VisiMix
Revolutionizing Mixing Simulation for Process and Chemical Engineers

Today the modern chemical industry comprises of fast expanding fields in production of life sciences and specialty chemicals. Not only do these emerging chemicals come with exorbitant prices but they are also products of complicated technology. Significant part of time and expenses are also spent on mixing devices and regimes in reactors corresponding to requirements of the process. VisiMix, which derives its name from the company’s core parameter— Visual Mixing, provides software simulation tools for mixing processes for process engineers. This tool bridges the gap in the scale up process—from lab to production, or scale down—from production to lab. “If the mixing is not well understood, wrong choices could be adopted in the process development and it is estimated that losses by poor mixing per year is $1 to $10 billion in the U.S. alone," (E.L. Paul, V.A. Atiemo-Obeng, and S.M. Kresta (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial Mixing, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 2004).

VisiMix allows the connection between process requirements and hydrodynamics to be seen and brings mixing into correspondence with the process requirements; without time consuming and expensive trial-and error procedures. The VisiMix software suite is user friendly and reliable and consists of six products—Turbulent, Laminar, Different Impellers, VisiXcel, RSDE (Rotor /Stator Disperser and Emulsifiers) and Pipe Line.

The VisiMix products have been developed by VisiMix's co-founder and R&D Director Dr. Leonid Braginsky, author of 3 books and more than 100 professional articles on mixing, heat and mass transfer, with the support of the co-founders Dr. Y. Kokotov and E. Entin. The products mainly check the applicability of existing equipment for new processes as well as facilitate the improvement of processes. VisiMix also provides engineers with tables and graphs on process parameters that are influenced by flow and turbulence. “We already received nine cases from our customers where application of the VisiMix products saved more than $1,000,000 for a year in each case, and more than 80 percent of our customers are renewing their VisiMix Licenses every year,” reveals a proud Gad Amir, CEO, VisiMix.

VisiMix software is based on a system of original physical models that combine general scientific knowledge with experimentally obtained know-how related to mixing. Owing to that, VisiMix is the only software that allows mathematical modeling and calculations for all types of impellers and the most homogenizing devices. It also provides engineers with mixing-dependent process parameters, such as distribution of solids or solutes, drop size, degree and duration of homogenization. The VisiMix RSDE product is also the first software tool in the world that provides process engineers with the ability to define process parameters of the homogenizing installations as functions of rotor/stator geometry and properties of media. This allowed a big pharmaceutical company to save about $250,000.
In another instance, for Teva Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (TAPI), the process of reacting organic synthesis with gaseous reagent took 25 to 50 hours, with unstable composition of the final product. Using the VisiMix Turbulent program the reaction duration was reduced to nine hours, and to improve the process in gas-liquid mass transfer rate. The yearly savings due to—increased production rate, achieved reproducibility of composition, and improved quality of expensive product was estimated to be about $1.6 million, all by using the VisiMix platform.

VisiMix is the only software that allows mathematical modeling and calculations for all types of impellers and the most homogenizing devices

In the near future, the company plans on developing a new VisiMix platform which will expand the functionalities of their existing platform. VisiMix is also contemplating on developing the market knowledge, of the influence of mixing on processes. Geographically, the company is looking at U.S., Europe, India, Japan, and South America for global expansion.