Silverson Machines is celebrating their 80th birthday this month and in that time their high shear mixing equipment has helped thousands of customers improve the efficiency of their processes
The versatility of the mixing equipment allows it to be used across a range of industries, such as food, chemicals and cosmetics. In this article find out how Silverson High Shear mixers have enabled manufacturers in these industries to significantly reduce processing times:
Food – Confectionery Reclamation process eliminates heating stage to save time with Silverson High Shear mixers
A major European confectionery manufacturer replaced a conventional agitator with a Silverson in-tank Batch mixer after successful trials to improve the reclamation of defective or out-of-spec fruit confectionery.
Previously, rejected sweets were dissolved in a heated vessel fitted with an agitator so they could be recycled into future batches. The process involved heating the vessel and water, waiting for the 2–3cm sweets to melt, then allowing the mixture to cool before reuse. This lengthy process could not keep pace with production, resulting in a growing stockpile of rejected sweets occupying valuable storage space.
Looking for a faster solution, the company contacted Silverson to arrange a trial.
Using an in-tank high shear Batch mixer, 130kg of 2–3cm fruit sweets were mixed with 60 litres of cold water at ambient temperature, with no heating required. The final, homogeneous mixture was 57 brix with a temperature of 25 degrees Celsius, all achieved in under an hour of mixing – much faster and more cost-effective than their previous process.
Visit the Silverson website to read another case study showing how a reclamation process has saved a customer millions of pounds.
Chemical – production times reduced from 2 days to 3 hours with Silverson High Shear mixers
A manufacturer of water-based primer transformed its production process by replacing an in-tank agitator with a Silverson Flashmix powder/liquid mixer.
Before switching to Silverson, the company had been using an in-tank agitator to disperse the four main ingredients that make up their primer: Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂), China Clay, Talc, and Fumed Silica into water. Using the in-tank agitator, each batch required 16–20 hours, equivalent to around two working days.
These extremely long mixing times stemmed from two factors: mixing equipment that wasn’t suitable for the job and the challenging scale of their operation. The company was working with a 3,000 litre vessel, and while the percentage of Titanium Dioxide was relatively low at around 30%, their agitator simply couldn’t handle the dispersion efficiently.
They decided to trial a Silverson Flashmix powder/liquid mixer, adding the Titanium Dioxide directly into the hopper using a straight forward “rip and tip” operation with 25kg bags. The required amount of TiO₂ was dispersed into the product in approximately 3-4 hours, meaning the company can now produce four batches in the time it previously took to make one. This dramatic improvement in throughput has substantially increased production capacity without requiring additional shifts or overtime.
Cosmetics – production times reduced from 5 hours to 3 minutes with the Silverson Flashmix
A company manufacturing a range of scientifically-backed supplements and skin care products has purchased a Flashmix for the production of one of their most popular gel products.
The gel is a very viscous product, around 30,000 centipoise when mixed, and it was taking around 5 hours to create the product using a Fast Feed system in conjunction with an impeller situated at the top of the vessel. This set-up was taking up a large amount of space on the production floor and results were unsatisfactory.
The long processing times were due to powdered ingredients being added to the Fast Feed system one scoop at a time by the operator. The process had to be done this way or else the system would vapor lock and completely shut down the pump, extending processing times even further.
With customer demand for the gel increasing, the company contacted Silverson for advice on how to speed up this labour intensive, controlled powder addition process.
It was decided that a Flashmix FMX50 would be the best fit for producing the gel. Not only can it handle higher viscosities, the Flashmix would reduce the operator input to a minimum due to the powder feed hopper. So rather than added powders a scoop at a time, the operators could now add bags of powder into the mixer in one go. This helped to simplify the process and reduce the mixing times down from 5 hours to around 3 minutes!
Replacing two pieces of equipment with a single Flashmix also reduced the production footprint, with the new system occupying around a quarter of the previous floor space.
If you’d like to experience the benefits of a Silverson High Shear mixer, get in touch to arrange a trial.
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