CW: What types of equipment does your company sell?

American Machining: We are one of the largest suppliers of mixing, blending, and processing equipment. We also manufacture specialty stainless steel containers for transporting chemicals, coatings, solvents, petroleum, resins, and adhesives. We specialize in coatings processing equipment and replacement parts for IBC containers. 

Bühler: Bühler is a global technology partner for the food, feed, and mobility industries. As a Swiss family-owned company with a history spanning over 165 years, Bühler is driven by its purpose of creating innovations for a better world, balancing the needs of economy, humanity, and nature in all its decision-making processes. Billions of people come into contact with Bühler technologies as they cover their basic needs for food and mobility every day. Two billion people each day enjoy foods produced on Bühler equipment, and one billion people travel in vehicles manufactured using parts produced with Bühler solutions. Countless people wear eyeglasses, use smart phones, and read newspapers and magazines – all of which depend on Bühler process technologies and solutions. 

Grinding and Dispersing business

With more than 100 years of experience in wet grinding and dispersing, Bühler offers deep expertise in plant and machine solutions for industries including paints and coatings, cosmetics, and chemicals. Bühler’s wet grinding and dispersing mills integrate numerous innovations that reduce production complexity, shorten processing times, and improve energy efficiency, helping customers achieve stable and economical manufacturing processes.

Portfolio

The bead mill portfolio ranges from laboratory-scale machines with an active chamber volume of just 0.07 liters to industrial systems with volumes of up to 1,000 liters. Laboratory solutions support efficient product testing and formulation development, while high-capacity machines such as the Centex T5 are designed for large production. The bead mill line enables continuous production with excellent cooling performance and precise temperature control, making it particularly suitable for temperature-sensitive products with low to medium viscosity.

In addition to bead mills, Bühler offers advanced three-roll mill technology. The three-roll mills are specifically designed for the efficient processing of medium to high viscosity products such as metal pastes, cosmetics, printing inks, conductive inks, sealants, and lubricants. Its ultra-high roll speeds, superior cooling performance, and optional features such as automated scraper-knife adjustment and zero-point setting enable exceptional productivity and allow processes beyond the capabilities of conventional three-roll mills.

The Bühler three-roll mills also stand out for their flexibility, with an operating range from 5 to 130 N/mm, enabling precise adaptation to diverse production requirements. User-friendly control systems store process recipes, ensure maximum precision and repeatability, and provide long-term production data analysis. This supports consistent product quality and continuous process optimization throughout the equipment’s lifecycle.

CMC: We offer Horizontal Media Mills, batch mills, SHRED inline rotor/stator dispersers, & dual or triple shaft dispersers. 

Hockmeyer: We design and manufacture:

• Single and Multi-Shaft Mixers and Dispersers

• Immersion Media Mills (aka Basket Mills)

• Vacuum Recirculation Media Mills

• Tank Washers

Ross: Since 1842, ROSS has been producing high quality industrial mixing, blending, drying, and dispersion equipment. Our mixers are the gold standard known for their durability and are used in the manufacturing process of many different products. As an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), ROSS has the unique capability to provide standard as well as custom-designed mixers to meet your diverse processing needs. 

CW: In addition to equipment, what other services do you offer your customers?

American Machining: In addition to manufacturing, we repair stainless steel containers, recertify these containers to ensure compliance with the DOT (we are a DOT-certified repair house), we also refurbish and resell stainless steel IBC containers, and offer IBC cleaning services via our sister company, Cygnet Automated Cleaning. We are a full-service fleet management company – from manufacturing, to replacement parts, repairs, recertification and cleaning.

Bühler: Bühler supports customers across the entire wet grinding and dispersing value chain, providing end-to-end services from initial concept development through to long-term operation. Based on specific product requirements and production targets, Bühler designs, plans, and implements tailored solutions ranging from individual machines to integrated systems and fully automated production plants. This comprehensive approach ensures consistently high product quality, reliable performance, and
global scalability.

To define the optimal production process, Bühler offers extensive application support through dedicated laboratory services, enabling customers to conduct product trials at their own facilities or at one of Bühler’s three global application centers in Switzerland, Japan, and China. These trials support precise process development, reduce scale-up risks, and accelerate time to market. Beyond commissioning, Bühler provides lifecycle support through customized service packages, including machine upgrades.

Environmental Impact Services

Process optimization services further enhance efficiency by improving throughput, energy consumption, and product quality under real production conditions. Building on this, Bühler also offers Environmental Impact Services, which provide customers with a structured, science-based assessment of the customer’s operations. By measuring energy use, waste generation, water consumption, and carbon emissions across the value chain, Bühler identifies improvement hotspots and models targeted scenarios to support more sustainable 

CMC: We offer our customers toll processing, process engineering consulting, customer innovation lab, parts and customer support/training.

