Paddle Mixers help a specialty seasoning manufacturing achieve better blends

About the mixers
The two mixers are batch paddle mixer and continuous paddle mixer. The batch mixer is a 150-cubic-foot vessel that operates using a 50-horsepower motor, has a single rotor, and has a 1-minute mixing time. The mixing vessel is long, narrow, and enclosed. The rotor has a number of specifically sized paddles and rotates at 300-fpm periphery speed, producing no shear or heat generation.  The continuous mixer has an 8-cubic-foot mixing vessel, is powered by a 7.5-horsepower motor, has a 1-minute average dwell time, and a 480-ft3/hr capacity. It also has no shear, which is important for retaining the fiber integrity.

The batch mixer has a drop-bottom discharge door, and the continuous mixer has an end discharge with a bottom port for finishing the run without ingredient loss. Constructed of Type 304 stainless steel, the mixer can be mounted on legs or fitted for mounting on load cells. They can also be equipped with a feed hopper and flush-mounted grates to screen un-wanted material and can mix to a 5 percent coefficient of variation.“ we’ve actually created a gold standard blending method for this product,” says Olga. “We’ve been able to secure a long-term contract with our customer because we have s system that can produce this product quickly and at a very high quality.”

At Soyuzsnab Foods, the first mixing step uses the batch mixer to blend the first 27 ingredients. The ingredients are fed through vibrating grates that ensure that no foreign material or lumps are incorporated into the blend. Once the premixing step is complete and oil is added, the blended ingredients are dense-phase pneumatically conveyed from the batch mixer to a hopper over the packaging equipment or to a hopper over another loss-in-weight feeder above the continuous mixer.

Depending on the recipe chosen, the control system directs the correct proportion of seasoning blend and the final ingredient from the loss-in-weight feeder to the last mixing step. This step uses the continuous mixer to gently add the fiber – a light, fluffy  material – to the pre-blend. With this two-step mixing process, the manufacturer is producing nearly 3 t/h.

Improving the mixing process, getting a better result
Results using these two mixers have been above expectation. “We’ve actually created a gold standard blending method for this product,” says Olga. “We’ve been able to secure a long-term contract with our customer because we have a system that can produce this produce quickly and at a very high quality.”