Ribbon Blender

Ribbon Blenders consist of a U-shaped horizontal trough and a solid agitator shaft mounted with spokes that support outer and inner helical blades called ribbons. Powered by a gearmotor drive, the agitator rotates and produces a peripheral speed of up to approximately 300 fpm. The ribbons move material radially — the outer ribbons move the ingredients in toward the blender’s center, and the inner ribbons move ingredients out toward the blender wall. 

The difference in the outer and inner ribbons’ speeds moves material laterally or axially (along the blender’s horizontal axis), in opposite directions. The radial and two-way axial mixing actions promote small-scale random motion (diffusion), large-scale random motion (convection), and shear resulting from particle-to-agitator, particle-to-wall, and particle-to-particle collisions.