Blenders and Mixers

Blenders and mixers often are mistaken for one another, and rightfully so they both do just about the same thing. So what is the difference between the two? Both mix or blender multiple materials into one complete mixture. But while the difference may be small, there are some subtle differences when it comes to mixing and blending. These differences, while minor are important to distinguish because it will make a difference based on the application you are looking to implement them in.

Mixing is more often used with mixing liquids with other liquids, gasses, or other viscous materials. While blending often deals with the mixing of solids and liquids or even solids with other solids. So while these two actions are fairly similar it is important to know how you might be using them, especially in the manufacturing world. If you purchase a machine that is designed for the mixing of two or more liquids and suddenly you throw a solid in there and expect the same result, you may end up damaging your machine and potentially wasting materials.

So in summary, mixing and blending are pretty interchangeable at the surface level or in day to day conversation. But when you get into the details and take into account the value they bring to manufacturing companies, it is important to distinguish between the two. Failing to do so may result in machine downtime, loss of materials and loss of profit.

Continuous Mills for the Water and Wastewater Industry

These past several years we have been focused on designing and manufacturering high quality mills for one of the largest water and wastewater companies in the world. This project will put approximately 30 of our mills into the waste water industry this year and opens the door for more in the future.

This project will see our mills all over the globe, the primary focus is the East Coast but a few of these mills will make their way to Singapore and the United Kingdom this year. This particular model is one of our standard models with 40 horsepower and can operate in the 5-50 gpm flow rate range. This makes it ideal for the water and wastewater application our client is using them for.

We are proud to say that this type of continuous flow mill can be used in a number of different industries such as the paint, ink, paper, chemical, mining, minerals, and many more industries. We have been in the business for almost 70 years and with each new project we get more and more excited for the industries we are serving and the ways our clients are using all of our products from our continues flow mills to our top and bottom entry batch mills.

Drum Mixers

Most children love playing with trucks and toy construction equipment. Some have just the toys, while others watch movies with talking cranes, mixer trucks, and backhoes. My brother’s favorite toy was his dump truck that could haul dirt from one area of the play box to the other. My grandfather was a mechanic, which lead him to take tools and pretend to fix things on his equipment. Either way, he began as a child wanting to play and fix the equipment to being an adult who operates and fixes the same toys.

Although most children are not interested in playing with mixer trucks as compared to other construction toys, they are actually very interesting as an adult. There are a variety of mixers that range in size from large industrial mixers to rotating drum trucks and cement mixers that are pulled behind a car. The most common rotating drum mixer that comes to mind is a cement mixer.

In a cement mixer, water, aggregate such as pea gravel or sand is blending to make concrete. This type of mixer can be purchased or rented for personal or commercial use. It may be a good investment to purchase if you plan on completing more than one job, but if you know what you are doing and want to do-it-yourself, renting might be the better option. One thing’s for certain, you need to do business with those that have experience and dedication to customer service, as you will find with Kady International.

4 Types of Blades for Portable Mixers

What is a portable mixer? A portable mixer is just as it sounds—it is a mixer that can be moved with ease, brought from one workstation to another, a smaller design vs larger industrial mixers, and can be used on the go, among other things. The average blades for industrial portable mixer are thin and small for mixing miniature batches on site. Just like blades for larger mixers, blades for portable mixers are shaped and designed for different mixture results. Below you will find descriptions of the most common portable mixing blades:

Dynaflow: A Dynaflow blade is shaped like a rectangle that is gradually thinning. The center of the mixer is where the thickest part of the blade is. There is a slight angle to the blades for optimal mixing of the various ingredients. The Dynaflow blade is designed to break up lumps and prevent excessive frothing of the mixture.

Propeller: The propeller blade is shaped like the blades on an airplane or marine engine propeller. If you do not recall these types of blades, they are like petals on a sunflower that surround the core of the flower. The propeller blade is designed to mix liquids quickly and efficiently. The mixing motion created by this blade can cause frothing, which can also thicken liquids. This design allows the mixer to cut deep into thicker liquids and provide a churning action that is ideal for mixing a variety of liquid types.

