Tag Archives: colloid mill

Laboratory Homogenizer for sample preparation

Colloid Mill, , ,

Laboratory homogenizer for sample preparation is an  important piece of equipment that makes foods with new flavors, produces medicines and helps in chemical research.

Let’s consider the use of this device in different industries in detail. To compete in the food product market, many manufacturers develop new recipes, new products with improved flavors and longer shelf life, etc. At the stage of research it does not make sense to make the new product in industrial quantities. Simply get a small test sample and continue to work with it, exploring the taste and other factors. A mini-homogenizer, or more precisely, a laboratory model fits this job perfectly. Normally such equipment is smaller in size and capacity, but functions just as an industrial unit.

In the pharmaceutical industry the mass production of medicinal emulsions also starts after medicine undergoes the necessary tests and certification procedures.  Here again a laboratory homogenizer prepares samples, which are then tested for effectiveness of the drug.

Generally, chemical laboratories are small areas, where research takes place in a confined space and there is simply not enough room to accommodate large homogenizing equipment for intensification of chemical reactions. And a laboratory homogenizer is big enough to obtain new materials and chemical patterns with relatively small amounts of reagents. For this purpose and for sample preparation, GlobeCore offers the CLM laboratory homogenizer. This unit uses “wet milling” principle to produce highly stable colloidal solutions, extremely fine suspensions, mixtures and emulsions.

The high quality of homogenization is achieved through an integrated use of a variety of effects and phenomena: the turbulent force (created by a complex micro-relief surface of the rotor), the centrifugal forces, the high relative speed between the rotating rotor and fixed stator, cavitation, and others.

GlobeCore colloid mills homogenize and disperse the product. Thermal jacket supplies heat to the grinding zone.

Colloid Mill for Starch Dispersion

Solutions,
Colloid Mill

Colloid Mill. The first mention of starch being partially soluble in water dates to the late 19th century. To achieve this, the substance had to be finely ground.

Pulverization of starch was described in the research of several scientists, such as Lampitt, Gess and others.

Preliminary dispersion of gelatinized phosphate starch in cold water allows to use it in ice-cream and instant-dessert powder products.

GlobeCore offers the CLM colloid mill to food producers. This device is specifically designed for pulverization of starch and making stable mixes with it. One of the main advantages of this device is the simultaneous homogenization of the processed media. The product is a high quality mix with does not separate even in long term storage.

The principle of colloid mill operation is based on the effects of several physical processes and phenomena. First, it is the difference of gap width at the inlet and outlet of the device for wet grinding. Second, it is the complex micro-relief of the rotor surface for increased turbulence, which tears the starch particles. Third, it is the centrifugal force, as well as the high speed of the rotor relative to the stator. Fourth, it is the grinding and cavitation effects. The combined effect of these factors make the processed material uniform, even and finely dispersed.

A heating/cooling jacket allows to perform homogenization with application or dissipation of heat.

Depending on the properties of the material, the grade of milling and pumping can be adjusted.

What is a Colloid Mill?

Solutions

Colloid mill is a technical device used for high fineness grinding, dispersion, emulsification and preparation of homogeneous solutions.

The cutting mechanism of colloid mills can consist of:

  • single sickle knives;
  • knives paired with a cutting unit with gratings, fingers, reflectors, disks etc.;
  • combined cutting apparatus.

Knives can be smooth or toothed.  In most cases they are installed on a shaft, disk, drum, spider or worm-screw.  The grater can be flat, cylindrical or conical.  There are portable and stationary, rotating or oscillating gratings.  Fingers and reflectors have sharpened edges.

Pairing  a cutting device in a colloid mill gives a combination of a rotating rotor and a stationary stator.  Rotors and stators can be either smooth or toothed.   The feedstock is fed into a mill by pumps, or manually.  The milled product is moved and forced out by rotating discs, blades, screws of the cutting apparatus.

Normally a colloid mill consists of a feed hopper attached to a mill cover, conical shape milling chamber, spiral blade, cap nut, cutting mechanism, nozzle and output pipe.  It is technically possible to control the device capacity by varying the gap between its rotor and stator (usually within the range of 0.05-1.5 mm) – in each particular case its performance will depend on the required fineness of the processed product.

The mill is driven by an electric motor. Initially the feedstock is loaded into a hopper then it flows into the cutting mechanism, goes through a rotor-stator gap, gets milled and goes out through a nozzle.  The range of materials that can be processed by colloid mills is quite wide: bitumen, dairy products, pharmaceuticals, and many more.

