Effects of Impeller and Chopper Configurations on Wet Granulation in a High Shear Mixer

Abstract

Material mixing is one of the most important processes in products manufacturing, especially in pharmaceutical and food industries. In this paper we present an investigation on the effects of impeller and chopper configurations on wet granulation in a high shear mixer. A LHSZ factory high shear mixer was used to study the effects of chopper configuration in the wet granulation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Two chopper configurations were considered, namely chopper 1 and chopper 2. The aim of this test was to determine whether or not chopper configuration affects granule size. Further, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to analyze seven different impeller configurations. Parameters considered in the study include the material mixing velocity, mixing pattern and the way particles behave when different impeller configurations were used. The aim of the simulation analysis was to understand the influence of impeller configurations on uniformity of material mixing.