Going from garage start-up to larger scale production can be a daunting prospect for manufacturers in any sector, not least in the high competition, high stakes sports nutrition industry. It all seemed so simple when you were filling, blending and packaging products by hand, but manual materials handling just isn’t going to cut it if you’re serious about expanding your sports nutrition manufacturing empire. So what are the options? 

 从启动生产到大规模生产，对于任何行业制造行业而言都是艰巨的挑战，特别是竞争激烈的运动营养品行业。手动调料、混合、包装听上去非常简单，但一旦扩产变成运动营养品制造帝国，就变得不太实际。有其他代替吗？

Continuous production and fixed mixers

持续生产加固定式混合机

Continuous production lines are what most people think of when they think of a sports nutrition manufacturing facility – conveyor belts, pipelines and machines all coupled together to take materials on a non-stop journey from raw ingredients to finished, packaged product.

在运动营养品生产行业，大部分人所想到的生产模式为——传送带、连接管及设备组合相连的生产线，从原料到完成、包装都是一气呵成。

However, there are a number of drawbacks to a continuous system that can impact your overall productivity and efficiency. Here we look at the benefits and disadvantages of the fixed mixer system, and propose a leaner, cleaner, alternative way of blending your recipes. 

但是，持续生产系统有很多缺点，其中之一就是影响整体产能及效率。我们将于文中列出固定混合机的优缺点，随后介绍一种更为简洁、卫生、工艺可任意组合的方法来进行配方的混合。

How does a fixed mixer work?

固定混合机如何工作？

Fixed mixers are essentially large receptacles into which you pour your raw powdered ingredients. Regardless of whether that product is a protein shake mix, a nutritional supplement or the dry ingredients for an energy bar, the ingredients for a given product all get blended together to make your recipe – which can then go forward for further processing or packaging.

固定混合机一般为大容量，您可以直接将原料投入。无论是蛋白粉奶昔、营养补剂或能量棒的干粉原料，都是根据配方将特定的原料进行混合——随后进行下一步加工或直接包装。

Fixed blenders usually work very quickly and efficiently, with a rotating blade that folds and mixes the various ingredients together to produce a consistent, even mix.

固定混合机工作非常迅速、高效，配有旋转式刀头搅动并混合大量原料，来达到持续、均匀的混合。

Drawbacks of a fixed mixer system

固定混合机的缺点

Sports nutrition manufacturers often underestimate the time it takes for their operators to fill and empty the mixer. This miscalculation is because some industrial mixer providers use a “4 minute blend time” in their advertising or sales pitch, but what they fail to include is the fill/empty time which could take up to 2 hours to fill and a further 2 hours to empty. In addition to this, cleaning time is usually overlooked. Importantly, the mixer is often left idle while filling, awaiting packing call off and cleaning activity takes place. Quite quickly you can see how much more sports nutrition manufacturers could produce, if the mixer was working more efficiently and how much time is wasted with traditional mixers.

运动营养品生产商市场忽略计算操作工在进行填料及排空混合机时耗费的时间，而造成计算错误的原因就是混合机供应商在产品广告或宣传语声称 “只需四分钟”，但不提及前序工艺填料/排空可能耗费2小时，而后续排空又需要2小时。 不仅如此，清洗时间还未计算在内，关键是在设备填料阶段，包装、清洗装置全部闲置。如果混合机可以更加高效地运转，厂商就可以生产更多的产品，避免在使用传统混合机时造成的时间上的浪费。                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Another important limitation of the fixed mixer system is that, being fixed in place, you only have one blender per production line to do the job. So, if you needed to increase the batch volume of a particularly best-selling product, you’d be restricted by the size of your blender. Likewise, if you wanted to reduce the batch volume, your large, fixed blender would be working at suboptimal efficiency.

固定式混合机另一局限就是，因为它被固定在某一位置，整条生产线只能使用一台混合机来进行作业。这样的话，一旦想要提升某种畅销品的产能，实际上受限于混合机大小很难完成。相反，如果减少批次产量，您的大型、固定混合机的工作效率就会降低。

What’s the alternative? IBCs!

有更好的代替品吗？答案就是中转料仓！

A leaner, cleaner alternative to using a fixed mixer is to use an Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) system instead. These containers are not only transport receptacles to move powdered ingredients around your factory floor, but Matcon’s IBCs also double as the blender vessel.1000L-S-Series-IBC use in sports nutrition manufacturing

一种更为精益、洁净的方式就是使用中转料仓。这些料仓不仅仅是将粉体简单地转运到工厂各处，其本身也是混合机的组成部分。1000升的S型IBC料仓被广泛使用于运动营养品行业。

Matcon IBCs are not fixed to a continuous system – you can swap these affordable, different sized containers in and out of a production line, allowing you to easily change your recipe and/or batch volumes to suit your production needs. As they decouple the manufacturing system it allows each part of the process to operate at its optimal capacity. The blender OEE rates can be much improved.

迈康IBC不属于连续型生产系统——您可以在生产线上随时更换这些高性价比、尺寸不尽相同的料仓，帮您实现配方或批次大小的随意切换，满足不同产品的需求。由于系统的每个部分都可以分开运转促使产能最大化。混合整体效率得以大幅改进。

Unlike other IBCs that still use the butterfly valve discharge system, Matcon has developed a precision-engineered Cone Valve discharge system. This dust-tight technology allows precisely measured quantities of blended recipe to be discharged from the IBC, without any loss of product caused by escaping dust, left-behind residue, or sticky powders causing blockages. It also means that product is transferred without the risk of the recipe de-mixing.  For more information on sports nutrition manufacturing, read our other blogs in this series.

与其他使用蝶阀进行下料的IBC不同，迈康研发了一套高精度锥型阀系统。这种防粉尘外漏的技术可以从IBC内精确称量需要混合的原料数量，不再担心由于粉尘泄露导致的粉料浪费，避免粉体残留、或者粘性粉料的架桥问题。这也意味着产品在输送过程中可以避免再次分层的问题。想要进一步了解有关运动营养品的生产，请继续阅读这一系列的其他博文。

Why not give one of our engineers a call to discuss how you could use a Matcon IBC system in your sports nutrition manufacturing facility?

何不现在就联络我们的工程师来了解如何将迈康IBC系统运用在您的运动营养品工厂呢？