The previous posts have focused on the mechanics of the mixing process and have briefly covered the use of vacuum during mixing.  This post will discuss vacuum degassing in detail. Many commercially important, highly-filled formulations require effective vacuum mixing to achieve the desired properties.  Many liquid or viscous thermoset resins need to be degassed prior to ... [Click to Continue...]

The first six posts in this series covered the various types of equipment used to disperse fillers into uncured thermoset resins.  The information was applicable to all sizes of mixing equipment.  This post will focus on laboratory size mixers for use during formulation development and testing.  In the formulation phase, multiple iterations are typically required to optimize ... [Click to Continue...]

Guest Post by Ken Kuang, Torrey Hills Technologies Introduction Thick Film Material is an ink paste produced through dispersing metal powders, glass powders, and inorganic oxides with organic solvent in a three-roll mill.  The thick film pastes are screen-printed on ceramic boards or green sheets as circuit patterns and then fired at high temperatures. The thick film ... [Click to Continue...]

So far this dispersion series has covered single shaft dispersers with cowles blades, multi-shaft dispersers, and double planetary mixers.  This post will cover two types of hybrid planetary mixers: Powermix Planetary Dual Disperser Mixer (PDDM) The unique feature of hybrid planetary mixers is the combination of at least one high speed dispersing blade and a slower ... [Click to Continue...]

The last post discussed multi-shaft mixers where the two or three mixing shafts were stationary, and the sweep blade was used to move material off of the sidewalls and into the mixing zone.  In the double planetary mixer, the mixing blades rotate on their own shaft (axis) while the shafts rotate around in the mixing vessel on a common axis.  The as the blades orbit the mixing ... [Click to Continue...]