Custom Multi-Shaft Mixer

Ross, Charles & Son added a custom 150-gallon Triple Shaft Mixer, the Ross VersaMix Model VMC-150, with elaborate automation and safety functions.

Customized features include six pneumatic clamps rated for 4000 lbs., each for remote locking of the mix vessel to the mixer cover designed for 29.5-in. Hg vacuum and 5-psi internal pressure. The clamps function as redundant limit switches, allowing for operation only when secured. The mixer also includes automated valves for powder feed and clean-in-place liquids, a resistance-temperature detecting multi-point temperature sensor, built-in vacuum pump assembly, load cell system, and a centralized human machine interface.

The three independently-driven agitators of the company’s Triple Shaft Mixers include a high-speed saw-tooth dispersing blade for quick product wet out, a three-wing anchor for efficient transport of viscous product throughout the mixing zone, as well as a third shaft, frequently a high shear rotor/stator homogenizer for emulsification. Instead, this VMC-150 model features a helical auger screw for submerging floating agglomerates. When reversed, the auger screw surfaces air pockets resulting in decreased batch cycle time. The sides and bottom of the mixing vessel are jacketed and insulated for operation up to 100 PSIG at 250 degrees.

Ross, Charles & Son