High-Shear Mixer for Slurry Mixing

Get your slurry in a hurry with a high-shear mixer

Slurry preparation is a critical operation in many process industries, including pigments, toners, polymers and pharmaceuticals. Conventional dissolvers and eccentric pan mixers often struggle with long batch times, inhomogeneous dispersion and time-consuming cleaning procedures.

A high-shear mixer such as the Cyclomix from Hosokawa Micron is designed to combine intensive mixing, efficient powder dispersion and integrated cleaning in a single system.

The Cyclomix high-shear mixer is suitable for:

• Low- and high-viscosity slurries
• Polymers and water-based systems with fillers
• Formulations containing active ingredients or fine additives
• The powder-to-liquid ratio can vary from 20:80 up to 99:1, depending on the formulation.

Especially in systems where small amounts of powder must be incorporated into viscous liquids, conventional dissolvers often show long mixing times and limited reproducibility. The intensive shear and controlled flow pattern of the Cyclomix support rapid dispersion and consistent batch quality.

As an example, a 250 litre mixer can achieve a total process time of approximately 3 minutes per batch, including charging, mixing, discharging and a cleaning cycle. Under these conditions, one unit can reach a production capacity of approximately 5,000 litres per hour. In the referenced case, this represented five times the capacity of a dissolver system.

Integrated Cleaning and Process Efficiency

Cleaning between batches is often a major bottleneck in slurry production. In dissolver systems, product residues on the vessel wall typically require manual removal, including dismantling components and interrupting solvent connections. In the Cyclomix process, one liquid component can be charged first. The mixer operates for approximately five seconds at 20–30 m/s, allowing the process liquid to clean the internal surfaces. This self-cleaning step is integrated into the batch cycle.

Key process advantages include:

• Ultra-short batch times
• Integrated self-cleaning
• Reduced manual intervention
• High throughput in compact equipment
• Flexible operation from 25% to 100% filling level

Process Flexibility for Modern Production

Markets increasingly demand flexibility in batch sizes and formulations. The high-shear mixer maintains consistent mixing quality across varying filling levels and recipe changes. This supports flexible production planning without compromising homogeneity or reproducibility.

For slurry mixing in demanding industrial applications, high-shear technology offers a process-intensified alternative to conventional dissolver systems, combining mixing performance, cleaning efficiency and production flexibility in one unit.