Process machines with expert know-how
MTI mixing and processing machines are used in a wide range of applications: for example as hygienic versions for the food, cosmetics or pharmaceutical industries, in two-stage production processes for the manufacture of peroxidically cross-linked polyethylene (PE-Xa) or for mixing fibre compounds for WPC, NFPC or PPC.
Here you will find some practical examples as well as tips on how your mixing plant can contribute to optimizing your individual process.
Additive Compounds
Efficient mixing processes for stabilisers and masterbatches
Antioxidants, slipping agents, light and heat stabilisers, flame retardants and others – there are numerous additives to achieve specific plastic properties and a great variety of products. Different processes are used today to prepare uniform and stable pre-mixes from individual raw materials.
MTI offers the perfect mixer technology for all mechanical and thermal processes to prepare additive compounds with premium quality. Find out here how to achieve excellent compound quality in face of extremely differing physical properties of the raw materials.
Hygenic Design
Mixing, coating, drying under hygienic conditions
Regardless of whether it concerns instant drinks, baby powder or blood bags – for all applications in the food, cosmetics or pharmaceutical industry – the highest requirements for quality and purity are to be met. Especially gaining a predefined quality of the mixture which can be reliably reproduced without any crosscontamination is of utmost importance.
A homogeneous mixture of edicts with varying characteristics such as chemical composition, particle size or aggregate status is required for all processes. Which at first glance sounds trivial may turn out as being very complex especially in mixes having components with very low concentration referred to the total batch.
High-efficiency mixer aspiration
Rise in processability and product quality – drop in costs
Even low moisture contents within the mixture for plastic products will lead to reduced mixing quality, extruder failure and defects in the final product. An efficient and uniform moisture reduction improves the processability and product quality of your mixture while lowering your costs at the same time.
The long-time field-tested and well-proven aspiration system developed by MTI reduces the moisture content of dryblends during the mixing. The remaining non-critical content has no impact on the process parameters and the product quality. The system can also be used to upgrade mixers of earlier MTI lines or other brands.
Mixer Optimisation
Progress in process: Mixer optimisation in PVC processing
Higher performance requirements, new raw material properties, a modified process sequence or increasing quality demands – there are numerous reasons for adjusting the parameters of a production line. In particular an optimised mixture is the key to reproducible top-level results.
The optimisation of a mixer requires an overall view of all parameters. As a first step the actual state is carefully analysed to disclose error sources and present possible solutions. For these optimisations the MTI expert engineers provide technical advice based on their long-term knowhow in process technology – regardless of the mixer’s type and brand.
Having more than 40 years of experience in mixing technology MTI is able to present the optimum solution for almost every application.
Surface Treatment
Mixing, coating and drying with high-performance mixers
In the plastics industry, the quality of many multiphase systems depends on the formation of a good coupling between their constituents and the substrate material. For this purpose, the surfaces of minerals as well as of flame retardants are coated with silicones and silanes. In cosmetic products, pigments, e.g., gain strong hydrophobic properties via an appropriate surface modification to reduce their water absorption.
In all cases the low-viscosity coating must be applied to the surface of the inorganic recipe ingredients as homogeneously and reproducibly as possible. Such uniform and complete coating requires the use of specially optimised mixers. A maximum flexibility can be achieved with MTI‘s practically proven Uni tec® series of high-performance mixers which provide significant advantages over conventional systems in batch processes involving mixing volumes up to 2,000 liters.
PE-Xa
Raw materials impose high demands on mixer design
PE-Xa is a proven material for gas, heating and water pipe systems, because cross-linking with peroxides significantly increases flexibility, resilience, temperature resistance and stress cracking resistance of high molecular weight PE. Since these characteristics outperform those of differently cross-linked PE pipes, and based on today‘s output-boosting demands in twin-screw extruder technology, the production of PE-Xa piping is growing steadily.
High-volume manufacturers, in particular, increasingly prefer a two-stage production process, using an MTI high performance mixer to blend the PE with additives and peroxide in a first step, providing a dry, free-flowing material mix. The extrusion of the pipe is then performed in a second stage.
Special Salts
Application description for the cooling of special salts
Highly corrosive special salts for the use in chemical processes are produced in vacuum dryers at temperatures of more than 130 °C. Prior to filling them into the various sales packages these hygroscopic salts have to be cooled down significantly, as otherwise the foil-coated packages might be damaged.
So far the whole process had been carried out in one unit with cycle times of more than 8 hours. To increase productivity the process should now be shortened using the existing machines. Without adversely affecting the structure and particle size distribution of the salt crystals.
Efficient mixing of fibre compounds
WPC/NFPC/PPC and more
Due to the continuously growing consumption of fibre compounds in the past years producers are faced with the demand for rising production quantities. As a result especially in extrusion plants with high output capacities the trend is towards two-step processing.
In the first step all raw materials are prepared to a compound in a heating/cooling mixer which allows for considerably more efficient processing in the following extrusion stage as a second step. The significant advantage compared to the one-step process in which all recipe components have to be mixed, dried and compounded in the extruder, is an increased output by 30-50 % combined with a considerably reduced wear – using the same equipment as before.
Add-on options for mixing systems
A safe choice
Vertical and horizontal mixing systems are well-proven for bulky materials and applications in the mechanical process technology. Therefore they are installed in almost every known production process and for nearly all components. However, it often needs specific details and add-ons to customise the mixer for a specific application with its typical characteristics.
Whether choppers, addition of fluids or tempered mixing tools – mixing systems with additional equipment can be individually adapted to every process.
Find out more about our applications in the different industrial sectors here
