animal-feed-mixers

Animal Feed Mixers

Feed mixers, like the PHLAUER™ Dual shaft mixer for horse, race horse, dairy feeds and vitamin and minerals are being used by more companies every day. The reason is that they get the highest quality at the lowest cost per ton with feed mixers that are predictable, repeatable, and reliable.

Feed mixers perform consistently at Cv. 5% based on small samples taken directly from the mixer. The sample only has to be big enough to statistically contain the particles of the smallest ingredient. Accurate liquid coatings as low as 0.6% on pressurized pellets possible. Coat Extruded kibble too as there is no shear in the mixer rotors. Mixes flakes.

Unique to PHLAUER TM is the ability to line double rotor mixer with UHMW making them easier to clean when using molasses.

The expansion of UHMW per degree of temperature change is 15.6 times greater than steel. For example, a 70 degree temperature change over 72″ of material, the steel expands 1/32″ and the UHMW 1/2″. A & J has experience with lining and having the lining “float”. Up until recently this has been with single rotor mixers. The difference with a double rotor is that the paddles are turning upward in the center, so there is potential to have on side expanded far enough to catch the other set of paddles and rip it out. Because we have a 90 degree center, we can fix an angle at the center with expansion joints on both sides.

Vitamin & Mineral Processors

Our experience in the last few years has been that new ingredients and recipes are harder to mix, particularly to get the end to end transportation. For that reason, we recommend you assess what the dual rotor can do.

We have rebuilt a paddle/ribbon mixer that could not achieve the Cv. ‘s, and have supplied two dual shaft AR400 machines, one with Shearmakers. There are just a few recipes that will have lumps, e.g. salt and iron oxide. They will not work well if the end user is putting them through a feeder. Shearing for 2 or 3 minutes can radically improve the product. We don’t usually design production to include shear time, and customers are taking lower production on these few items.

Another reason to look at dual shafts it the geometry of the discharge hopper. A long, narrow mixer can have shallow angles on the ends of the hopper causing poor flow.

The options available on the animal feed mixer are also available for this machine. We also believe attention should be given to accelerated wear. If stainless steel is required, it is softer than carbon steal in the annealed state which gives it chemical resistance. Some options could be to use thicker plate, UHMW, and SO17400 HT900 which has same properties as Tp304, but is heat treatable. It is several times the price of TP304. Teflon Inhibcote impregnation or other coatings could also be looked at.

Horse & Dairy Feed Mixers

Mixing is a randomization process that requires voids for particles to randomly change place, and organized transportation to get ingredients from end to end. Voids are created mechanically using paddles. A high volume of voids is created by using the sizing of the paddles with the voids equal to the batch size per rotor revolution in medium sized mixers. Demixing is controlled via the zone size serviced by the paddles which is always less than 10 inches (250 mm).

Low speed dual rotors on our feed mixers using these principles mix dry in 30 seconds. Liquid additions vary. Higher coatings, over 5% can be very fast by slug loading the liquid and let the mixing actions wipe it from particles to particle, typically less than a minute, coating all the ends. With low coatings, spraying and after mixing, times could be as high as 2 minutes. We must assess every job and if we don’t know how to design the liquid system, we will use our demo equipment to generate data and get the best appearance.

A & J offers a number of options to reduce maintenance. Remember to give accelerated wear some consideration. Popular options are AR400 paddles, AR400 housing sides and discharge. UHMW liners are available, a unique feature on PHLAUER™ dual shaft mixers. Also available on single rotor.

We recommend that you weigh all fats and oils. The costs will continue to rise, and weighing allows you to sell what you buy. Applying by time or volume can give a lot of variance. The payback for weighing is excellent.

Animal Feed Mixers by AJ Mixing