Boone Delta Blade Mixer was chosen to manufacture Topsport reinforced sports surfaced due to its versatility and efficient mixing system.
Tarmac wanted to provide their customers with exactly the right blend of Topsport protection they required by mixing a small but carefully metered percentage of polypropylene fibre with the sand that is quarried on site. Some blends carefully selected topsoil is added to create a “complete mix”. The individual polypropylene strands are approximately 50mm long, and have a very low bulk density. The fibres com to site as highly compressed blocks on pallets and then combed int to he mixer, which means that in many cases fibres arrive at the mixer in clumps. The sand and topsoil have a much higher density that the fibre, making the materials especially difficult to mix together.
Achieving a significant improvement in product quality was vital The key was for us to provide a truly homogenous mix of three disparate materials. The mixer is configured to a relatively long aspect ratio, which gives both an ideal environment for the high-shear mixing required and the time required for a homogenous mix to develop.
The continuous plough type Delta Blade Mixer that we supplied was equipped with the Delta Blade and high speed cutters, which quickly break up difficult and agglomerated materials and distribute them rapidly? Completely? through the mix. The components are fed in together at the top of the mixer and through the speed and shape of the Delta blades are completely fluidised, passing though the high speed cutters and mixing throughout the entire length of the mixer. The homogeneous mix is discharged via an adjustable weir plate which can be used to vary the residence time in the mixer to match the production rate required, typically 40 MT/hr.