The market
The global market for industrial mixing and mixture equipment, including maintenance and related services, was estimated at $ 120 billion in 2010. The need to mix fluids, fluids, solids and gases is critical For a wide range of industries, including food processing, plastics and composites, candles and waxes, tobacco products, cosmetics and personal care, glass, cement, ceramics, metals, Inks, paintings and coatings, drinks, pasta, energy, water treatment, pharmaceutical products, minerals, oil and gas, agriculture. The number of manufacturers in the United States and 350 in Europe is estimated at 150. The largest operators have extended to India and China. While investment expenditure has been lethargic in the past three years and only resume the levels before 2008, revenues from maintenance and spare parts should have compensated for the losses by 2011. Several of the main companies are centenary family businesses such as Charles Ross & Son Company (New York, 1842), Possehl GmbH (Lübeck, Germany, 1847) which acquired the Farell group established in Connecticut in 1848, Philadelphia Mixing Solutions (USA , 1909), and Ika Works GmbH (Germany, 1910).
Innovation
The main challenge for mixing and mixing is the time required to obtain a perfect distribution. This led to a rich field of research and development to design sophisticated mathematical models which can predictive incorporate a small ingredient in a huge mass. Mixture and mixing require energy and space. The vortex (see case 1) could mix in a few minutes the active ingredients which otherwise require 45 minutes, increasing the potential yield with the same equipment of a 10 factor, saving space and energy thanks to the mere movement swirling with a geometrically induced shape. The oloid, a geometric shape developed by Paul Schatz at the beginning of the 20th century, dissolves, thanks to its rotation movement, oxygen in water consuming up to 80 % less energy, by making Wave the water/air interface instead of pumping the air with force in a mass of water. However, as the perfect speed and distribution were considered in conversely linked, research should focus on the change in this basic rule of the game. This is one of the approaches to the blue economy to orient companies to the sustainable development and better profitability. Angelo Mazzei managed the equipment of the Maraîchère farm of 10,000 acres of his uncle and learned the basics of irrigation and the fertilization of cultures although he obtained in 1968 a diploma in industrial automotive technology from California State University (Fresno). It started to experiment in order to make the mixture of a liquid fertilizer in irrigation water more effective. During the construction of the California aqueduct, irrigation water was supplied under pressure. This posed a problem for the addition of liquid fertilizer. In 1974, he applied his knowledge on the Venturi injector used for automobile exhausts to the mechanism of mixing liquids and pressure gas. The Venturi effect is a jet effect: water speed increases when the transverse section of the output decreases. We all apply this concept created when we put our thumb on a watering hose to increase the pressure and the spray distance. While working as a seller for tractors John Deere, Angelo perfected his injection and mixture system to the point that he successfully filed his first patent in 1978. The Mazei injector captures pressurized water when 'It enters a narrow entrance and pushes the water to the injection chamber. The more the water speed increases, the more the pressure decreases. To avoid the drag which is typically generated by cylindrical pipes, the pipes ideally take a conical form, approaching the concept of the whirlwind (see cases 1 and 68). Thanks to an aspiration orifice, liquids, fluids and gases can be introduced and mixed with water without the need for pumps. The mixture can then be injected under pressure into the main pipe. This is how the exhaust pipe of a car applies the Venturi logic. The exhaust exhaust gas from the combustion engine enter the largest room, depressed, before escaping by a pipe in the atmosphere. Experience in the automotive sector is transferred to agriculture.
The first cash flow
The first commercial application of Angelo made it possible to mix water under pressure with liquid fertilizers or nutrients, and to directly supply the irrigation system. Adding air to irrigation water, according to the same concept, has increased the dissolved oxygen content, which acts as a natural stimulant of plant growth. This is how a new irrigation technique was invented, summarized in the slogan of the brand "plowing without plowing". The farmers realized that instead of plowing the earth, mixing the air in the pressure irrigation water would have the same effect with much less energy. While Angelo operated the first years of his young company in his garage with his wife Mary, the family created Mazzei Injector Corporation and established himself seven years later in Bakersfield, California. The company remains under the control of the family and continues to expand its activities thanks to internal growth based on the increase in its patent portfolio. Starting from an exhaust pipe, simply using the laws of physics that each engineering student learns from the Italian physicist of the 18th century Giovanni Batista Venturi, an impressive commercial niche emerged. In fact, Angelo's invention is a platform technology that is applicable in dozens of sectors. The challenge consists in choosing which ones.
The opportunity
The effects of the application of physics offer simple and predictable results according to transparent mathematical models. Innovations based on this logic are privileged technologies in the concept of blue economy that lead to new business models. Mazzei continued to make his devices and adapted his ideas to dozens of applications, always using the same basic principles. Today, Mazzei equipment is sold in 100 countries around the world. Mazzei injectors are used to control microbial contamination, disinfect food transformation and control invasive species by a perfect mixture of dissolved ozone. In another intelligent application, Mazzei injectors and mixers capture the energy created by the water flow and use it to produce ozone from the water itself, then mix it in the same current water. This mazzei degaze equipment all non -dissolved gas bubbles. Everything is produced and consumed in a single process from water, without ever freeing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or consuming additional electricity. The use of what you have (flow energy and oxygen for disinfection extracted from water) is one of the fundamental principles of the blue economy. This technology is compared well to the chlorine destruction system (see case 42) which is also powered by the water flow. To date, Mazzei has 14 patents. The applications of this purely mathematical formula based on geometric shapes extend from mixture -delay mixture systems, water vacuum cleaners creating a vacuum using tap water pressure and atomizers to spray paint, nozzles For fire extinguishers, wine aerators, filtration systems for aquariums, compressed air vacuum cleaners, automatic pool cleaners, depression exhalers, smoke gas, sandwashers, diving for scuba diving and oxygen therapy mask. It seems that this technology is just starting to impose itself in our daily life. The Mazzei group undertakes to maintain the research pipeline full of new ideas and innovative approaches. This is where entrepreneurs are in high demand to exploit this platform in order to create effective solutions for the company.
