ITCM designs and develops special-purpose machinery and production processes with core strengths in web processing, powder dosing, novel packaging and high-speed assembly automation.

Sensor helps analyse mixing

A torque sensor is helping analyse recipes’ mixing properties in a project that could slash development costs in the food and plastics industry and help nanotechnology advances in the pharmaceuticals world.

The research and development is being carried out at the UK’s University of Bradford by Professor Hadj Benkreira and Dr Raj Patel in collaboration with Dr Martin Gale, formerly of RAPRA Technology (Shawbury) now Visiting Professor. They have been developing a miniature mixer (5-25grams batch) that incorporates a set of integral instruments to monitor the properties of materials as they are being mixed.

The instruments work in real time during the mixing process and their output is captured to a PC for subsequent analysis.

Software is being written so that the analysis can be performed simultaneously with the mixing and perhaps even used to interactively control the mixer itself.

Enter 27 or at www.engineerlive.com/epe

Sensor Technology Ltd is Upper Heyford, Bicester, Oxfordshire, UK. www.sensors.co.uk

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