What Is a High Shear Mixer?

High Shear Mixer Uses

• The plastics, cosmetics, chemical, food, pharmaceutical and adhesive industries use high-shear mixers in many manufacturing processes. The tool is used to mix granular products into liquids, combine gases with liquids and create suspensions, dispersions and emulsions. High shear mixers also facilitate particle size reduction and homogenization processes. Different types of high-shear mixers are used for various applications.

Batch High-Shear Mixers

• Batch mixers mix incongruent liquids or powders and liquids by pouring them through the top of the unit into a tall tank with a rotating shaft on the bottom. The tanks are difficult to clean, so some designs have self-cleaning features or are used only to mix dry ingredients.

Inline High-Shear Mixers

• The horizontal design of inline mixers operates through drawing the ingredients from one end to the other using centrifugal pumping action. These mixers offer more control of the mixing process and are easier to clean than batch models.

Ultra-High-Shear Inline Mixers

• More shears are created in ultra-high-shear inline mixers, which makes it the best machine to incorporate exceptionally tiny particles and molecules into other components. Rotors force the particles into holes or slots of stators that distribute them evenly into the other substances. Some models can alter the momentum of the flow to enhance the mixing.

High-Shear Granulators

• High-shear granulators use an inline or batch high-shear mixer in conjunction with a fluid-bed dryer to reduce the size of granules. The liquid is used to speed up the process and then pumped to the dryer bed, where it is removed and only the refined granules are left behind.

Inline Powder Induction

• When a range of granulated or powdered ingredients with different size particles needs to be combined, an inline power induction mixer is best. It is easy to operate and simple to clean.

Equilibrium Mixes

• Equilibrium mixes are those that do not change once the desired characteristics are achieved, regardless of how long the process continues. Different types of high-shear mixers create these combinations by regulating how many times the material passes through the shearing process until the desired particle or droplet size is reached.