Light Weight Mixing System
Light Weight Mixing System
The EvenMix® offers reliable, easy to handle and light weight mixing system for IBC’s 55 gallon drums and standard mixing containers. The EvenMix® mixing system design has an integrated approach to the whole system.
This system is made up of three major components:
- a rotary power source
- an efficient power transmission system
- and an efficient mixing blade system
The EvenMix® power systems use either a high speed air motor or a high speed electric motor running in the range of 20,000 RPM. High speed is necessary for the low weight system as a high motor speed is reduced to a 250 RPM output speed through gear reduction. Let’s compare the EvenMix® electric motor with electric motors in the market. A ½ horsepower, 120 volt AC electric motor running at 1,750 RPM has a weight of approximately 22 lbs. The EvenMix® electric or air motor with controller running at 20,000 RPM has a weight of under 2 lbs!
The power transmission system is a multistage high efficiency planetary gearing system which reduces the speed at the same time increasing the torque. The power going into the gearing system is the same as the power leaving the system exchanging speed for torque. Our planetary gearing systems are over 95% efficient therefore input and output power are essentially the same. As an example a three stage planetary gearing system with a four to one gear reduction per stage results in reducing the low load speed from 20,000 RPM to 212 RPM while increasing the stall torque from 1 NM to 64 NM (47 ft. lbs.). The weight of this power transmission system is approximately 2 lbs.
Efficient Mixed Flow Mixing Blade
The mixing element of the EvenMix® system is based on an efficient mixed flow mixing blade. Applying design principles used to design high speed aircraft turbine blades and superchargers. The resultant mixing system efficiently transfers rotary input power to the medium to be mixed. The transfer of power to the medium is in the form of a complex rotating power vector simultaneously producing axial flow circumferential flow and radial flow resulting in excellent and efficient mixing. Efficient mixing takes place even at speeds as low as 20 RPM and a homogeneous EvenMix® is achieved within a short period of time. The mixing blade system is designed for low drag transferring most of the input power to the fluid not wasting power to overcome drag.
The mixing system was validated with imperial and quantitative testing within IBC’s, 55 gallon barrels, and 5 gallon pails. Viscosities range from 1 centipoise to 10,000 with added particles (sand) with a density of 1.6. Field tests included mixing an organic compound that had been stored in a filled IBC for more than a year. The solids had separated and were the consistency of peanut butter (50,000 centipoise) with 4 inches of liquid on top. Within 10 to 15 minutes EvenMix®, with a ½ horsepower motor geared to approximately 100 RPM produced a flowing mixture of the desired consistency. Many of our validation tests are documented on the referenced videos.
Assembling the three system elements designed to easily interface with each other results in an efficient light weight mixing system. The three elements are easily interchangeable to accommodate customized applications. Standard output interfaces that can easily attach to most standard and customized applications are part of the design features.
The results of an integrated design and development process is an efficient, effective, light weight mixing (under 10 lbs.) system that meets the vast majority of mixing tasks with an easy to handle, fast, and efficient EvenMix® system.
