Mechanical Design and Engineering

I was having a conversation with my friend JohnW, a Mechanical Engineer by education and trade, about his latest "small" project. I suggested he should publish and document aspects of his interesting work. But he mentioned he does not have a blog just yet, so I "volunteered" to do it for him right here, as a quick (and hopefully useful) example.

John designed a portable agitator, a device used for mixing low-viscosity liquids or liquids with small-size solids.
Mixing is performed by a propeller driven by an internal pneumatic system, and not using an electrical motor, as shown in the diagram below.

The whole contraption is made of plastic, calculated for a maximum internal pressure of 80 psi.
The liquids are poured in manually, through PRV-07 (features a screw-in lid). The mixed liquid is released through the pinch-valve PRV-06. The lid PRV-01 can be removed (8 screws) for inside cleaning.

The mixing capacity is 1 gallon, but it can be easily scaled, in both dimensions and power.

This agitator was designed to be safely used in the food, pharmaceutical, chemical industries.

Here is a photo of the agitator built to specs.

If anyone is interested in this kind of engineering work, I will be glad to re-direct them to him. John is versatile, works on tight budgets and schedules, and very proficient in Autocad, Inventor etc.