Mixing powders, granules and granulates

Products that many people all over the world come into contact with on a daily basis are products that are in the supermarket. A large proportion of the products are there in powder form. Think of coffee, tea, milk powder and spice mixes. In addition, there are many products where powders are used as a base, such as flour for bread, but also cocoa and sugar for chocolate bars. Many powders are also used as an auxiliary substance in other products, such as corn or potato starch in soups and sauces. Fragrances, colors and flavors, preservatives and added vitamins are also examples of powders that are used in countless products. Besides the fact that powders are used directly for the preparation of food, they also offer the technological solution to store, transport and / or process products into other products relatively easily. This makes the production of powders an important activity in numerous industries such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food, dairy, animal feed and fish feed. Mixing powders is often part of the complete process line. The aim here is not only the production of a wide range of dry powders, but also guaranteeing a consistently high quality.

A wide variety of powders are often mixed individually or in combination with other powders in horizontal or vertical mixers. The often very different properties of the ingredients of powders make the generation of a homogeneous mixture a complicated process. Due to the different dimensions and properties of powders, granules and granulates, they sometimes easily clump together with other ingredients or they can disintegrate. These powder properties influence the way in which operations such as transport, mixing, storage and packaging should be controlled. Powders, granules and granulates are mainly mixed in batches in industry. The reason for this is the greater flexibility and lower installation costs of a batch process compared to continuous processes. The settings of the machines are based on a mix of "know-how" and (applied) science.