Mixing Mechanics: Keys to mixer testing
Let’s assume that you need to buy a new mixer. How do you know if the mixer you’ve chosen will do a good job for your application?
There’s variation with every mixer and every blend. As I noted in the April column, an ideal or perfectly ordered mix can’t be achieved. Instead, a good random mix is the desired goal. Every blend has a key ingredient or two that must be distributed appropriately throughout the blend. For example, let’s say our end product is acetaminophen pain-relieving tablets. We want our blend to be such that every tablet will contain the perfect amount of the key ingredient, acetaminophen, but this won’t always happen. Each tablet is supposed to contain 325 milligrams of acetaminophen. Yet with standard variation, each tablet’s acetaminophen content might be anywhere between 300 and 350 milligrams. This is within acceptable FDA guidelines.