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.