Spherical Stirrer Elements for Gentle Mixing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing agitators face limitations in power input at high speeds, leading to a drastic reduction in stirring effect, which is disadvantageous for applications like gassing, dispersing, or feeding in powder, and are not suitable for sensitive materials due to high mechanical stresses.
Innovation Solution
The agitator features spherical stirring elements with a curved outer surface, eliminating flow-through designs and utilizing overpressure and negative pressure areas to gently mix materials without shear stresses, allowing for improved power input and gentle mixing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional tubular agitator elements are used, then mixing effect is achieved through flow-through design, but mechanical stresses on material become too high for sensitive materials
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies spherical stirring elements with curved outer surfaces instead of conventional tubular designs. The spherical shape creates overpressure areas in front of the element and negative pressure areas behind it during rotation, generating a suction effect that mixes material gently without high mechanical stresses, thus resolving the contradiction between mixing effectiveness and material sensitivity.
2Productivity
If agitator speed is increased to improve mixing, then productivity increases, but power input becomes limited and stirring effect drops drastically
Solution Approach 1:
The spherical geometry creates dynamic pressure differences during rotation that generate suction effects, allowing effective mixing at lower speeds with reduced power input. The curved surface design optimizes fluid dynamics to maintain mixing efficiency without requiring high power input, resolving the contradiction between productivity and power limitations.
3Productivity
If flow-through agitator design is used, then mixing action is generated, but deposits form on container walls and cleaning becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the flow-through design concept and replaces it with external spherical stirring elements that act on material through pressure differences rather than forcing flow through internal passages. This eliminates dead zones and deposit formation areas, making cleaning easier while maintaining mixing action.
Solution Approach 2:
The spherical shape with curved outer surface creates uniform flow patterns that prevent material accumulation on container walls, eliminating deposit formation and facilitating easy cleaning while maintaining effective mixing action.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design enhances mixing efficiency by creating a suction effect, reduces shear stresses, prevents deposit formation, and facilitates easy cleaning and gassing with minimal gas bubble formation, while being gentle on materials and container walls.
Implementation Method 1
The stirring element is spherical in shape. The stirring element thus creates an overpressure area in front of itself during rotation and a negative pressure area behind itself, so that a suction effect acts on the material to be mixed
Implementation Method 2
acceleration of the material to be mixed on the outside around the agitator
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
The invention relates to a stirring element 1 of an agitator for mixing and/or homogenizing or suspending flowable media, which is essentially spherical in shape. The invention further relates to an agitator with at least two stirring elements 1 according to the invention.