Agglomeration
In powder processing, agglomeration is defined as a process of accumulating fine material into cohesive units such as pellets or granules. In simple terms, powder agglomeration shifts fine, powdery particles to a coarser size range that facilitates handling and storage.
Read moreAseptic
The word "aseptic" is derived from the term "sepsis". The organism of mammals and humans develops counter-reactions when blood poisoning is present. A severe counter-reaction is called sepsis. It can even destroy the body's own tissue and organs. The "a" at the beginning of the word symbolizes the opposite.
Read moreCIP cleaning-in-place
CIP (Cleaning In Place) is a process for the automated cleaning of process equipment. The definition and objective of CIP can be described as follows: Creating clean internal surfaces of a production unit without significantly changing the internal elements required for production. Depending on the water pressure during cleaning, a distinction is made between low-pressure cleaning (up to 3 bar), medium-pressure cleaning (up to 10 bar) and high-pressure cleaning (25-65 bar). The process is sometimes also referred to as "washing in place" (WIP).
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Coating
The coating process for powder processing is based on the principle of particle agglomeration as a side operation of the powder mixing or fluid bed process. Interparticle adhesion effects of small particles can be particularly large. They result from Van der Vals forces and electromagnetic forces. If the particles are only a few nanometers in size, they can coat active ingredient particles particularly well. Coating attempts to enlarge the mixture particles in a shell-like manner. In short, coating processes optimize properties of a bulk material in terms of shelf life, optical appearance, solubility, dust binding, flow behavior, durability, chemical reaction and much more.
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Dispersing and Deagglomerating of Powder
Dispersing: Definition and importance of the process in mixing technology. A homogeneous dispersion is a bulk material in which the porosity is homogeneously distributed. If agglomerates are present, then they must be broken up until the primary particles are present.
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Powder Drying
Powder drying removes liquid components from a bulk material. Liquids can adhere very firmly, especially if the powder particles have small pores. These are called capillaries. Capillary-bound liquid is evaporated by thermokinetics.
Read moreContinuous mixer, flow through mixer, online mixer
Other designations are continuous mixer or flow mixer or online mixer. Continuous mixers or flow mixers are almost always used in continuous operation. Continuous-flow mixers have relatively small dimensions. However, they can mix large volume flows. Flow mixers require accurately working dosing systems. If the dosing systems work incorrectly, then it is difficult to find out how much mixing material has already been produced incorrectly.
Read moreEmulsification Emulsifying Emulsion
When two or more immiscible liquids such as oil and water are present and you try to mix them together, this process is called emulsification. Normally, oil and water cannot be mixed. However, if you succeed in breaking the oil into extremely fine droplets (diameter 10 nm-0.1 mm), then the oil can be dispersed in the water. ... or vice versa the water in oil.
Read moreFluidisation, Fluidise, loosening powder by air injection
A powder is fluidised when all particles are surrounded by a gas. The powder particles no longer touch each other. The friction between them is eliminated. Fluidised powder behaves like a low-viscosity liquid. The smallest openings in the vessel (such as an incomplete weld seam, leaky fitting) lead to unwanted dust leakage. Fluidisation occurs more easily the smaller the particles are.
Read moreGranulation, Granulators
The correct term is "agglomeration" or "build-up granulation". The term granulation can also describe a crushing process, for example when a solid is broken down into smaller particles.
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Please read our detailed glossary article "Agglomeration" and our blog post on "Agglomeration".Instantising
Instantising is used to provide powdery substances with high wettability, dispersibility, solubility and flow ability
Read morePelletising
Creation of spherical particles from a powdery mix by using a liquid additive. Pellets generally have a higher density than agglomerates and are very compact.
Read moreQualifying
Qualifying of process engineering equipment such as mixers and mixing-dryers refers to documented testing to establish whether the equipment meets the requirements specified for the process.
Read moreRoughness parameter
This parameter usually describes the quality of the product-contacting and external surfaces of process equipment.
Read moreSuspending
Introduction of solid particles into a liquid, where they are held in suspension through mechanical forces. A heterogeneous mixture that has a tendency of phase separation.
Read moreDead space
An area within a process engineering apparatus that is not reached during a process step.
Read moreDrying vacuum Mixing drying
Contact drying, convection drying, reaction control, stripping, separation of fluids under pressure-, vacuum excitation and temperature control
Read moreValidation
Validation provides documented proof that a process or system satisfies the specified requirements during practical application. To this end the devices used (e.g. mixers) have to be qualified in advance.
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Homogenizer
Homogenizer or mixer?
In solids process engineering, the terms "homogenizing, homogenizer" and "mixing, mixer" are used synonymously. This refers to the dispersion of one substance in another with the aim of achieving as uniform a distribution of all particles as possible. The result is a homogeneous powder mixture. Homogeneity is equated here with the ideal mixing quality of a homogeneous bulk material.
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Particle size distribution
The particle size distribution describes the size and number of particles. A dispersed solid system, a suspension or an emulsion can be considered. Sometimes it is also referred to as a grain size distribution. What is meant is the same thing, namely the particle size distribution.
Read moreVacuum Mixer
This article on the subject of vacuum relates to mixers, vacuum mixers/dryers and synthesis reactors as used in plants in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries.
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Homogenization
Read moreHomogenization of bulk materials means the uniform distribution of particle size, moisture, color and temperature of an existing mixture or bulk material.
Homogenizing silos have a vertical mixing screw in the center. This allows good-flowing, dry plastic granules to be homogenized.
Cone screw mixers and Gyraton mixers belong to the precision large mixers. Both have mixing tools that are moved orbitally. They work gently and with minimal energy consumption. They produce very high mixing qualities.
Pneumatic silo mixers operate without mixing tools. The mix is swirled by the inflowing gas. The mixing materials must be finely grained, fluidisable, dry and monodisperse. All components must have a very similar bulk density. In this way, for example, several hundred tons of cement can be homogenized. The supplied gas generates a lot of dust. Powerful filters clean the dust and discharge the gas from the silo.
Batch mixers are much smaller. They operate at higher speeds than large mixers. They can change the particle size of powders. They can desagglomerate lumps. They can distribute small amounts of liquid into the powder. They can agglomerate the finest particles. The specific energy input of batch mixers is significantly higher than that of large mixers.
Free fall mixer: Here, an asymmetrically designed container mixes by slowly rotating around a horizontal axis. The mixing goods undergo overthrowing and sliding in the mixer. There are often fixtures such as paddles and deflectors in the mixing chamber. Free fall mixers require longer mixing times. They usually mix gently. However, they can only be used for free-flowing and low-dust goods. Free fall mixers should not be used if the goods are adhesive or if the bulk densities/particle sizes of the components differ greatly.
