Industrial mixers are specialized equipment that helps the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries achieve their desired results. They look nothing like your kitchen mixer and are used in a more controlled environment.
Many different types of industrial mixers exist, and all have specific functions for various processes. They include:
Adding and Stabilizing Preservatives
Mixers are the lifeblood of industrial food production. They play a crucial role in creating uniform substances suitable for mass consumption. The mixing process is a fundamental step in turning raw ingredients into food products that are both safe and delicious to consumers.
Industrial mixers come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions. They can range from small compact mixers used in chemical processing to ones that can pulverize and combine enormous quantities of materials for manufacturing and industry use.
A specialized industrial food mixer is an emulsifying mixer, best for blending immiscible liquids like oil and water. The emulsions created by these types of mixers are stable, which can reduce the need for additional stabilizing chemicals in food processing. Another essential function that industrial mixers serve is facilitating chemical reactions and bonding on a large scale. The mixers help speed up the process and create a more consistent end product.
Preparing Ingredients for Cooking
Mixers in food processing work to beat, knead, mix, fold, or blend ingredients. They must be able to meet specific sanitary standards due to the food industry’s stringent health and safety regulations.
They can also add and stabilize preservatives to make products more safe for storage, transportation, and consumption. This requires mixing, agitation, and blending to create consistent results that are precise for each production run.
In addition, an industrial mixer for food blending often needs to be more consistent with regular home mixers, as they are specialized machines that can be pretty large and complex in design. They can be categorized as batch or continuous mixers, depending on whether they agitate the materials in a single container or continuously pour them into other containers. The latter type of mixer is commonly used in applications that involve chemical processing, pharmaceutical products, and household chemicals.
Mixing Raw Materials
Industrial mixers are complicated, detailed, and precise tools for mixing chemicals and substances on a large scale. Their uses extend far beyond food production to industries like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and building materials, as well as any sector that combines similar or dissimilar chemicals.
The different types of mixers use forces like rotation, pressure, and shear to blend ingredients. Some mixers mix liquids, and others combine powders, while some have specific functions that include adding and stabilizing preservatives.
For powdered products, manufacturers rely on mixers to help them achieve their desired texture and consistency. Paddle industrial mixers, for example, are agitators that feature large paddles rotating around a horizontal axis. They’re ideal for mixing dry, brittle material, sludges, and slurries. They can also shorten the time that ingredients need to be blended. Industrial mixers are available in various shapes, sizes, and styles to fit any application. They can also be integrated with lung silos, scales for accurate calibration, hoppers for steady feeding, and other equipment to ensure consistent results.
Mixing Liquids and Solids
Industrial mixers are used to mix different substances in large volumes and with high accuracy, transforming raw materials into valuable finished products. The type of mixer required will depend on the specific reaction or effect to be produced. Industrial agitators are commonly used for blending and mixing immiscible substances (like oil and water). High-shear mixers use charged paddles at differing rotation angles to emulsify liquids into solids, as well as to soften thick materials like plastics and pastes.
There are also dispersers for liquifying solid ingredients like powders or granules, as well as mixers for mixing gases into liquids. To select the suitable industrial mixer for the job, a careful study of the combined materials must be made. The characteristics, properties, and consistency of these materials will narrow down the choice of mixer to the perfect match. Batch mixing is a standard method of operation, but continuous-feed mixers are also available.