Vacuum Mixing & Degassing

Introduction
The THINKY ARE-250 is a planetary mixing machine. By means of both rotation and revolution of the material in a container, materials are mixed and degassed. The materials are under an acceleration of 400G, and even materials of very high viscosity can be mixed and deaerated or degassed at the same time.

Mixing a clear silicone
Manual mixing 3 minutes manual mixing	THINKY ARE-250 Mixing & degassing for 1 minute at 2200rpm

The THINKY ARE-250 delivers extremely good results, with consistent, homogeneous mixes. Unlike hand mixing, the process does not add air into the material, and the machine includes a separate degassing mode - for a bubble-free outcome.

Conventional Vacuum Degassing
Sometimes, for very high viscosity materials or materials for which a high degree of deaeration is required, further degassing may be required. The issues with this are:

• Another step: place material in vacuum equipment after mixing
• Manually controlled process, with attention needed ensure material does not foam or over-flow from the container
• Additional time

Adding Vacuum to the Mixing Process
The THINKY ARV-310 and the THINKY ARV-5000 are mixing and degassing machines like the THINKY ARE-250, but with an integral vacuum.

Normal vacuum degassing after mixing	Rotation, revolution & vacuum mixing
Caution must be taken to prevent foaming and messy overflows when manually degassing using vacuum	In the THINKY, materials don't overflow because they are pressed to the side wall of the container during the simultaneous mixing procedure

Mixing and degassing are achieved simultaneously, in a hands-free fully automated and repeatable process. The is a very high degree of deaeration.

Comparison of THINKY ARE-250 and THINKY ARV-310
Resin samples are mixed in each of the two machines, then a) placed in a vacuum chamber at 0.7kPa to see if any bubbles appear and b) allowed to cure and inspected under magnification.

THINKY ARE-250
Mixing mode: 2000rpm for 1 minute + Degassing mode: 2200rpm for 18 minutes
After mixing, some bubbles appear under vacuum	Some 100μm micro-bubbles are visible in cured resin 100x magnification
THINKY ARE-310
Mixing mode: 2000rpm with 0.7kPa for 5 minutes
After mixing, no bubbles are observed, even when placed in a vacuum chamber	No bubbles are observed in cured resin 100x magnification

Conclusion
The THINKY ARE-250, with its twin mixing and degassing modes, gives fast, efficient and homogeneous mixing of many high technology materials. For ultra critical applications, where even micro-bubbles cannot be tolerated, the the THINKY ARV-310 or ARV-5000 should be considered.