Beverage Mixing and Blending has become more complicated with the advent of more complex formulations for drinkable products such as sports drinks, protein smoothies, energy drinks, nutraceuticals, organic health beverages, new sodas and new artificial sweeteners. The demands of these products often cause problems with increased mixing times or the need for multiple pre-mix stages. Here are a few of the problems associated with blending and mixing these beverages;

• Long mix time requiring substantially high capital investment
• Multiple-stage pre-mixing which drive up costs for operating and labor.
• Incomplete dissolution which can cause solid lumps, fisheyes, and agglomerates which need to be filtered.
• Using high cost liquids due to the inability to process powdered ingredients.
• Difficult to clean equipment for long and costly product changes.

Proper mixing can reduce solids addition time and total mix time for a batch. Here are also many agitation technologies that can be used for the optimal mixing, while also assuring easy to clean and CIP mixtanks.

• High Shear Mixing– for rapidly adding solids, creating dispersions and making emulsions
• Top Entry Agitators – size appropriately for proper mixing, and cleanability
• Multi Motion Mixers – often times complex mixtures require multishaft agitation to achieve the proper results, especially viscous blends
• CIP mixtank cleaning– always consider this with any mixer and tank design
• Tank design– either poly or stainless tanks can be used for mixing, and all aspects of vessel design should be considered for best mixing and cleanability

By fast mix times, and reducing lumps and fish eyes you can improve your blends, and hopefully improve profitability. Properly designed sanitary mixers and blenders will also save money on cleaning time, CIP costs, and production line down-time between batches.

Please call us to discuss your Beverage Mixing problems with our Blending and High Shear Mixing Experts.