Summary

The Vrieco Nauta Mixer is a widely used powder mixer with over twenty thousand units delivered worldwide. It consists of a conical body with a mixing screw attached to a rotating arm. The Vrieco Nauta Mixer has several favorable attributes such as mixing swiftly with low energy consumption, minimal damage to the powder particles, ease of discharge with low amount of residue, and ease of cleaning making use for multiple products easier. Because of these characteristics, the Vrieco Nauta Mixer is used for the mixing of powders, mixing of powders with liquids, and also as heater, dryer, reactor and cooler. With a wide range of models and options, the Vrieco Nauta Mixer can meet a wide variety of requirements and applications.
(NAUTA & "NAUTA MIXER" is a registered trademark of HOSOKAWA MICRON CORPORATION in Japan)

Swift mixing with minimal energy consumption

Due to the efficient mixing principle, swift mixing is achieved with low energy consumption. For simple mixing of powders, 300 liters can be mixed in 3 to 10 minutes. For 3000 liters, mixing is completed in 15 to 45 minutes.

Mixing deviation converges quickly with little variation

Generally mixers have a large convergence and divergence of mixing levels depending upon the mixing time with material separating after mixing. In the Vrieco Nauta Mixer, this separation does not occur.

Minimal damage to particles

The shear force on the particles is very small resulting in minimal damage to the particles.

Low heat generation

The low energy consumption results in low heat generation. Mixing of materials with a low softening point of 50°C is possible.

Easy to discharge material with little residue

The conical shape with the discharge port at the bottom makes discharge of material easy with a minimum of residue.

Large machines possible

With the vessel fixed and with a small screw diameter, the required power consumption is small allowing for design of large machines.

Low vibration

When operating, the Vrieco Nauta Mixer has almost no vibration allowing for high accuracy weight measurements. Also there is no need to consider vibration for the supporting structure.

Easy to clean

The Vrieco Nauta Mixer is a simple machine with one or two screws inside a vessel allowing for easy cleaning.This makes changing products easier and maintenance is also simplified.

The big access door on the side of the vessel allows for full access to the interior for cleaning. (Option)

No seals within the material bed

By having the drives at the top of the machine, there is no need for seals to be inside the material bed. This prevents seal damage due to wear from powder contact.

Simplifying processes

A single machine can be used for mixing, drying, reaction, cooling.

DBX Type features

• Cantilever mixing screw design throughout the model range increasing cleanability
• Drive unit uses direct drive motors increasing safety and maintainability
• Gear losses are reduced to reduce energy consumption
• Vacuum type DBX-RWV can be used for drying and reaction processes (refer to dryer section)

VN Type features

• Newly designed shaft seals prevent lubricant from leaking into the product.
• Minimized the number of fasteners in the machine interior. Bridge cover is also a box construction greatly increasing clean ability.
• Compact design gearbox and swing arm reducing height
• Sanitary design with safe seals on the drive assembly
• Reduction of gear losses reducing energy consumption
• Many options available

NX Type features

• NX type is the standard model of the Vrieco Nauta Mixer. For volumes below 300 liters, the mixing screw is cantilevered. For volumes above 600 liters, the standard bottom support is the pin joint. Compressed air injection is available as an option.
• NXW type has 2 mixing screws and a flat bottom. The flat bottom reduced the total height compared to a NX type with the same volume. The twin mixing screws reduce mixing time to half of that of an NX type.
• NXR type has a faster mixing screw tip speed compared to the NX type. Used for mixing powders with liquids where a higher shear is required or for mixing pastes or materials with a large difference in specific gravity.

CX Type features

• The installed height of the mixer is less than that of an equivalent volume NX model
• The mixing time is half that of an equivalent volume NX model
• In cases where scale-up is limited by the required power, scale up to 2 times that of an NX model is possible.

The Intensifier is a high speed-mixing rotor installed in the center shaft. It prevents agglomeration and prevents light materials from segregating on the top of the material bed when mixing materials with large differences in density. It can also be used to increase dispersion effects when adding liquids. The rotating mixing screw continuously brings material to the Intensifier allowing for efficient mixing to occur.

Used when the mixer is used in a negative or positive pressure. The drive and arm are also designed for negative or positive pressure. The domed cover is also used when ease of cleaning is a requirement.

A device used to inject liquid into powder bed. A pipe is installed in the center shaft through the drive section to a single or multiple nozzles installed on the arm.

At the inlet of the Microjet device, a rotary joint is installed where liquid is supplied by a pump or with pressurized air of around 1 to 5 MPa. The liquid is sprayed on to the powder bed from the nozzles as a mist. The spray is aimed at the top of the powder bed where the mixing screw rotates around the vessel leading to a very good mixing of liquid and powder. Using dual fluid nozzles gives better dispersion of the liquid.

When material has agglomerates during mixing or when agglomerates are generated due to adding of liquids, using a Lump Breaker breaks up the agglomerates to enable good mixing results. The Lump Breaker is not suited to reducing the particle sizes of the mixed materials, breaking up of hard agglomerates or for use with heat sensitive materials.

Since the Vrieco Nauta Mixer has almost no vibration during operation, it is possible to install loadcells on the support brackets. Measuring the weight of the material fed into the machine or discharged from the machine can easily be done. The deviation of the measured weight due to vibration or balance deviations is ±1 kgs. If measured with the Vrieco Nauta Mixer stopped, the accuracy is the same as a simple weighing hopper. Level control using standard level sensor is also available.