Planetary Mixers
Planetary mixing refers to mixing components in which the components are moving in a planetary-like motion --- that is motion around a central axis. (RDC 6/14/2011) (Veronneau, US Patent 7,396,152; 7/8/2008)
“A planetary mixer is a device used to mix round products including adhesives, pharmaceuticals, foods, chemicals, electronics, plastics and pigments.”
“This mixer is ideal for mixing and kneading viscous pastes (up to 6 million centipoise) under atmospheric or vacuum conditions. Capacities range from 1/2-pint through 750 gallons. Many options including jacketing for heating or cooling, vacuum or pressure, vari speed drives, etc. are available.”
“The blades each rotate on their own axes, and at the same time on a common axis, thereby providng complete mixing in a very short timeframe.”
Recent Journal Articles
An arrangement of ideal reactors as a way to model homogenizing processes with a planetary mixer
(1678–1683)AIChE Journal 57 #7 (2011)
Delaplace et al , France, modeled the homogenization mechanism occurring when mixing highly viscous Newtonian fluids with a planetary mixer. In particular, an arrangement of ideal reactors containing a perfect-mixed zone sweeping out a torus reactor is proposed to represent the dynamics of the mixing process. The originality of the arrangement of ideal reactors developed is due to the time–dependent location of the perfect-mixed zone in the torus which mimics the periodic revolution motion of the agitator around the vertical and central axis in the vessel. To ascertain the reliability of the method proposed, tracer injections were carried out with a planetary mixer named TRIAXE® system. It is shown that modeling results are in close agreement with experimental ones on the whole range of impeller revolution speeds tested. The model proposed captures well the physical mixing phenomena. (RDC 6/13/2011)