced product
(Cellulose Aceate).
Available in 135 and 180 degree spiral.

Masticator Blade: Used for a superior

dispersion of products difficult to mix such as
rubber, plastics or abrasive materials.
Continuous Kneaders
Mixing Rolls:
• Another way of subjecting pastes and deformable solids to intense
shear is to pass them between smooth metal rolls turning at different
speeds.

• By repeated passing, solid additives can be effectively dispersed

into pasty or stiff plastic materials.

Continuous mills contain 4-5 rolls set one above another in a

vertical stack.
• The paste passes from the slower rolls to successively faster
ones.

Rubber products and pastes can be compounded on batch roll mills

with two rolls set in the same horizontal plane.
• Additives are sprinkled on the material as it is being worked.

Because of their long mixing times and careful attention by the

operator, batch roll mills are replaced by internal mixers and
continuous kneaders.
Muller Mixers:

• Mulling is a smearing or rubbing action

similar to that in motor or pestle.
• This action is given by the wide heavy
wheels of the mixer .
• The rubbing action results from the slip of
the wheels on the solids.
• Plows guide the solids under the muller
wheels.
• Either wheels or pan can be rotated.
Pugmills:
Single-Shaft Pugmills:
• Mixing is done by blades or knives set in
a helical pattern on a horizontal shaft in an
open trough or closed cylider.
• Solids continuously enter from one end
and leave from the other.
• In the chamber they are cut, mixed and
moved forward.
• Blend and homogenize clays, break up
agglomerates in plastic solids and mix
liquids with solids to form thick heavy
slurries.
Double-Shaft Pugmills:
• Used when more rapid and more thorough mixing is required.
•Chamber is mostly cylindrical but sometimes polygonal to prevent the sticky solids
from being carried around with the shaft.
THANK YOU.
Mixer-Extruders:
• Contain one or two horizontal shafts, rotating but not reciprocating, carrying a
helix or blades set in a helical pattern.
• Pressure is built up by reducing the pitch of the helix near discharge, recucing the
diameter of the mixing chamber or both.
• Continuously mix, compound and work thermoplastics, doughs, clays, and other
hard to mix materials.
• Some also carry heating jacket and vapor-discharge connections to remove water
or solvent from the material as it is being processed.