Liquid Mixing

By Angelo De Palma, Ph.D., Contributing Editor
PharmaManufacturing.com
For consistency and success, there’s no substitute for experience and power.
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Liquid mixing and blending would seem to be among the most straightforward of pharmaceutical manufacturing unit operations. Mechanical process mixers have been on the market for more than 100 years, and not much separates mixers for drug making from those used in food and chemical industries. “Sanitary features are the only distinguishing characteristic of pharmaceutical-grade mixers,” says Kevin McNamara of MixMor (Los Angeles). In business for more than half a century, MixMor serves the gamut of process industries but custom-designs most of its pharmaceutical-grade liquid mixer/blenders. Customers pay a premium — between $1,000 and $5,000 — for smooth vessel and impeller designs and all-stainless construction. Many liquid mixing/blending operations are indeed straightforward — those involving two similar liquids, for example. They get complicated with very dissimilar fluids, such as oil and water, or whenever solids are involved. For very thick slurries, manufacturers begin to worry about uniformity, time-to-blend, and the horsepower of mechanical blending units. And for additives that may crystallize or combine with water, one must be on the lookout for the ultimate disaster of a blend: solidifying to rock-hard consistency, right in that brand-new, $100,000 stainless steel reactor.

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