Industry & Factory: Low-tech Static Mixers for Fluids

While there are many kinds of commercially branded static mixers, these tend to be costly and are designed for larger outputs than you may need. By buying alternative equipment that isn't necessarily intended as an static mixer, you may find exactly what you need for your mixing requirements, and save some money at the same time.

Some low-tech alternatives could be:

-Static Pump: After introducing two or more fluids to each other at a common juncture, this partially mixed solvent may be further mixed by going through a pump. Depending on how easily these compounds mix together, this might be all the agitation they require.

TIP: Among the most common pumps are common expeller style pumps. Expeller pumps offer a fair compromise of high-shear force and high-volume throughput. For even greater shearing force, consider using a "wobble" pump, whose internal workings subject unmixed compounds to violently rapid changes in direction.

-Hot Water / Steam Radiator: Consider using a hot water radiator or steam radiator, such as those found in older homes and buildings. While these have finned and undulating inner surfaces, they tend to offer less fluid agitation than their cousin, the car radiator.

-Car Radiator: A common car radiator may be used as a static mixing device also. With hundreds of finned and undulating inner surfaces, fluids passed through a car radiator are subjected to many changes in direction before exiting.

-Heat Exchangers: There are literally hundreds of kinds of industrial heat exchangers on the market. Depending on their internal design, these devices not only provide superior mixing of fluids, but can also offer you the opportunity to heat the fluids you are mixing. Heating allows your mixed compounds to mix more thoroughly, as well as react together chemically.

-Solar Water Heater Panel: Another low-tech static mixer is a solar water heating panel, such as the kind you sometimes see on the roofs of houses. These black panels are a series of parallel tubes that - when linked together - can offer hundreds of turns' worth of agitation to your miscible fluids. These panels can also work as a kind of heat exchanger when used in strong sunlight. This heat allows your mixed compounds to mix more thoroughly, as well as react together chemically.