Walk the batching area of a typical processing plant and you may see the same chain repeated: a silo feeding a screw conveyor, feeding a scale, feeding a mixer, feeding a surge hopper, finally feeding the extruder. Five machines to do one job. Too many steps?
In many bulk material handling systems, every machine has a job, but every handoff also adds footprint, controls, cleaning, and another place where material can be lost or retained. The AZO MIXOMAT takes a different approach. It combines conveying, weighing, and pre-blending functions within one system, reducing the number of individual pieces of equipment required before a continuous process.
Instead of handing material from a conveyor to a scale to a mixer to a hopper, all of it happens inside one conical housing: material is drawn in, weighed in place by an integrated scale, blended by an internal mixing tool, and dropped through a pneumatic discharge valve at the base. No vessel-to-vessel handoff in between, and one large quick-release door when it's time to clean.
It holds up at real production scale, not just on paper. Up to 30 components - resin, masterbatch, regrind, pigments, additives - can be dosed into the same unit through switching valves, each weighed as precisely as if it had its own dedicated scale, at throughputs from roughly 150 kg/h to 2.5 t/h. AZO builds it in three configurations: a standard mixer, a scale-integrated version, and a conveying-scale version for higher-volume lines; so the unit can be sized to the process instead of forcing the process to fit the machine.
Every additional transfer point creates another potential location for dust, product buildup, maintenance, and cleaning. Combining functions inside the MIXOMAT reduces those interfaces. Weighing and pre-blending happen in the same unit, and the finished blend can then move directly toward the downstream process. That becomes especially useful where floor space is limited or where a relatively straightforward recipe does not justify a more elaborate mixing system.
Cleaning is also concentrated around fewer pieces of equipment. A large access door provides entry to the vessel rather than requiring operators to open and inspect a separate scale, mixer, hopper, and associated transfer equipment. The same simplification carries into controls and commissioning. Rather than coordinating several independent machines, the system can be integrated as one part of the ingredient handling process.
Plastics compounding and extrusion is where this principle originated, and the application shows why the concept works. An extrusion line may need virgin resin, regrind, masterbatch, pigments, and additives prepared immediately before the extruder. Traditionally, those ingredients can pass through several pieces of equipment before reaching the screw.
The MIXOMAT consolidates much of that preparation.
Ingredients are conveyed, weighed, and pre-blended close to the extruder so the downstream process receives a consistent material feed. For smaller quantities of pigments or additives requiring greater dosing precision, the MIXOMAT can also be integrated with AZODOS® small-component dosing equipment. This becomes particularly valuable on lines producing multiple formulations or colors because reducing the number of intermediate vessels also reduces the equipment involved in a changeover.
But the MIXOMAT's value is not tied to plastic pellets. What matters more is what happens after the pre-blending step.
The MIXOMAT is not limited to plastics. The same concept can work in food processes where dry ingredients need a simple pre-blend before a continuous downstream step such as extrusion or mixing. AZO adapted the design with food-grade materials, gaskets, and air-purged seals where we could handle both granular ingredients and fine powders such as flour, starches, stabilizers, and plant-based proteins while combining conveying, weighing, and pre-blending in one unit.
Its best fit is a relatively stable recipe where the goal is pre-blending rather than producing a highly homogeneous finished blend. There are also limits. It is not intended for high-hygiene applications, and a small amount of material can remain after discharge. That makes it less suitable for processes with frequent recipe changes or strict cross-contamination requirements. For the right application, however, it offers the same advantage: fewer pieces of equipment between raw-material storage and the continuous process downstream.
That is ultimately what makes the MIXOMAT interesting. Not every pre-blending step requires a sophisticated mixer. Sometimes the job is simply to bring several ingredients together sufficiently before extrusion or another continuous process completes the next stage. Installing more mixing technology than the process actually requires adds cost, footprint, controls, and cleaning without necessarily adding value.
The MIXOMAT provides another option: combine conveying, weighing, and pre-blending where the process allows it, and reserve more advanced mixing technology for applications that actually require greater homogeneity, hygienic design, or frequent product changeovers.
The MIXOMAT is best suited for processes that:
It may be less suitable for high-hygiene applications, frequent recipe changes, strict cross-contamination controls, or processes requiring highly homogeneous finished blends.
|
Specification |
MIXOMAT Capability |
| Core functions | Conveying, weighing, pre-blending, and discharge |
| Number of components | Up to 30 |
| Throughput range | Approximately 150 kg/h to 2.5 t/h |
| Available configurations | Standard mixer, scale-integrated, and conveying-scale |
| Typical downstream processes | Extrusion and continous mixing |
| Cleaning access | Large quick-release access door |
| Optional dosing integration | AZODOS® small-component dosing equipment |
If you're evaluating whether the MIXOMAT belongs on your line, the questions worth asking are less about throughput and more about process shape:
Does your hygiene requirement stay within standard good manufacturing practice?
These are the same questions our engineers walk through before recommending a configuration. When those conditions align, combining conveying, weighing, and pre-blending can make considerably more sense than building a process from several separate machines.
Talk with an AZO engineer about your material handling process and whether a MIXOMAT configuration could simplify the path from ingredients to production.