Pitch: A pitch mixing blade is designed with angled rectangle blades located at the tip of the mixer, making it useful for cutting through lumps, as well as a homogenous mixture. The pitch blade is used for both liquids and dry materials.

Radial: A radial blade is another rectangle blade design, but with no angle and a 90 degree placement of each blade relative to one another. This type of blade is better used for mixing lumpy mixtures and those with dry materials. The radial blade should not be used if you want a thicker mixture with a higher volume.

Large and Small Scale Mixers

Part of the manufacturing process used in many industries such as food, chemical, cosmetic, and adhesive, includes mixing contents together to make materials and other products. Industrial mixers are usually very large, allowing them to mix large batches of product all at one time. Also, larger mixing tanks allow companies to produce products at higher rates in short periods of time.

Mixing is a common first step of many in the manufacturing process to produce specific products chosen by individual companies. There are several different kinds of mixers that industries use to mix their batches, to include: drum, food, vacuum, batch, and static mixers. They also have different options for mixing blades (some detachable) and how the mixing blade will rotate (based on what is being mixed). Some materials require a constant movement by using a continuous flow mixer while some materials require a static mixer, where the mixer component does not move. In addition there are industrial mixers that are set to mix, disperse, emulsify, homogenize, mill, or blend products for short and long periods of time.

Businesses that only need small batches of product are not required to buy the larger industrial mixers since there are many size options available. They can also buy mixers that are specified for multi-use of varying ingredients with detachable blades, allowing the company to save space and money for their mixing needs. From large industrial companies with hundreds of mixers to small scale mixers designed for personal use, customers will find that mixers provide many benefits and solutions for hard to mix ingredients and the production of products.

Mix it Up with Emulsifiers

Not to be confused with the emulsifier agents such as eggs, emulsifiers are specific mixers used to mix 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 materials in which there is a near-even dispersion of all of the involved materials throughout the mixture. Emulsifiers are the tools that are used to create emulsions.

To achieve its purpose, emulsifier mixers use high-speed rotation and centrifugal force to get emulsification. There is a large need for emulsifiers throughout industrial industries due to the variety of industrial processes and operations in which there is a need for the mixture of liquids. They can be used as tank circulators in the processing and storage of high-viscosity chemicals. Outside of the context of chemical processing, emulsifiers can also be used in the food and beverage industry as well as in research and development applications.

Emulsifiers used for chemical storage must be capable of continuous operation. If left alone for long enough periods of time emulsions are known to separate. Once the constituent materials in emulsion become separate, the mixture ceases to be an emulsion and will need to be mixed again to regain the status. There’s no question that emulsifiers are very important tools for industry, and as long as there is need for the processing and storage of emulsions, industry will need emulsifiers.

Paddle Mixers

Paddle mixers are almost identical to that of the bottom half of a canoe or kayak paddle. The paddle portion is the thick rectangular half or the end one would stick in the water. This part of the paddle is flat and rather thin in thickness, but is very durable. The paddle mixer is used for mixing heavy solids or when mixing wet and dry ingredients. These types of mixers are usually used for mixing dry materials, like minerals, but can also mix rubbers, plasters, and chemicals.

Placement of each paddle head is strategically placed and distributed so that the best mixing can take place. When mixing, the paddle heads rotate and mix the ingredients in a rectangular shaped bin. More elaborate bin mixers allow paddles to be interchanged for more than one type of mixing.

Industrial mixers come in many other types also such as a vacuum mixer, jet mixer, mobile mixer, screw blender, ribbon blender, double cone blender, high shear rotor stator, continuous processor, double and triple shaft and many more. The paddle mixer, like many of the mixers mentioned, has its own unique characteristics that provide different mixing patterns. Mixers play a very important role in the manufacturing industry when material requires mixing before the production of a product can begin.