Silverson Machines’ latest video has been produced in response to an increasing number of their high shear mixers being specified for the processing of battery slurries. This video aims to give viewers more information on how Silverson mixers can be used for this relatively new application. But Silverson has been helping customers to achieve fine, homogeneous slurries from a variety of products and ingredients across a range of industries since the company’s beginning.
In this article, we will look at how Silverson mixers have been beneficial when creating battery slurries and slurries in other industries.
Processing Battery Slurries with Silverson High Shear Mixers
Silverson High Shear mixers are increasingly being specified for the production of battery slurries due to the versatility and efficiency they bring to the manufacturing process. Formulations vary but generally slurries consist of an active ingredient in a solvent with binders and other additives for conductivity, flexibility and strength.
Whatever the formulation, the essential requirement of the mixing process is obtaining a homogeneous, stable slurry with a uniform, fine particle size. Agglomerates in the mixture can affect the coating quality and must be avoided. The positive mixing action of Silverson high shear mixers ensures an agglomerate-free dispersion and accelerates the solubilisation of polymers dramatically reducing mixing times and ensuring a stable end product.
Active ingredients and additives for conductivity are generally used in premicronised form but particles do have a tendency to reagglomerate. The milling action generated in the gap between the tips of the rotor blades and the inner wall of the stator in the precision-engineered Silverson workhead will ensure active ingredients are finely dispersed into the medium with any reagglomerated particles being reduced down to the finest constituent parts.
Typically an In-Line mixer is used for this process and Silverson offer high-capacity machines capable of handling higher viscosity slurries.
Slurries of other materials and industries
Silverson has been helping customers to create slurries of all kinds of materials and Silverson mixers have successfully been used for creating slurries in the food, chemical and even pharmaceutical industries.
For example, another fairly recent application is the pre-processing of seaweed. Depending on the type of seaweed being processed, a solids content of sixty percent or more can be achieved with Silverson mixers. Processing also varies depending on the end use, but Silverson has helped customers using seaweed for chemical applications such as fertilisers and also for addition to cosmetic products. You can read more about this in one of the latest Silverson application reports.
In the food industry, using Silverson mixers to create slurries for the preparation of samples for aflatoxin testing is commonplace. Customers have also purchased Silverson Batch mixers for the reworking of waste food products. In this case the customer was over estimating ingredients and creating a lot of wastage. In order to save money and reduce this waste, they wanted to rework the excess pasta product into subsequent batches, but needed a way to achieve this. Silverson performed a demonstration for the customer and this encouraged them to trial the process with a Batch mixer. This was successful and by using this method the company were able to reduce costs on raw materials and eliminate the cost of having waste product taken away. The costs were reduced significantly enough that it was forecast the three Batch mixers the company purchased after the successful trials would pay for themselves through savings made within 1 to 2 years.
In the Pharmaceutical Industry, Silverson has supplied an Ultra-Hygienic In-Line mixer to form part of a process line which manufactures an artificial bone implant slurry. This company needed to create a 20% solid suspension of minerals in water with a particle size of 10 microns. They had already had success using sonification for this process, but wanted to improve the results and mixing times. After trialling an In-Line mixer with an inner and outer Square Hole High Shear Screen for optimum particle reduction, the mixer yielded the desired results and reduced processing times, so an order was placed for the mixer.
Why use Silverson for slurries?
The main benefits of using a Silverson to create a slurry stems from the positive mixing action of the mixer. This action ensures an agglomerate-free dispersion and accelerates the solubilisation of ingredients, dramatically reducing mixing times and ensuring a stable end product. The precision-engineered Silverson workhead will ensure that any additional ingredients added to the mix are also finely dispersed into the medium. This results in a homogeneous slurry with a fine, uniform particle size, time-after-time.
For more information, please contact Silverson Machines.