Hockmeyer: 

• Replacement parts

•  Equipment repair and refurbishment

•  Equipment trials – at our applications lab

•  Installation supervision

•  Startup assistance

•  Operator training

•  Process evaluation and optimization

•  Equipment rentals

Ross: We encourage our customers to utilize our 8,000 square foot Test and Development Center, in which they can often bring their own raw materials, run them with ROSS equipment, and get a good understanding of what to expect from our mixing technology, all at no cost. These hands-on trials provide clear data on cycle times, product quality, and overall efficiency. This allows our clients to make confident, well-informed decisions before scaling up or finalizing specifications.

CW: What are some of your most popular products?

American Machining: The Quick Mount Agitator – Flip Mix is designed for ease of attaching a mixer onto a poly container – it’s lightweight, yet effective for mixing and blending a variety of liquids. This mixer can be modified with a variety of collapsible impellers for the most effective blending of various viscosity levels. It is designed to fit standard poly tank opening or can be attached to a mixing
bridge attachment. 

The second product is our newest dry break adapter called PureLink. It’s the only one in the market that has fully removable parts for cleaning the most difficult products. 

The last product is one of our most popular tank vents, the FuzVent. This is a patented product that we have sold over one million pieces of this product. It is the first and only reusable HDPE that lasts 10x longer than all competitive vents. It is a pressure/vacuum that exceeds DOT/UN packaging standards, has two safety vents, and a 3” NPS fitting. We also offer a FuzVent assembly tool to ensure the vent is tightened to the correct torque specifications.

Bühler: Cenomic Horizon, the latest addition to the Cenomic line, combines reliability, precision, and efficiency in processing temperature-sensitive products. It handles a wide range of viscosities and applications – from coatings and inks to chemicals and minerals.

The Trias three-roll mill is the most productive, flexible, and precise three-roll mill. Trias is the best choice for the efficient production of medium to high viscosity products like metal pastes, cosmetics, printing inks, conductive inks, sealants, or lubricants. 

CMC: SHRED: CMC offers powerful pumping action and maximum shear performance making them ideal for processing a wide range of wet products. This self-pumping portable unit features rotor/stator based technology with multiple stator configurations. SHRED was designed to create liquid/liquid or liquid/powder blends by shearing down particles and dispersing them in a liquid vehicle. As the particles are fed through the small chamber they are pushed through the close tolerances of the rotor/stator and this intense mechanical shear forces the particles to break down.

The SHRED device is a small compact machine that can be completely portable and can make a great impact on your production. Many products need to be premixed before they are fed through a media mill. This self-pumping high shear mixer reduces hard-to-wet materials producing quality premixes that make downstream processing much more efficient.

The Supermill Plus media mill is the latest in horizontal media milling technology. Today’s demanding applications require ultrafine, microscopic particle sizes. With its flexible design, the Supermill Plus is able to process a wide variety of products and handle of range of viscosities. We offer a durable, efficient and maintenance friendly machine to incorporate into
your production.

The Duplex Supermill Plus media mill is designed with two horizontal chambers on one common frame. The product passes through the first chamber and directly into the second chamber without the need of a surge tank or separate feed pump. Typically, larger media is charged in the first chamber and finer media in the second chamber. This enables two stages of grinding in one continuous pass. CMC’s Duplex Supermill Plus can also be configured to work as two separate horizontal media mills.

Hockmeyer: NEXGEN Vacuum Recirculation Mill: (US Patents 8,376,252 and 9,597,691 B1) The innovative technology merges immersion media milling with [in-the-mill] vacuum to deagglomerate and reduce the size of particles fast and efficiently. The result is a pure, deaerated, and evenly distributed dispersion, often achieved in half the time required by horizontal milling technology. Media to batch size ratio efficiency is unsurpassed.

Hockmeyer Integrated Processing System (HIPS): This is a feedback-controlled, closed-loop premix and milling system tailored explicitly for materials that are difficult to disperse. This advanced system integrates a NexGen Rotor Stator (US Patent 11,110,409) with a NexGen Vacuum Mill (US Patents 8,376,252 and 9,597,691 B1), creating a cohesive unit that works seamlessly. The design allows for the complete dispersion and milling of the product within a single, sealed vessel, ensuring minimal contamination and loss of material. The system’s self-regulating mechanism monitors and adjusts processing parameters in real time, optimizing performance and ensuring consistent results. Additionally, strategically placed data-gathering points provide valuable insights into the dispersion and milling processes, allowing for precise control and adjustment. This innovative technology not only enhances efficiency but also streamlines production for challenging materials. 

Ross: Designed for high-viscosity, often sticky and thick paste-like materials, the ROSS Double Planetary Mixer delivers a powerful kneading/mixing action that provides batch consistency, ensures a uniform composition and disperses agglomerates. The heavy-duty planetary agitation produces high quality mixtures with vacuum mixing capability and precise temperature control.

The ROSS Inline High Shear Mixer consists of a four-blade rotor that turns at high speed within a stationary stator. As the rotating blades pass the stator, they mechanically shear the contents, reducing the size of particle agglomerates and droplets in fine dispersions and emulsions. Ultra-High Shear Mixers are also available for more challenging applications that benefit from higher tip speeds, greater turbulence and tighter rotor/stator clearances. CW