What is Guar Gum?
Guar Gum is a readily soluble in cold water. It forms a high viscosity solution at low concentrations increasing in viscosity as temperature rises. Widely used for its thickening, stabilizing and gelling effect on emulsions and suspensions, it is often blended with other modifiers such as Xanthan gum, as the two combine to give greatly increased effects.
Where is Guar Gum used?
- Food
- Paper Coatings
- Cosmetics
- Pharmaceuticals
- Oil well drilling
- Textiles
Difficulties associated with mixing guar gum
- Agitators cannot produce enough shear to break down agglomerates that easily form leading to long mix time and low yield.
- Increase in raw material costs.
- Pre-mixing powders adds to process times and costs.
- Gum that has not hydrated during processing can gradually hydrate during storage or transport leading to undesired changes in product viscosity and stability.
Mixquip high shear solution
Mixquip high-shear mixers can produce an agglomerate-free dispersion and fully hydrate Guar gum much faster compared to traditional methods of agitation.
- The vessel is charged with liquid and the mixer is started. The gum is added to the liquid as rapidly as possible, where the high-speed rotation of the rotor creates a powerful suction drawing the liquid and powder into the workhead where they are instantly combined.
- The materials are then forced through the slots in the side of the workhead and projected back into the body of the mix. Any agglomerates are broken down as they pass through the slots.
- Fresh materials are constantly drawn into the workhead. The vigorous movement in the vessel ensures that in a short mixing cycle all the material passes many times through the workhead, progressively reducing the particle size and exposing an increasing surface area to the surrounding liquid. This rapidly completes hydration.
High shear mixer options for guar gum dispersion
Advantages
- Agglomerate free mix achieved.
- Operator error eliminated.
- Rapid mixing times.
- Consistent product quality and repeatability between batches.
- Pre-mixing of gums with powders no longer required.
- Maximised yield allowing products to be formulated with reduced gum content, cutting raw material costs.
Contact Mixquip to learn more
For more information about our high-shear mixer range and use in successful dispersion of guar gum, contact our team on 1300 20 70 20 or email sales@mixquip.com. Our team look forward to discussing your application and help improve production for process demands.