Designing a high speed paint mixer of affordable price for local and small scale industries

Abstract

The project aimed at designing of high speed paint mixer. The machine consisted of a mixing drum with a capacity of 34 L. Different tests are carried out by mixing 25%, 50%, and 75% of the total mixing capacity of the machine, and the time taken for the constituents thoroughly mixed are recorded. A paint mixer (for small scale paint production) comprising of a stainless steel cylindrical tank, an agitator/stirrer, and a 1HP electric motor is developed and tested. V.- Belt and pulleys were used to transmit the torque from the electric motor to the shaft and stirrer through two vertically placed bearings. The pulleys used are one step each. One pulley is mounted on the motor while the other is mounted on the shaft. This is to enable the mixer to run at one single. The mixer member (agitator) is used to mix the paint components by the use of an electric motor. For easy mixing of denser paint components i.e. paints with high viscosity, particularly enamel paint, a hydraulic lift, with a travel height (distance) of about 42 cm, after mixing as well as to install the drum in place before starting the mixing operation. According to literature review, the test results obtained from the running of the machine shows that the time taken to mix thoroughly 34L of paint constituents was 1 hour and 40minutes. This finding elucidates the ability to tackle the problems of mixing paint locally by hand and by manually operated machines, the project also shows that mixing using a paint mixer is time saving and also cost effective