With growth at 15 to 20% a year, the mixing operation was a bottleneck with existing blenders, so a Munson 35 cu ft (1 m3) Rotary Batch Mixer was installed.
The new machine has more than doubled the batch capacity of the older blenders. Productivity is much higher since the Munson machine has a batch cycle time of only two hours, including cleaning, yielding six batches per day compared to only two batches per day with each of the older blenders.
The Rotary Batch Mixer gently blends the fragile tea leaves with internal mixing flights that provide a four-way tumble, turn, cut, and fold action. With a stationary inlet and outlet, the mixing can continue during loading and unloading.
Mixing time is 5 to 7 minutes, versus up to 45 minutes for the 300-pound blenders. When mixing is complete, the operator opens the plug valve on the discharge gate while the machine continues to rotate, preventing segregation. The mixing flights elevate the batch toward the outlet, so that essentially 100% of the product is discharged.
