The mixer should adapt to the product and not the other way around!

Eirich has been delivering concrete processing solutions for many years. The company has particular expertise in systems for facing and roof tile concrete, railway sleeper concrete and the growing self-compacting and ultra high performance concrete market. EIRICH offers distinct advantages compared to conventional mixing systems.

Separation of material transport from the mixing function is a major advantage.

Separation of material transport and mixing is achieved through the use of a rotating pan to transport the materials and a tool (rotor) which is tailored to the particular mixing application. Separating these two functions produces crucial advantages on existing and future products.

Because material transport is separate from the mixing operation, the mixing process can be tailored to the product. The product does not need to be adapted to suit the existing mixer. The mixing tool operates independently, and the user has virtually total freedom to select the energy input which is appropriate for the application, eliminating detrimental effects on the mix such as damage to light-weight aggregates or fibres.

Because the mixing tool (rotor) is positioned at a defined spacing from the bottom, does not come into contact with the bottom and has its own drive which is independent of the pan, it can run at any speed. Tools can operate at 30 m/s or more.

The combination of a dedicated drive for the mixing pan, independent rotor and a stationary combination tool acting as a flow deflector ensures 100% material agitation on each revolution of the mixing pan. This is what makes the EIRICH mixing strategy so effective, and it can reduce cost significantly. Because the mixing process can be tailored to the product, mixing times can be optimised and both the number of reject batches and the cost of the materials can be reduced.

In addition, no anti-wear ceramic linings which are susceptible to breakage are needed on EIRICH machines. With standard EIRICH anti-wear protection (steel, steel-rubber, composite steel), EIRICH mixers can run for several years without replacement of the floor and wall linings. Patent-protected carbide solutions are available for rotor blades that are subjected to higher stress. The machines can be operated for several years without replacing the rotor. Installation of appropriate moisture detection systems is currently state of the art at EIRICH.

This impressive variability of EIRICH mixers not only ensures that customers can produce sophisticated products with unparalleled reproducibility today, but also that they will be able to develop and produce tomorrow’s products with their existing equipment.

Given the advantages outlined above, more and more producers of standard concrete and ready-made products, who want the capability to produce and fabricate all conceivable types of concrete, are taking a serious look at EIRICH mixing equipment. At plants that have only been operating for a short time (1 – 2 years), an increasing number of mixers that are commonly used in the industry have been replaced with Eirich intensive mixers, and others are scheduled for replacement. In each instance, the reason for the change was the desire to produce higher quality at a predictable level while reducing the reject rate.

This is just one example of the versatility offered by EIRICH mixers.

In 2005, the University of Applied Sciences in Munich described a hybrid mixing process for self-compacting concrete (SCC) in the magazine beton: Two speeds in a single mixing operation.

Water dispersion at high-speed is followed by slow-speed application of the plasticiser. The hybrid mixing process reduces wet mixing time to only 60 s, and it has now been adapted for UHPC production. Total UHPC batch time is now only about 3 minutes. Significantly less plasticiser is needed compared to other mixing systems, and the resulting consistency significantly increases the flowability of the concrete.

EIRICH intensive mixers can also easily mix in all types of fibres, which is something that still causes problems on most simple mixing systems.

The EIRICH product portfolio includes mixing equipment for process all types of concrete, providing solutions for cost-effective production environments.