Many companies active in the polymer, coatings, and printing ink industries opt for traditional mixers, three-roll mills, or even shaker mixers as well as dissolvers when producing homogeneous coatings. Orion Engineered Carbons additionally relies on the Hauschild SpeedMixer^® centrifugal mixer for the homogenization of liquid components. Drawing on this mixing technology, homogeneous multi-material compounds such as liquids, highly viscous pastes, and powders can reportedly be produced in just a few minutes without stirring tools.

Orion Engineered Carbons is a global supplier of carbon blacks. The long-established Luxembourg-based company, with sites and facilities in the U.S., Germany, and China, produces a wide range of carbon blacks (e.g., high-performance specialty gas blacks, acetylene blacks, furnace blacks, lamp blacks, thermal blacks, and others). These materials are used to tint, color, and enhance the performance of polymers, plastics, paints and coatings, inks and toners, textile fibers, adhesives and sealants, tires, and other mechanical rubber goods.

Quickly Homogenize Liquid Components

As a manufacturer and supplier of special carbon blacks for various industries, Orion tests the application performance of its special carbon blacks in various liquid systems in its industry-specific innovation laboratories. Orion develops guide formulations for its customers and manufactures solvent- and water-based pigment preparations within the context of product developments. The laboratories rely on the Hauschild SpeedMixer^® DAC 400 FVZ for all work where formulation components have to be mixed.

According to Orion’s printing ink application engineers, “Thanks to the Hauschild SpeedMixers^® we can homogenize liquid components very efficiently in connection with short mixing times. We appreciate the easy handling and cleaning of the SpeedMixer, as no stirring tools are needed for the special mixing process.”

The key to success is the system’s dual asymmetric centrifuge (DAC), which enables the double rotation of the mixing cup. The combination of centrifugal forces acting in different planes enables an extremely efficient mixing process, which is characterized by a homogeneous result without the use of stirring tools. In this process, almost 100% degassing is achieved during the mixing process, removing even minute micro-bubbles. An additional degassing cycle is not required.

“Our Hauschild SpeedMixer^® works with the forces of nature instead of stirring tools: centrifugal and shear forces ensure that the components of even extremely viscous materials mix homogeneously,” said  Fabio Boccola, CEO of Hauschild Engineering.

The Hauschild SpeedMixer^® with vacuum technology is available for complete deaeration. Programmable cycles ensure an identical, reproducible mixture of each batch and result in a considerable acceleration of the development process. 

No Cleaning Required

The Hauschild SpeedMixer^® mixes without stirring tools in disposable cups, thereby entirely dispensing with the need for cleaning and the additional use of chemicals. The dimensions of the mixing cups and mixing buckets range from a few grams to 10 kilograms and a few milliliters to 16 liters nominal capacity, depending on the size of the batch.

Additional details are available at www.hauschild-speedmixer.com. Orion Engineered Carbons is online at www.orioncarbons.com. 

Image courtesy of Hauschild Engineering.