Design and Testing of Segmented Spiral Total Mix Ration Mixer

Abstract

To address the challenges of non-uniform mixing in total mixed diet forage and the high power consumption of the required device, we developed a segmented spiral total mixed diet device. This development involved theoretical analysis to determine the structural parameters of the main body of the segmented spiral blades, the churn, and the creation of a test bed for the segmented spiral total mixed diet device. Taking mixing speed, mixing time, filling coefficient, and segmented spiral blade spacing as test factors and mixing uniformity and energy consumption per unit mass as test indexes, the optimal combination of operating parameters of the device was determined by using a four-factor, three-level orthogonal test method. The results of the validation test showed that the mixing uniformity of the device under these conditions was 93.41%, the energy consumption per unit mass was 4723.69 J, and the errors between the mixing test values of the device and the optimized values of the model were all less than 5%. This study can provide a reference for improving the working quality of the segmented spiral TMR mixer.