Intermeshing Rotor Mixing Machines

Comparison of tangential and intermeshing rotor size to give equivalent batch size 

As indicated, the distribution of ingredients occurs largely before dispersion. Consideration of material flow supports this concept, with the flow over the mixing scroll and consequential high shear only taking place when the materials have become sufficiently plastic with increasing temperature. The consequential increase in mixing torque can, when compounds are 

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In the case of the intermeshing rotor machine the majority of the mixing action takes place between the rotors with the shearing action being created by the rotor design. Unlike the tangential mixers where the rotors revolve at different speeds, the rotors in intermeshing machines run at the same speed. 

There have been few published basic studies of intermeshing rotors of internal mixers from P. S. Kim, Koolihiran, and White [70 to 72]. These show that intermeshing rotor machines mix carbon black and silica more rapidly than separated rotor machines and achieve better quality mixes. 

As may be expected, the mixing behaviour of tangential and intermeshing rotor mixers is very different. An attempt is made below to describe the mixing actions of the different concepts of machine in layman s terms, there being many learned texts published by various educational institutions which may be read by those wishing to explore this interesting subject further. 

Intermeshing rotor machines have tended to be larger, and more expensive, for a particular mixing batch size because of the laigerrelative diameter of an intermeshing rotor to the mixing volume available (Figure 22). This... 

A variable intermeshing clearance style mixer is an internal mixer with intermeshing rotors that provides technologists and compounders with the ability to control and adjust the variation of the clearance between the rotors. By adjusting the gap between the rotors, it is possible to optimise the amount of energy to be transferred to the compound in accordance to its actual viscosity. The results on mixed compounds presented in this article are based on tests run with industrial sized machines directly at the customer s production facility. 8 refs. 

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