Breaking Down Process Applications

Nearly every product we use in our daily lives has been touched in some way by a fluid mixer. From food and beverage to waste treatment, from pulp and paper to the vast chemical processing industry, liquid mixers are indispensable.

The number of different products requiring mixing is infinite, and each product has unique manufacturing requirements. Fluid mixers are called upon to blend miscible or immiscible liquids, suspend or dissolve solids in liquid products, disperse gasses within a fluid or to merely provide flow within a tank to promote heat transfer. Sharpe Mixers builds many types of mixing equipment to meet these requirements, but they all operate on the same basic principle, using rotating impellers to "pump" the fluid within a tank.

An easy way to arrange process applications into categories indicating degree of difficulty is a broad spectrum divided into three seperate parts:

A "white" process is defined as one which is a straightforward, easily accomplished task. For example, simple dissolving, or blending and storing low viscosity materials. These are jobs that can be satisfied by simply selecting a stock mixer, from portables to our E and N Series.

A "gray" process is more complex, and may require pilot plant testing before a mixer design can be determined. Depending on the shade of gray, the resulting mixer could be similar to an E or N Series or completely "designed from scratch" to satisfy many special requirements. All white applications - and many gray applications utitlize standard impellers, reducers, and motor designs - and the determining criteria is often one of size, scale, or materials of construction.

A "black" process implied deep, dark magic. In reality, it is here where all of the best engineering, pilot planting, and special designing techniques are required to satisfy process variables. This could mean specially designed impellers, reducers or sealing devices, using exotic materials and special motors. "Black" process specifications are the most difficult to satisfy.

Sharpe Mixers has the facilities, the personnel, the experience and the know-how to handle all these processes. What are your mixing needs? How can we help you?