ABM provides custom design, fabrication, integration, and service of mixers & blenders for powders, liquids, and slurries.
Whereas ribbon blenders create opposing streams in a vessel, paddle mixers create a tumbling effect by lifting the mix and letting gravity do the rest. This method is the gentler way of mixing product, though it may be slower per cubic foot of mixer volume. ABM provides and integrates virtually every configuration of paddle mixer with customizations (when necessary) for your product.
Hybrid mixers combine the agitators from ribbon and paddle mixers. This can be useful for products that are too delicate for ribbon mixers but won’t be mixed well enough by paddles, or for mixes which mound. The combination of these two methods has the convenient tendency to keep product from clumping up in the middle of your mixer.
Fluidizing blenders, or fluidizers, are a class of paddle blender meant for mixing finely divided solids with varying densities. When compared to paddle blenders, the paddles are smaller, more angular, set at decreasing distances along the shaft, and spun more quickly.
Plow blenders use wedge-like plows which cut through product and move it laterally, helping address issues caused by mixes with widely different densities and particle size. Though some lighter mixes will prefer plow blenders for one reason or another, ABM typically encorporates them for denser dry mixes and thicker slurries. ABM identifies the most suitable plow blender for your application from the market, installs it, and maintains it with 24/7/365 service. If plow blending is best for you but no available model is optimal, ABM can redesign one for an OEM to manufacture.
Ribbon blenders are one of the oldest automated mixing methodologies and use u-shaped troughs with opposing sets of helical agitators—one inner, and one outer. By forming 2 opposing cyclones within the product, they create homogeneous mixes quickly but create some heat and can degrade sensitive products.