White Papers
White Papers

  • Five ways to more energy efficient mixing
    This white paper explores five ways to increase energy efficiency in new and existing mixing processes. The ideas discussed in this paper are recommendations based on Ross’ collective experience as a provider of specialty mixing equipment to the process industries for over 170 years. Mixer testing and simulation trials are recommended to confirm the suitability of a specific mixing strategy.
  • Vacuum Drying Alternatives
    Throughout the industries, more and more manufacturers are turning to agitated vacuum systems to improve their drying processes. Three common mixing technologies are employed in various vacuum drying requirements: the Vertical Blender/Dryer, Cylindrical Blender/Dryer and Double Planetary Mixer. This white paper presents the operating theory, advantages and sample applications of each design. The recommendations discussed here are based on Ross’s experience as a worldwide mixing and drying equipment supplier for over 170 years.
  • Optimize Solid-Liquid Mixing
    This white paper presents a number of mixing technologies and techniques employed in solid dispersion and dissolution. The aim of this paper is to provide practical information on the efficient use of specialty mixing equipment for the preparation of low, medium and high viscosity solid-liquid mixtures under low and high shear conditions.
  • Choose the Right Inline High Shear Mixer for Your Process
    This white paper presents some ideas for selecting the right inline high shear mixer for your process. The recommendations discussed in this paper are based on the company’s collective experience as a mixing equipment provider to the process industries for over 170 years. Mixer testing and simulation trials are encouraged to confirm the suitability of a specific mixing strategy.
  • Static Mixer Design Options
    become more widespread throughout the process industries. Their high performance, low operating and maintenance cost, durability and continuous operation make them very appealing tools for improving mixing, emulsification, reaction and heat transfer. For many decades, Ross has supplied static mixers for various installations, from refineries and pipelines to wastewater treatment plants and manufacturing facilities of chemicals, food, plastics, composites, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, etc. The aim of this paper is to provide practical information on the specification and use of Ross Static Mixers. Sample applications and mixer selection tips are also presented.
  • Guide to Mixing Nanomaterials
    This white paper presents an overview of mixing technologies employed in the dispersion of nano-sized solid particles into liquid. As major developments continue to unfold in the multi-disciplinary field of nanotechnology, new mixing applications and processing challenges arise. The aim of this paper is to provide practical information on the efficient use of specialty mixing equipment for the preparation of low, medium and high viscosity nanodispersions.
  • High Viscosity Mixer Designs and Applications
    Efficient mixing of viscous applications takes into consideration, among many other factors, viscosity and level of shear. It is common for batch materials to exhibit fluctuating rheology during different stages of mixing and demand varying shear intensity depending on ingredient additions or temperature limits. The appropriate mixing equipment must therefore have the ability to control flow pattern and fine tune shear input at any point of the mix cycle.
  • Solutions to Batch Mixing Issues
    This white paper presents some strategies for improving commonly encountered batch mixing problems. Because mixing processes vary from one application to another – with different objectives, design configurations, rheologies, operating limitations, etc. – there are no fix-all solutions that will apply to every situation.
  • Mixing Applications in Selected Green Technologies
    This white paper presents an overview of mixing technologies employed in selected green technologies. As major developments continue to advance in the areas of renewable energy, green construction, green chemistry and many other markets, new mixing applications and processing challenges arise..
  • How to Wet Powders Instantly
    Wetting powders such as alginates and xantham gums is one of the toughest challenges in mixing. When trying to mix them, they tend to float for hours on the surface of a liquid batch. Even with vigorous agitation, they remain on the slopes of a vortex and resist being drawn down into the batch.
  • Mixing Equipment & Applications in the Pharmaceutical & Medical Products Industry
    This white paper presents an overview of mixing technologies implemented across many of today’s highly competitive pharmaceutical and medical industries, as well as new mixing equipment designs that are increasingly being recognized as potential solutions to prevailing mixing challenges.
  • Mixing Equipment & Applications in the Food Industry
    Recent advances in mixer and blender design have contributed to the success of food companies, developing new products while also lowering production costs. This white paper discusses traditional and new specialty mixing and blending technologies.
  • Realities of mixing & dispersion operations in the coatings industry
    In this environment, any equipment that provides a boost in versatility and efficiency and enables development engineers to be more productive is welcome. A single mixer that can do the work of multiple machines can save space in the lab and cut operating costs sharply.
  • A Guide to Successful Mixing Trials
    Testing at the mixer manufacturer’s laboratory presents the benefit of evaluating multiple equipment designs and of utilizing the expertise of mixing engineers who can make valuable suggestions based on their observations of your product’s behavior during and after mixing.
  • A Brief on Nanomaterial Mixing Technology
    A growing number of consumer products – from computer chips and cosmetics to fabrics and surfboards – are incorporating small amounts of nanomaterials to enhance existing properties or provide new functionalities.
  • Overview of Adhesives Industry Applications
    This article seeks to provide an overview of effective and updated mixing technologies being implemented by many adhesives manufacturing plants, as well as new equipment designs increasingly being recognized by the industry as potential solutions to prevailing mixing challenges.
  • Mixing Emulsions Made Easy
    For many emulsion applications today, the only way to know for sure what kind of mixer will work best is to test several designs in a controlled setting and to evaluate the results quantitatively. Consult an experienced mixer manufacturer with a well-equipped testing laboratory.
