BHR Group has successfully transferred its NIMIX technology and business to Chemineer, a unit of Robbins and Myers UK Ltd., after ten years of technical and exploitation development at The Fluid Engineering Centre, Cranfield. What started as a method of mixing paint inside a sealed can, invented by Dr Geoff Pollard in the 1980s, was taken up by the company, turned into a commercial product, and built into a small but profitable business.

The new owners, specialists in mixing equipment and process plant installations, are ideally placed to take the technology into a wider range of applications, and to expand on the worthwhile foundations prepared by BHR Group.

NIMIX's Novel Technology
NIMIX mixes the contents of a sealed container when the base of the container is flexed. An internal holed plate acts as a fluid diode, causing a plume of flow up the centre of the container, returning back along the sides. Mixing occurs in the space between the plate and the base. The latest products have elastomeric diaphragms as the base, with the body built from Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs). Product is delivered in these container/mixers, which when installed onto specially interlocking drive units, rapidly remix any settled contents, and can operate almost irrespective of the level of product contained.

NIMIX IBCs have become the preferred method of delivery and use in much of the bulk coatings industry, especially for marine and automotive coatings. The key benefit, apart from the rapid and efficient mixing ability, is the fact that the mixing environment is sealed and emission of VOCs during mixing is virtually eliminated.

Paint-Can Mixers
The original prototype products in the 1980s were constructed from 5 litre and 25 litre paint and ink containers, which doubled up as mixers when excited by a base drive unit. However, the products did not take off in this form due to the extra cost of fitting the diode mixing plate. The container business was very competitive and did not recognise the full benefit of the NIMIX technology. BHR Group had created a new product from new technology, but there was no ready market, due to the well-established nature of the container industry. It needed 'pull-through' by technical managers who would perceive and value the particular benefits that NIMIX would offer.

Diaphragm Lifetime Research
To achieve fast mixing in a purpose designed vessel an elastomeric diaphragm was introduced as the vessel base. It performed well but potential users questioned the lifetime to be expected, since this piece of elastomer was the only membrane between the contents and the environment. There had been little work on prediction of elastomer lifetime at that time so.

BHR Group set up a consortium project with other interested parties from industry to fill the knowledge gap. Considerable test work and research on diaphragms resulted in the ability to accurately predict the expected lifetime for such components, thereby removing the final barrier to commercialisation.

DTI's Best Practice Programme
NIMIX Limited's Managing Director, Neil Davies, spotted the opportunity when legislation loomed on emission of VOCs in coatings manufacture. The DTI's programme for demonstrating Best Practice afforded a way of proving the worth of NIMIX technology for the production of coatings, and a collaboration between BHR Group and BASF produced the sort of information which confirmed the significant benefits to the coatings industry that NIMIX could bring. 'Coatings' was the first niche market that NIMIX was able to exploit successfully, and in doing so to begin to open up opportunities for other markets and applications. However, like all speciality products, NIMIX needed to be one of many solutions promoted on a wide scale so as to be evident when the right applications arose. It needed proper distribution and promotion. Hence the sale to Chemineer.

Engineering Ingenuity and Commercial Stamina
BHR Group is delighted to see the fruits of its efforts rewarded by the sale, and the prospect that NIMIX technology will continue to establish itself in new applications and industries around the world. BHR Group would like to thank all of its NIMIX collaborators and previous customers for their valuable input in making NIMIX a success.

NIMIX is an enduring example of British engineering ingenuity and commercial stamina, one more example of BHR Group 'saving money in the process'.

For more details, contact us.

NIMIX static process plant

NIMIX Diode Plate

Flow patterns in NIMIX mixers