Case Study: High-Shear Bottom-Entry Emulsifier in Industrial Emulsification Process Optimization
In industrial production involving multi-phase material processing, emulsification is a key procedure that directly affects product performance, storage stability and processing cost. For manufacturers engaged in the production of water-based coatings, adhesives and polymer emulsions, achieving thorough dispersion of immiscible oil and water phases, avoiding material sedimentation in large-volume kettles and ensuring batch-to-batch product consistency have long been core challenges restricting production development. This case study elaborates on how a manufacturer successfully resolved these process bottlenecks by introducing a high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier, and presents the specific application effects and process improvements in a factual manner.
1. Production Background and Existing Challenges
The manufacturer is engaged in the production of water-based functional emulsions, which are widely used in architectural coatings, wood adhesives and other fields. Before adopting the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier, the enterprise used traditional top-mounted paddle agitators for emulsification operations. With the expansion of production scale, the 5000L and 8000L large-volume reaction kettles gradually became the main production equipment, and the limitations of traditional agitators became increasingly obvious, which brought a series of problems to the production process.
The main challenges in the production process are as follows:
- Insufficient Emulsification Effect and Poor Product Stability: The shearing force generated by the traditional top-mounted paddle agitator is relatively weak, and it can only achieve simple mixing of materials, but cannot effectively break the oil droplets and solid particles in the emulsion system. The prepared emulsion has a large average particle size (about 45-60μm), and the particle size distribution is uneven. During the storage process, phase separation and stratification often occur, which affects the product quality and user experience. The product qualification rate is maintained at about 87% for a long time.
- Serious Material Sedimentation and Stirring Dead Zones: Due to the large volume of the production kettle and the limited stirring range of the top-mounted agitator, the stirring effect is difficult to cover the bottom and edge areas of the kettle. A large amount of solid powder additives and high-viscosity materials are easy to settle at the bottom of the kettle, forming stirring dead zones. These sedimented materials cannot be fully mixed with the main system, which not only causes waste of raw materials, but also leads to inconsistent component content of the final product, resulting in large differences in performance between batches.
- Long Production Cycle and Low Production Efficiency: To improve the emulsification effect as much as possible, the manufacturer had to extend the stirring time to 9-11 hours per batch. Under this condition, only 2 batches of products can be produced every day, which cannot meet the growing market demand. At the same time, the long-time stirring operation also increases the labor cost and management cost of the enterprise.
- High Energy Consumption and Maintenance Cost: The traditional top-mounted agitator needs to maintain high power output for a long time to ensure the mixing effect, resulting in high energy consumption. The power consumption per batch reaches 380 kWh, which brings great pressure to the enterprise's cost control. In addition, the agitator shaft and blades are easy to adhere to materials, and the cleaning work after each batch takes 2.5-3 hours. The wear of bearings and seals is serious during operation, requiring maintenance every 1.5-2 months, which further increases the production cost.
2. Equipment Selection and Technical Characteristics
After conducting in-depth research on the production process, analyzing the material properties and process requirements, and carrying out multiple on-site tests and technical demonstrations, the manufacturer finally decided to adopt the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier to replace the traditional top-mounted paddle agitator. The equipment is specially designed for large-volume reaction kettles, with the working head installed at the bottom of the kettle, which can directly act on the materials at the bottom of the kettle, fundamentally solving the problems of material sedimentation and stirring dead zones. The main technical characteristics of the equipment are as follows:
- Power Configuration: Equipped with a 45kW high-efficiency frequency conversion motor, which can realize stepless speed regulation in the range of 500-3000rpm, suitable for the emulsification processing of 4000-10000L batch materials, fully matching the manufacturer's 5000L and 8000L production kettles.
- Rotor-Stator Structure: Adopting a three-layer toothed rotor-stator assembly with a precision fit gap of 0.15-0.4mm. The special tooth shape design can generate strong shearing force and turbulent flow when the rotor rotates at high speed, effectively breaking the oil droplets and solid particles in the material system into small particles.
- Material Selection: All parts in contact with materials are made of 316L stainless steel, which has excellent corrosion resistance and wear resistance. The surface of the parts is polished to Ra≤0.3μm, which meets the requirements of industrial production for material cleanliness and avoids material contamination.
- Sealing System: Adopting a double-end mechanical seal structure with cooling and flushing functions, which can effectively prevent material leakage and ensure the stable operation of the equipment under high-speed rotation and high-temperature working conditions. The service life of the seal is significantly longer than that of traditional seals.
