Written by Chip Nipps, Regional Sales Manager
A popular American brewing company contacted us about a way to eliminate manually dumping powders into their existing mix tank. They already tried a competitive in-line mixer with no success and therefore were skeptical if our solution would work but they decided to try an Admix PIC™ powder induction system onsite at their facility.
Their goal was to easily add color and flavor additives to the tank that was equipped with a low shear, low-speed mixer, and recirculate it every hour to keep the lines in use. Their current method of manually dumping the powders was not only labor intensive, but the powders would clump and leave a ring of undissolved solids at the liquid level.
With the PIC powder induction trial unit in placed and piped to their tank, the trial began. The tank contained deionized water and some proprietary ingredients. Once they opened the hopper valve, powders were immediately drawn into the system. They were impressed that the whole process only took about 2-3 minutes. They added additional powders in the same manner. Even though nearly 30 linear feet and 10 feet upwards separated the PIC system and the tank, there was no clogging and only the slightest drop in pumping capacity when powders hit the water inlet.
When they shut down the system and looked into the mix tank, there was no sign of a solids ring or undissolved solids. Final viscosity was <100 CPS and lab tests confirmed the mixture was far better than before. To boot, they also saved 75 HP by eliminating their Cowles blade mixer and an additional pump!
The trial was a success, a unit was purchased, and our customer is happy! Contact us to learn about how you too can set up an equipment trial at your plant.