GB853624A - Method and apparatus for mixing ingredients - Google Patents

Abstract

853,624. Batch mixing machines; continuous discharge mixing machines. AMERICAN MACHINE & FOUNDRY CO. March 29, 1957, No. 10445/57. Class 86 In a an apparatus for incorporating dry substances into wet substances, for example, as used in the making of cakes, muffins, &c. or plaster, cement, paint and chemical mixtures, the substances within a bowl 10 are circulated therein by means of an impeller 12 fixed to and rotating with a shaft 22. The impeller 12 operates below the level B and at a depth determined by the viscosity of the wet mixture which is revolved circumferentially about the axis of the shaft 22 in the form of two rotating toroidal-shaped volumes R and D having the rotations indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3 and forming a vortex V into which dry substances are fed. The dry substances fed in this manner are thoroughly wetted by being carried between the two volumes R and D, the outer surfaces of which meet at a point P, and the dry substances are thereafter incorporated into the mixture. The depth of the impeller 12 may, in the case of a batch mixer, be maintained by raising the impeller in relation to the feed of dry and wet substances, or, in the case of a continuous-discharge mixer, by adjusting the quantity of the mixed substances discharged through a valve 26 to -that of the total quantity of the dry and wet substances fed thereto. The wet substances 6 are fed at a constant rate from a container 40 through a pipe 42 controlled by a valve 44 and the dry substances F are fed by a metering device 30. The axis of the impeller 12 or, as shown in Fig. 3, the axis of the bowl 10 is preferably inclined to the vertical to improve the intermix of the ingredients within the bowl. The impeller 12 consists of two hollow. frusto-conical members 14, 16 mounted, in spaced base to base relationship, on the shaft 22 by means of spokes 18 and struts 20, the latter being preferably formed as vanes. In modifications the members 14, 16 may be mounted vertex to vertex or may be replaced by flat annular rings, and the members may, instead of being continuous, be in segments. The bowl 10 may be other than hemispherical in shape.