- Control System: Equipped with an intelligent PLC control system, which can realize automatic control of the emulsification process. It can set and adjust parameters such as rotating speed, working time and material temperature according to different material formulas, and has the functions of fault alarm and data recording, which is convenient for production management and quality tracing.
The working principle of the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier is as follows: when the equipment is running, the rotor rotates at high speed, forming a strong negative pressure in the gap between the rotor and the stator, which sucks the materials at the bottom and upper part of the kettle into the shearing zone. In the shearing zone, the materials are subjected to comprehensive effects such as strong shearing, centrifugal extrusion, liquid layer friction and impact, so that the large oil droplets and solid particles are quickly broken and refined. At the same time, the high-speed flow of materials drives the overall circulation of materials in the kettle, so that all materials can be fully mixed and emulsified, and finally a uniform and stable emulsion system is formed.
3. Application Effects and Data Analysis
After the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier was officially put into production, the manufacturer carried out a two-month comparative test between the new equipment and the traditional agitator. During the test period, the material formula and production process parameters were kept consistent, and the product quality, production efficiency, energy consumption and other indicators were comprehensively detected and analyzed. The application effect was significantly better than expected, and the main indicators were greatly improved.
3.1 Product Quality is Significantly Improved
The particle size of the emulsion produced by the new equipment was detected by a laser particle size analyzer. The results showed that the average particle size of the emulsion was reduced from 52μm (traditional agitator) to 1.8-4.5μm, and the particle size distribution range was narrowed by 75%. The stability test of the emulsion showed that after 8 months of static storage at room temperature, there was no phase separation, stratification or precipitation, and the stability of the product was significantly enhanced. The product qualification rate increased from 87% to 98.8%, and the number of defective products caused by emulsification problems decreased by 95%.
In addition, the consistency of product performance between batches has been significantly improved. The detection data of key performance indicators such as product viscosity, solid content and adhesion show that the coefficient of variation (CV) of each indicator is reduced from 9.5% to 1.2%, which effectively ensures the uniformity of product quality and meets the strict requirements of downstream customers for product performance.
3.2 Production Efficiency is Greatly Enhanced
Due to the strong shearing efficiency of the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier, the emulsification time per batch is shortened from 9-11 hours to 3.5-4.5 hours, a reduction of 60% on average. The daily production capacity is increased from 2 batches to 5-6 batches, and the monthly output is increased by 160% without increasing the production site and operating personnel. At the same time, the cleaning time after each batch is shortened from 2.5-3 hours to 30-45 minutes, which greatly reduces the non-production time and improves the continuous production capacity of the equipment.
3.3 Energy Consumption and Maintenance Cost are Reduced
Although the power of the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier is 45kW, which is higher than that of the traditional top-mounted agitator (32kW), the significant shortening of the working time makes the power consumption per batch reduced from 380 kWh to 171 kWh, a decrease of 55%. Based on the annual production of 300 batches, the annual energy cost can be saved by more than 200,000 yuan.
In terms of maintenance, the double-end mechanical seal structure and high-quality material selection reduce the wear of equipment components. The maintenance cycle is extended from once every 1.5-2 months to once every 8-10 months, and the annual maintenance cost is reduced by 70%. During the two-month test period, the equipment ran stably without any failure shutdown, ensuring the continuity and stability of the production process.
3.4 Material Utilization Rate is Improved
The bottom-mounted working head of the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier can fully stir the materials at the bottom of the kettle, completely eliminating the stirring dead zone. The problem of sedimentation of solid powder additives and high-viscosity materials is solved, and the materials can be fully mixed and utilized. The utilization rate of raw materials is increased from 91% to 99.5%, reducing the annual waste of raw materials by more than 10 tons, which further reduces the production cost of the enterprise.
4. Conclusion
The application of the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier has effectively solved the long-standing problems of the manufacturer in the emulsification production process, such as uneven emulsification, material sedimentation, long production cycle and high energy consumption. While significantly improving product quality and production efficiency, it has also greatly reduced production costs, enhancing the enterprise's market competitiveness.
This case fully shows that for industrial manufacturers with large-volume, high-viscosity and multi-phase material emulsification needs, the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier has obvious advantages over traditional mixing equipment. Its unique bottom-mounted design, strong shearing capacity and intelligent control system can effectively optimize the emulsification process, improve production efficiency and product quality, and bring significant economic benefits to the enterprise.
At present, the manufacturer has popularized the high-shear bottom-entry emulsifier to all its production lines, and has achieved good application results. This successful application experience can provide valuable reference for other similar manufacturers in the industry to optimize the emulsification production process and realize industrial upgrading.
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