The V-Blender is a popular tumble blender commonly used in the pharmaceutical and food industries. This article explains the design, construction, and operation of the standard V-Blender and the V-Blender with intensifier bar. The advantages and the disadvantages of the V-Blender are highlighted.
The V-Blender is made of two hollow cylindrical shells joined at an angle of 75° to 90°. The blender container is mounted on trunnions to allow it to tumble. As the V-blender tumbles, the material continuously splits and recombines, with the mixing occurring as the material free-falls randomly inside the vessel. The repetitive converging and diverging motion of material combined with increased frictional contact between the material and the vessel's long, straight sides result in gentle yet homogenous blending. Figure 1 shows a V-Blender.
Advantages of Using V-Blender
• Particle size reduction and attrition are minimized due to the absence of any moving blades. Hence it can be used for fragile materials
• Charging and discharging of material is easy.
• The shape of blender body results in a near complete discharge of product material, clearly an added advantage over horizontal blenders.
• The absence of shaft projection eliminates product contamination.
• V-blenders are easy to clean.