GlobeCore produces colloid mills that can be used in road construction, chemical, food, construction, engineering, and oil industries.   GlobeCore – is the key to high-quality grinding, emulsification, dispersion and homogenization of different materials to suit all the requirements of the technological process!

Every customer gets an individual approach!

Homogenizer vs Colloid Mill

Colloid Mill,

Chemical, food, construction and many other industries cannot do without the preparation of different suspensions, emulsions and colloid solutions.  They include lubricating oil emulsions, fuel emulsions, polymer modified bitumen as well as a wide range of food fat emulsions.  Additionally, many kinds of gels, creams, and pastes are included in this list, so the list is virtually endless.

To obtain high quality homogeneous multi-component mixtures and colloid solutions, the production facilities use special blending units that consist of a dispenser.  The dispenser is used for superfine grinding of solid and liquid components.  If the  production method requires a grinding down of the liquid fraction and evenly distributing it in a liquid basis, (dispersed  medium) or requires preparing the suspension with a small amount of a solid phase, they routinely use a homogenizer.

The emulsion’s segregation  resistance  must be determined, first of all, by the  size of the dispersed phase.  For example, in a stable water-fat emulsion, the droplet size should be no more than 5 microns which can be produced by a modern centrifugal (rotary) homogenizer.  A rotary homogenizer is used  to reduce the droplet size of the emulsion to between 1 and 2 microns, also known as the so called secondary homogenization.

Many years ago, valve homogenizers were widely used and accepted as standard within industry.  Now the preference is given  to  the centrifugal (rotary) homogenizers due to the following benefits:

(1) Reduction of the processed materials down to 1 micron; (2) compact size of the equipment; (3) low power consumption; (4) simple design; and (5) high degree of reliability.

Depending on the model, the homogenozer’s rotor speed varies from 2,000 to 18,000 rpm.  The intensive vortexing and micro cavitation processes ensure the homogenization and stability of the mixture.  If the technological process or recipe requires the production of a suspension with a large content of a solid phase (up to 40%) or a high stable emulsion, or a fine suspension, then solid and liquid  substances are mixed in a colloid mill (dispergator).

A colloid mill allows not only for the intensive blending of particles and droplets in a suspension or thick emulsion, but also for grinding solid fractions of the suspension (emulsion droplets) down to the size of between 1 and 2 microns producing high-quality suspensions and emulsions.

In terms of design, colloid mills resemble rotary (centrifugal) homogenizers.  The wet method is the basis for the grinding of solids in a colloid mill.  The main working body of a colloid mill, as well as a homogenizer, is constituted by a pair of drives.  One of the drives serves as a stator and another as a rotor.

The linear velocity of the rotating drive surface can work up 125 m/s.  This high speed provides the intensive turbulent processes in the intradiscal space that contributes to the effective grinding of the dispersed phase.  It ensures even distribution in the processed and dispersed medium.

The practice has shown that modern twenty first century colloid mills  can provide the highest degree of dispersion and emulsification that meets the  requirements of the majority of industrial technological processes.

Colloid Mill for Chemical Industry: Paint Production

Chemical Industry, ,

Paint is a binder or a paste, dispersed in a dispersed medium.  The production of paints and varnishes includes the following stages:

1. raw material purchasing;

2. raw material processing;

(a) pre-mixing;

(b) dispersion – blending of particles to the desired consistency of the product;

(c) letdown stage; and

3. Packing.

The most complex and energy consuming stage of paint production is the blending of components and pigment dispersion in film forming agents and their solvents.

GlobeCore has developed an advanced technology that provides for grinding and dispersion, realized in the KLM colloid mill.  This unit is designed for processing and homogenizing of suspensions, emulsions and paste-like materials.  The desired degree of fineness is provided by an adjustable gap between the mill rotor and the stator.

The production of paints and varnishes with the help of colloid mills allows you to:

  • get a high degree of product homogeneity; and
  • to ensure effective production.

The required degree of the pigment’s fineness is achieved not only by high angular velocity and small gaps, but also by the friction force.  The irregular surface of a rotor and a stator creates increased turbulence which breaks downthe particles of a product.

Colloid Mill for Catalyst Injection

Chemical Industry,

Catalysts are special substances that speed up chemical reactions while remaining unchanged themselves.  Unlike other reagents, catalysts remain unchanged when the process is finished.  The reaction proceeds more slowly or does not proceed at all without catalysts.  The essence of catalytic reactions can be summarized as follows: First, the catalyst reacts with original substance.  An intermediate compound undergoes changes and then divides into a product and a catalyst.  This process repeats in the cycle up to a million times.

