Efficiency in static mixing

Result qual­i­ty and process effi­cien­cy play a major role in indus­tri­al mix­ing and dis­pers­ing. Espe­cial­ly for demand­ing liq­uids, gas­es, or solids, ASKIA now offers pre­cise­ly fit­ting solu­tions with the sta­t­ic mix­ers and mix­er-heat exchang­ers from Sulz­er. The tube inter­nals with rigid mix­ing ele­ments ensure opti­mum mix­ing results — even for high­ly vis­cous and at the same time tem­per­a­ture-sen­si­tive sug­ar mass­es or dairy prod­ucts whose con­sis­ten­cy would be affect­ed by exces­sive shear forces. They also enable the mix­ing of addi­tives with very dif­fer­ent vis­cosi­ties — such as water in hon­ey or in the pro­duc­tion of bev­er­ages from syrup and water.

With mix­ers and mix­er heat exchang­ers from the flu­id dynam­ics spe­cial­ist Sulz­er, the com­pa­ny is now expand­ing its exten­sive prod­uct port­fo­lio of indus­tri­al safe­ty tech­nol­o­gy to include com­po­nents from process tech­nol­o­gy. As with pres­sure relief, con­trol valves, or high-pres­sure con­nec­tors, the engi­neer­ing com­pa­ny also offers a com­pe­tent all-round ser­vice from a sin­gle source for the mixers.

“In ASKIA we have found the best part­ner for the ser­vice and dis­tri­b­u­tion of our sta­t­ic mix­ers and mix­er heat exchang­ers for Ger­many and Aus­tria. Their exten­sive expe­ri­ence in chem­i­cal and process engi­neer­ing, the food indus­try or in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and petro­chem­i­cal sec­tors ensure that the sta­t­ic mix­ers are always designed pre­cise­ly for the spe­cif­ic chal­lenge and meet our high qual­i­ty stan­dards in application.”

- Mar­cel Suhner

Wide range of viscosities

The mix­ers can be used to process almost any media — from pure gaseous sub­stances to very low-vis­cos­i­ty, water-like sub­stances to high-vis­cos­i­ty mass­es — into homo­ge­neous mix­tures in a con­tin­u­ous process. Gran­u­lates and pow­ders — for exam­ple, for the pro­duc­tion of sol­u­ble bev­er­ages or ready meals — can also be reli­ably mixed. “The Sulz­er prod­ucts com­ple­ment our port­fo­lio excel­lent­ly,” says Man­ag­ing Direc­tor Torsten Mankertz, pleased about the coop­er­a­tion. “Sulz­er has been the tech­nol­o­gy and mar­ket leader in this field for almost 50 years and offers the most ener­gy-effi­cient sta­t­ic mix­ers with the low­est pres­sure drop.”

Users will also be impressed by the com­pact dimen­sions and max­i­mum flex­i­bil­i­ty of the instal­la­tion posi­tion. The tubu­lar ele­ments can be installed in vir­tu­al­ly any posi­tion in pro­duc­tion plants and are gen­er­al­ly main­te­nance-free. All vari­ants are CIP- and SIP-capa­ble; clean­ing and ster­il­iza­tion with­out dis­as­sem­bly sim­pli­fies the process, even with hygien­i­cal­ly sen­si­tive media, and reduces both oper­at­ing and main­te­nance costs. The self-clean­ing design allows even faster prod­uct changes with­out addi­tion­al inter­me­di­ate rinsing.

The mix­ers are always select­ed and designed accord­ing to flu­id group, flow rate and through­put, den­si­ty and vis­cos­i­ty, tem­per­a­ture range and res­i­dence time, and desired coef­fi­cient of vari­a­tion. Two basic types are avail­able for reli­able, con­tin­u­ous mix­ing. Vor­tex for­m­ers gen­er­ate tur­bu­lence that rapid­ly mix­es the medi­um across the entire cross-sec­tion. In lay­er for­m­ers, the medi­um is repeat­ed­ly split and brought togeth­er until a homo­ge­neous result is obtained; they are par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­able for very slow flow rates. 

Mixing and temperature control combined

Mix­er heat exchang­ers addi­tion­al­ly com­bine rigid mix­ing ele­ments with shell-and-tube heat exchang­ers, thus enabling fast and at the same time uni­form and reli­able tem­per­a­ture con­trol. Here, reg­u­lar mix­ing ensures very good heat trans­fer with con­trolled res­i­dence times and homo­ge­neous heat dis­tri­b­u­tion with­out hot spots on the con­tact sur­faces or heat expo­sure over too long a peri­od. Dur­ing cool­ing, the mix­er-heat exchang­ers effec­tive­ly pre­vent an insu­lat­ing lay­er from form­ing on the cool­ing sur­face due to the vis­cos­i­ty change dur­ing cooling.

Depend­ing on the appli­ca­tion and process medi­um, V4A or AISI 316 stain­less steel are avail­able as mate­ri­als for all mix­ing ele­ments and the asso­ci­at­ed mix­ing tubes. In addi­tion, the mix­ers can also be man­u­fac­tured from cus­tomer-spe­cif­ic mate­ri­als on request. Fre­quent­ly used diam­e­ters with con­nect­ing flanges accord­ing to DIN or ASME stan­dards can be sup­plied at short notice at any time.