Patent ID: 7566166
Filing Date: 2009-07-28
Classification: A01K,B01F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A mixer for mixing a mixture comprising: a housing having first and second opposite end walls and first and second opposite side walls formed therein and defining a first chamber and a second chamber in side-by side relation to one another and being partially in communication with one another; an upper auger within the first chamber and having an upper auger shaft mounted for rotation between the first and second end walls of the housing, the upper auger shaft having one or more upper radial members extending from the upper auger shaft; a lower auger within the first chamber below the upper auger and having a lower auger shaft mounted for rotation between the first and second end walls of the housing, the lower auger shaft having one or more lower radial members extending from the lower auger shaft; a rotor within the second chamber beside the upper and lower augers and having an elongated rotor shaft mounted for rotation between the first and second end walls of the housing; a plurality of arm assemblies mounted in spaced relation to one another along the length of the rotor shaft, each of the arm assemblies comprising two or more arms, each of the arms having a first end attached to the rotor shaft and having a second end located in an outward radial direction from the rotor shaft and being free from attachment to the adjacent ones of the arm assemblies; a plurality of paddles, each paddle mounted on the second end of one and only one corresponding arm of the arm assemblies; all of the paddles on one of the arm assemblies being circumferentially staggered with respect to all of the paddles on the adjacent ones of the arm assemblies; each of the paddles being free from surfaces that impart axial movement in opposite directions to the mixture during rotation of the rotor shaft; the arm assemblies and the plurality of paddles extending outward in a radial direction from the rotor shaft a greater distance than either of the upper and lower radial members extend in a radial direction from each of the upper and lower auger shafts respectively; mechanism attached to, and rotating, each of the upper auger, lower auger, and rotor.