Re Mixers 3D Printing Millions of Mixers to Disrupt the Static Mixer Market

Static mixers are everywhere; they’re the nozzles that you use to kit or Purr your bathroom. Factories all over the world, in automotive, consumer electronics, and industry, use millions of them to dispense adhesives, glueing together the products that surround us. Static mixers have also been used in additive to print in silicones and other paste materials.

Quietly, Re Mixers, Inc. has been using 3D printing to disrupt the static mixing nozzle market. Founded in 2016, the company has sold millions of 3D printed static mixers that outperform traditional ones. Through innovative 3D printed topology, their nozzles mix more thoroughly, dispense more precisely, and flow faster, while wasting less material. They’re doing this with cost-competitive 3D printed solutions made in the US. In verticals such as 2K adhesives (two component glues such as epoxy and PU that are mixed when dispensed), resins, paints, Pharma, and things as prosaic as silicone bathroom sealants, their products are finding markets.

Normal static mixing nozzles are made by combining several production technologies to make a rather convoluted series of shapes: around 24 to 32 individual elements that spin in a tube to mix components. Square or helical mixers use what is called the baker’s transformation. Cutting through and reforming a liquid requires a number of elements to mix things thoroughly, akin to the repeated moves a baker makes to knead dough. Every spin or element would make more striations, which would mix the substance(s) a bit more.

Re Mixers began when researchers used machine learning to figure out that novel geometries could do much more mixing with fewer elements. In fact, there were geometries out there that could mix ten times more efficiently. That could save lots of labor. But, it could also be used to make nozzles and mixers with far fewer elements. These static mixers could be shorter. This would save a lot of material, since less adhesive or paint was needed to fill the entire nozzle. Every time work stopped, glue would be saved. Every single bottle less adhesive would be wasted because you could use up more of the overall adhesive in the bottle. Workers would also be able to be closer to the car door or phone, and apply more accurately. Given the vast amounts of 2K and other adhesives used in consumer electronics, automotive, and beyond, the savings are considerable.

By going beyond the Baker’s Transformation, researchers found a “new class of higher-order chaotic mapping.” That was all fine and dandy on the whiteboard, but how could these novel shapes be made? Ultimately, Re Mixers was able to 3D print them. Through building up its own industrial 3D printing capacity in the US, it was able to expand into more and more mixer markets with its more efficient designs. The company calls its mixing methods the Xemex Transformation. According to the firm, around 75% fewer elements are needed to achieve the same mix.

The company did thousands of tests in trying to prove out the efficiency of Xemex. At the moment, some of their mixers can produce 2,000 striations with three elements. A number of their nozzles waste 75% less material than conventionally made ones. The firm says that most mixers waste around 19.1 ml per nozzle while its nozzles waste only 5.0 ml. Re Mixers thinks that around a billion nozzles are used in adhesive dispensing annually, and the market could save 12 million kilos of adhesive collectively if they switched to its products.

Additive manufacturing is strong where flow matters. That hypersonic craft, rocket engine, heat exchanger, hydraulic equipment, antenna all can work better should flow be further optimized. And if we can optimize flow to the point where the increased functionality will eclipse our higher costs, then we can begin to have successful applications. If we then improve process economics and performance further, we can perhaps dominate a particular application through 3D printing. Re Mixers is set to do this with something that we perhaps would not at first glance consider. I’ve used static mixers to print in client work, and have worked extensively on 3D printing nozzles, but it had never occurred to me to 3D print a static mixer. But, this is clearly an area where flow is paramount. More firms need to be like Re Mixers and seek out those applications where improved flow through 3D printing can really make breakthroughs in performance.