  • Understanding Surfactants and New Methods of Dispersing
    The only common finding is that surfactants in a fluid system affect several of its properties, both, in their equilibrium values and in their dynamic response to changes, as well as the physical and rheological properties of the system’s interfaces.
  • Mixer Selection – An alternative consideration!
    A review of mixers can be useful, but it can also be deceiving. It places equipment like high-speed dispersers and rotor/stator pre-mixers in neat categories, and that is not the way the real world works. Mixer selection is just not that simple. It’s a balancing act. Read on.
  • A Guide to Understanding and Mixing Thickeners
    Thickeners come from both natural and synthetic sources. Naturally occurring polymers comprised of polysaccharide or amino acid building blocks, and are generally water-soluble. Common examples are starch, cellulose, alginate, egg yolk, agar, arrowroot, carageenan, collagen, gelatin, guar gum, pectin and xanthan gum.
  • Dry Blender Selection Criteria – Vertical & Horizontal Designs
    Ribbon blenders are used to mix many thousands of products, from fertilizers and plastic resins to flavored coffees and cosmetics. The ribbon blender is one of the most common mixing devices in service today, because it is one of the most versatile and cost-efficient mixers ever created.
  • New High Speed Mixer Designs Allow More Efficient Development and Scale-Up
    When a piece of equipment provides the tools necessary to quickly compare the advantages of competing mixing techniques such as rotor-stator mixers and high speed dispersers — using a method that is controlled, quantifiable, and projectable for scale-up — its value is far greater.
  • How to choose the right mixer for high-viscosity mixing applications
    If you haven’t read an up-to-date mixer selection chart recently, take another look. You will find that the distinction between the mixers listed is now far less conspicuous than the overlap in their capabilities. This is especially true among heavy-duty mixers capable of mixing viscous paste materials having viscosities from 50,000 to 8 million cps (centipoise).
  • The Importance of Mixer Testing and Selection
    If you haven’t tested a variety of mixers during the last few years, forget all the rules you used to rely on to distinguish one mixer from another. According to the old rulebook, mixers fell into neat categories according to their capabilities and the requirements of your application.
  • How to Specify the Right Multi-Agitator Mixer for Your Application
    Multi-shaft mixers often enable manufacturers to retire specialized pieces of equipment by combining multiple mixing steps into an integrated, multi-step cycle within one mix vessel.
  • Optimize & Speed Up Powder Wetting - Shorten Cycle Times
    Solids like fumed silica, calcium carbonate, gums and thickeners are difficult to wet out and often stubbornly float on the surface of a liquid during the mixing process.Our new technology directly injects powders into a specially engineered high-speed rotor/stator, where the powder is immediately dispersed into the liquid stream.
  • How a Control System can help increase profits
    The control system must balance your need for accuracy, consistency, flexibility and reliability against your need to control costs. The control system is therefore much more than the interface between the operator and the machine; it’s a direct interface between your process system and profitability!
  • The Art of High Shear Mixing
    The ability to apply intense shear and shorten mixing cycles gives these mixers broad appeal for applications that require immiscible fluids to be formulated into emulsions, or agglomerated powders to be dispersed into a liquid medium.
  • The new DPM Double Planetary Mixer - an economical alternative to double-arm kneaders
    The new DPM Double Planetary mixer is equipped with Ross’s new HV Blades*, the new mixer can replace a double-arm kneader in many applications, cut operating costs substantially, and increase production.
  • Ultra High Shear Mixing Technology
    The daily challenge in high-shear rotor/stator (HSM) mixing is to reach the target droplet or particle size and achieve a satisfactory particle-size distribution in the most cost-effective manner.“What is the most effective, economical, and practical way to produce the required article - or droplet size distribution?”
  • Consider the Advantages of Mixing Under Vacuum
    Our experience in the field and in the Ross Test & Development Center has proven that vacuum can improve the performance of almost any mixing, blending or drying system.
  • Graceful Scale-Up of Mixing Systems – Make it Happen for You
    The textbook concept on scalability is defined in terms of process, material and machine variables, grouped into ratios and equations establishing geometric, kinematic and dynamic similarities. But virtually all of these classic formulas apply only to simple, lowviscosity liquid-liquid mixing systems involving a single agitator.
  • The Quest for Clean Mixing
    The usual challenges include maintaining batch-tobatch uniformity and optimizing blend times, but could be as simple, yet equally important, as improving cleanliness.
  • Tips to Help you Choose the Right Blender
    Solid-solid product formulations are mixed to meet a variety of objectives. These include blending of ingredients (such as in the preparation of animal feeds, fertilizer, glass batches, food products, etc), heating/cooling/drying (like in the processing of metal powders and plastics) and coating of solid particles with small amounts of liquid (similar to the manufacture of pigments, pharmaceuticals and chemical blends).
  • Mixing & Blending Equipment: Give Renting a Try
    When new equipment is too expensive to purchase or when outsourcing is more a hassle than a solution, the option of renting can offer many manufacturers a way to cushion the abrupt change, especially when no one knows how long the increased demand will last.
  • Getting Ready to Purchase a New Mixer? Tips on How to Justify the Capital Expenditure
    Purchase of new mixing equipment is typically not a hasty event. Unless an unexpected challenge abruptly hit your operations such as a sudden failure of an existing mixer or a right-now sales opportunity demanding an unprecedented spike in production, process engineers generally have time to prepare for what could be a serious expenditure.

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