Q&A: How can I measure how much breakage I have during mixing?
How can I measure how much breakage I have during mixing?
Breakage is easiest to determine when mixing pellets / kibbles. The following procedure should be followed when determining fraction during mixing:
- Take sufficient samples of the product just before starting the mix cycle. Thus, breakage caused by previous process steps is excluded.
- Take sufficient samples of the mixed product immediately after the mixing process.
- For a measurement that is as representative as possible, these samples must be taken from different positions in the mixer.
- Merge the different samples and remove all damaged parts.
- Weigh these masses separately.
- Perform this step for mixed and unmixed product.
- Convert this to percentages.
- The increased fraction percentage is the fraction fraction that is specifically caused by the mixing process.
- To increase the reliability of this measurement, it is preferable to repeat this test a number of times and determine the average thereof.
For powders, a similar procedure can be used using a sieve tower to determine the different fractions.