There are homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts.  Homogeneous catalysts are in one phase with reacting substances and heterogeneous catalysts form an independent phase, being separated from the phase of reacting substances by a boundary line.

Acids and bases are often used as homogeneous catalysts and metals, such as oxides and sulfides are used as heterogeneous ones.  In biochemical reactions, enzymes act as catalysts.  For industrial purposes, homogeneous catalysts are used to obtain alcohols, nitrobenzene and other nitro compounds, such as acetic acids, aldehydes, and medicines.  The main difference between homogeneous catalysis and heterogeneous catalysts is that homogeneous catalysts require the reactions to proceed in the whole mixture.  Only in this case it is possible to reach the highest levels of catalyst’s efficiency.

In practice,  it may be troublesome to choose equipment that is able to provide an even distribution of catalyst throughout the whole reagent.  GlobeCore colloid mills meet all the requirements listed above.  GlobeCore Colloid mills are designed to obtain high-stable colloidal solutions, fine suspensions, mixtures, and emulsions.

The operational principle of colloid mills is based on centrifugal force and high relative speed between a rotor and a stationary stator that provide an even distribution of catalyst throughout the whole reagent.  As a result, the final substance becomes homogeneous that makes it possible to reach the highest level of catalyst’s efficiency.

GlobeCore produces both industrial (CLM-4, CLM-18, CLM-22) and laboratory models of colloid mills (CLM-05.3).

Colloid mills for industrial purposes are used to increase the efficiency of technological processes such as the production of medicines, acetic acid, aldehydes, alcohols, nitrobenzene, and terephthalic acid.

Laboratory models of colloid mills are used in special chemical laboratories to explore new catalysts or to find new application areas of existing ones.

Colloid Mill for Hummus

Food industry,

Hummus is a dish known since the times of  Pharaohs.  The following is the list of ingredients, necessary for its preparation:

  • chickpea;
  • lemon juice;
  • olive oil;
  • garlic;
  • paprika;
  • sesame paste.

In modern times, in some countries the word  “hummus”  means not only cold snack but also chickpea.  You may wonder, why are chickpeas used to prepare this dish?  The answer is actually It’s quite simple.  chickpeas contain a great amount of vegetable protein and can replace meat or milk products.  Chickpea dishes are of high calorific value (300-400 kcal).  Additionally, chickpeas contain such substances as iron, manganese, and molybdenum.   Iron is a part of hemoglobin and manganese that is required for energy production and molybdenum is one of the components of some enzymes.  Tryptophane, required for brain activity is also found in chickpeas.

In general, preparation of hummus is simple, but requires certain knowledge and special equipment.  First, the main component, the chickpeas, are boiled and crushed and then mixed with other ingredients.  It is worth mentioning that the list of ingredients listed above may vary depending on personal preferences and tastes.  In general, preparation of hummus requires a large food container, a sieve, a container for blending and a blender for grinding the all the ingredients.  If you prepare hummus at home, it is recommended to use a blender when making the preparations.  If however, you are talking about the large-scale production of hummus to meet the needs of the supermarkets and restaurants, then quite different units will be required to process the necessary amount of raw materials needed for large scale operations.

The GlobeCore line colloid mills are designed for the production of highly stable colloidal solutions, super-fine suspensions, mixtures, and emulsions.  To meet the needs and an individual customer’s order, GlobeCore colloid mills can be made of different capacity and may be retrofitted into the existing food production units already in service at your production facilty.

The operation of a colloid mill is based on the so-called wet milling, provided by a diffrent gap width between a rotor and a stator.  The sophisticated geometric surface of the rotor creates increased turbulence that breaks down the particles of the ingredients being processed for hummus preparation.  Due to the centrifugal forces and high relative speed between the rotating rotor and the stationary stator, hummus becomes homogeneous, finely-divided and retains its taste and values.

GlobeCore’s engineering department has developed a new and more advanced model of the colloid mill.  GlobeCore always takes the needs of its customers into consideration and is ready to improve existing equipment and develop revolutionary new units to solve a wide spectrum of industrial problems.

One of the latest GlobeCore developments in the food industry is a new and more advanced model of the traditional colloid mill.  Such kinds of equipment have enjoyed a wide popularity while producing yogurts, fruit juices, puree, jams, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and peanut butter.

The new model colloid mill is made of stainless steel that makes it resistant to corrosion.  It is easy-to-use and requires littel advanced preparation.  Additionally, the new design with the gap between the rotor and the stator provides for improved characteristics of the final product.  The new unit is belt driven which provides for smooth and noiseless operation of the equipment.