A well-established all-rounder

Lödige’s horizontal Ploughshare® Batch Mixers are excellently equipped to meet current production requirements in the food and pharmaceuticals industry. A FKM 1200 demonstrated the potential of these well-established mixers at Interpack.

Lödige’s Ploughshare® mixers of the FKM series have been used for decades in the manufacture of high-quality foods and pharmaceutical products. The mixers are suitable for mixing all solid materials, and they also allow the addition of liquids. What is more, the Ploughshare® Batch Mixers provide a space-saving and cost-efficient alternative to vertical high-shear mixers for the moist granulation of tablet masses as part of the conventional production method for tablets.

The horizontal Ploughshare® Batch Mixers of the FKM series are perfect for food and pharmaceuticals production because they combine short mixing times with a very high level of mixing precision and batch reproducibility. This is due to the mechanically generated fluid bed, introduced to mixing technology by Lödige: the Ploughshare® blades are arranged on a shaft and rotate as mixing elements in the FKM’s horizontal, cylindrical drum. This causes the powdery, granular or fibrous components to move three-dimensionally. The turbulence thereby generated in the mixing material prevents the formation of dead or low-movement zones in the mixing chamber, which results in fast and precise mixing. The special shape of the tools means that the radial movement lifts the mixing material from the wall of the drum, preventing the particles from being crushed.

In addition to use purely as a mixing system, the FKM is also suitable for granulation processes. A liquid feed allows a granulate medium to be added to the fluid bed. Granulates can be precisely formed due to the shear forces generated by the interaction between product particles, mixing elements and the mixing drum. With one or more fast-rotating cutter heads, a specific granulate size can be set and lumps dissolved.

The fact that the horizontal Ploughshare® Batch Mixer offers a selection of different mixing geometries and process parameters means that it is ideally suited to multifunctional use.