What Is an Agitator?
Agitators are devices that stir two or more solids or liquids to create the necessary physical or chemical mixture.
They are used not only to mix substances to make their concentration and temperature uniform, but also to prevent particles from settling or floating to maintain the uniformity of substances, or to accelerate the speed of chemical reactions by promoting contact and dissolution between particles. They are also widely used as crystallizers to produce crystals.
Agitators can be broadly classified into relatively large ones used industrially and relatively small ones used for testing and research.
Types of Agitators (Industrial Use)
Industrial applications of agitators include use at manufacturing sites for paper, paint, food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, fuel, asphalt, etc., as well as at water, sewage, and sludge treatment plants, and construction and engineering sites.
Agitators used for these applications mainly consist of an agitator tank that holds the material, and agitator blades that rotate within the tank. There are three main types: the agitator tank mobile type, the suspension type with a fixed agitator tank, and the tank mixer type with an integrated agitator tank and drive unit. The scale and structure of all types of agitators vary greatly depending on the specific gravity and viscosity of the material to be agitated, mixing ratio, mixing time, operating environment, and other conditions. The selection of the agitating blade is especially important in maintaining proper flow conditions in the agitation tank.
Types of Agitators (for Testing and Research)
Agitators used in testing and research include tabletop agitators, in which a small agitator blade is inserted into a container such as a beaker filled with liquid, and stirrers, which use magnetic force to stir the liquid in a container.
Magnetic stirrers, the most common type of stirrer, rotate a magnetic stirrer in a container by rotating a magnet in the main body, and are widely used for chemical analysis and other applications. In addition, there are also electromagnetic stirrers that generate a magnetic field by passing electricity through a coil in the main body to rotate the stirrer in a container, and these are used for different purposes.