Synthesis of Twin-Shaft Screw Conveyor Mixers

Twin-shaft screw conveyors are often used to move piece goods, especially in conveyor lines in the food industry when filling various containers, but are also used to transport bulk materials. However, they are also widely used as mixers of loose and viscous materials as twin-shaft screw conveyors-mixers. Therefore, when using twin-shaft screw conveyors-mixers, they can act as conveyors-mixers with the functions of mixing and moving materials, or simply as mixers. To create effective designs of twin-shaft screw conveyor mixers that can provide high mixing uniformity with significant process performance and satisfactory cost, it is advisable to generate their rational variants with subsequent theoretical and experimental research and obtaining the most suitable designs for practical use. The use of morphological analysis in generating alternatives using structural- schematic synthesis ensures the receipt of a significant number of design options for technical solutions, and therefore can be fully applied in generating twin-shaft screw conveyors-mixers. To create twin-shaft screw conveyor mixers, their designs were generated using an improved synthesis method using morphological analysis, which involves the use of expert assessments and the division of individual hierarchical groups into subgroups based on the importance of individual features of structural elements. As a result of an expert assessment of the influence of various factors on the mixing operation of twin- shaft screw conveyor mixers, certain features of the structural elements of these mechanisms, as well as their interconnections, have been established. This ensured the construction of a morphological table of individual features of the structural elements of twin-shaft screw conveyors-mixers, and on its basis, accordingly, a model of the mechanical system "Twin-shaft screw conveyor-mixer". As a result of expert analysis during the implementation of the structural and schematic synthesis of twin-shaft screw conveyors-mixers, the following main morphological features of its structural elements were selected: drive: type, type of movement, direction of movement, quantity, speed; chute design; screw working elements: spiral profile, spiral design, spiral diameter, spiral location; hopper: profile, quantity, location, loading mechanism; unloading mechanism; locomotor mechanism. This made it possible to obtain a significant number of effective variants of technical solutions for twin- shaft screw conveyor mixers with various design features. In particular, design schemes of mixers with different profiles, spiral designs and arrangement of spirals relative to each other. The synthesized designs of twin-shaft screw conveyors-mixers enable extensive research of screw mixing systems with the establishment of their design and technological parameters and the selection of rational designs.