A new approach to evaluate mixing time in a V-type powder mixer: Taguchi weighted grey relational analysis

Mixing of powder materials is a major process in food industry. V-type mixers are widely used in powder mixing processes to prepare mixtures. The main objective of powder mixing is to improve homogeneity under certain conditions. Defining optimum mixing parameters with new methodologies gets importance. In this study, model food mixtures containing three different powder and granular food materials were mixed in V-type laboratory mixer. The physical properties and flow characteristics were examined. The average concentration and coefficient of variation were analysed. Mixer fill rate and mixing time with five levels were adopted to a 52 full factorial design and analysed in Taguchi L25 orthogonal array. The signal-to-noise ratios for responses were determined and used to calculate weight factors. A new approach, Taguchi weighted Grey Relational Analysis was applied to evaluate optimum mixing parameters. Results showed this new technique can be used effectively in multi-response decision making for powder mixing.