Types of high viscosity mixing equipment
Mixing of highly viscous fluids is a common unit operation in industry, and many industrial sectors encounter mixing or kneading operations of highly viscous fluids, such as rubber, petroleum, plastics, coatings, inks, and synthetic fibers, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food, paper and cement industries.
1. Classification of high viscosity fluid mixing equipment
Mixing means to disperse the constituent materials sufficiently by stirring or kneading to obtain a mixture with uniform concentration of each component. Currently, there are usually two types of high viscosity mixing equipment used in industry, vertical and horizontal, which are widely used in specific industries because of their respective characteristics.
1.1 Vertical Mixing Equipment
1.1.1 Vertical single shaft mixing equipment
The size of the stirring paddle diameter is close to the diameter of the equipment, and the bottom of the mixing tank has a flat bottom, oval bottom, butterfly bottom and other shapes. Vertical single-shaft mixing equipment is widely used in petroleum refining industry and catalyst production industry because of its simple structure.
1.1.2 Vertical twin shaft mixing equipment
① Single shaft mixing equipment with different speed
The equipment is usually vertical and cylindrical, the center of which consists of two sets of stirring shafts. One set of shafts is fixed with a small radius of the central dispersion paddle rotating at high speed; the other set of shafts is fixed with near-wall stirring paddles such as anchor paddles, spiral paddles or frame paddles rotating at low speed.
② Twin shaft mixing equipment with different speed
The equipment usually consists of two shafts with different centers, the two shafts are installed on their own stirring paddles, two stirring paddles at different liquid level, usually both small diameter dispersion paddles, or the use of near-wall large diameter paddles and small diameter dispersion paddles combined in the form of two paddles at the same time so that the fluid in the tank to achieve a good state of mixing. At present, this type of mixing equipment is widely used in the paint, ink and other industries.
1.2 Horizontal mixing equipment
1.2.1 Horizontal single shaft mixing equipment
Horizontal single-shaft mixing equipment due to the simple structure, its rotor forms are mainly: Z type, E type, disk type, spiral belt type, double rotary type, etc..
1.2.2 Horizontal twin shaft mixing equipment
The equipment is especially suitable for mixing of high viscosity, ultra-high viscosity and powder systems. It has a self-cleaning function by scraping between the stirring members on the two shafts and between them and the wall of the mixer during rotation, which is conducive to realize the continuous polymerization reaction.
① The horizontal twin-shaft T-blade stirrer is also a common type of high viscosity mixing equipment. It has a partially self-cleaning function and is quite simple in construction. The two shafts are equipped with T-blades and the two shafts rotate in the same direction, resulting in a large effective reaction volume in the kettle.
② Horizontal twin-shaft paddle mixing equipment has a good application effect on powder mixing and is widely used in the feed industry.
③ Horizontal twin-shaft screw mixer is mainly used in the coal industry for powder mixing, the basic structure is installed on the same shaft with two equidistant spiral blades, the shaft rotation at the same time to produce feeding and recharging.
2. Conclusion
High-viscosity fluid mixing has important applications in industrial production. For the mixing of high-viscosity fluids, the reasonable selection and design of the form of mixing equipment and the study of its mixing effect are essential to strengthen heat transfer, improve the mixing quality and improve the performance of the mixed medium.
