NG-AutoDigiMix – Automatic Programmable Mortar Mixer

In planetary mixing the beater turns on its own axis while that axis travels around the bowl, so the blade passes through every part of the mortar. On the NG-AutoDigiMix the two motions run at their own speeds: 140 rpm beater with 62 rpm planetary at low speed, and 285 rpm with 125 rpm at high speed.

These two speed pairs are the ones written into the mortar standards, which is why the installed procedures use them. Low speed brings water, cement and sand together, and high speed completes the mix.

Because the beater reaches the whole bowl on every orbit, no part of the batch is left unworked, and a laboratory that casts specimens by the same procedure every day gets mortar of the same consistency from batch to batch. The same mixing principle runs through all of our mortar mixers.

The operator pours the sand by hand through the open-type filling hopper on top of the NG-AutoDigiMix while the beater is running. That is the method the European mortar standards describe, with the sand introduced during the low speed stage rather than placed in the bowl at the start.

The installed procedures are written around this step. They guide the operator through the mixture and allow for the sand to be poured in at the right point, so the sequence stays the same even though the pouring is manual.

The hopper comes with the machine, together with the EN beater and the stainless steel bowl, so the mixer is ready for standard mortar work as delivered. Where a laboratory would rather have the machine dose the sand itself, the NG-AutoDigiMix 2 does it with an electronically controlled dispenser.

The VFD, or variable frequency drive, makes the speed of the NG-AutoDigiMix continuously variable rather than fixed in steps. Beater and planetary speeds can be set anywhere from 30/13 to 380/165 rpm, depending on the consistency of the mix.

The machine is built around one idea: the operator sets the procedure, and the drive holds it whatever the mix does. A stiff mortar loads the beater more heavily than a fluid one, and the drive keeps the speed where it was set. If a mix needs a different speed, the operator can adjust it while mixing instead of stopping the batch.

Routine tests stay on the standard speeds, and the rest of the range is there for development work on new mixes. Laboratories that prefer a servo drive with a touchscreen can compare the NG-DMM, which also adds an integrated cleaning cycle.

The NG-AutoDigiMix arrives with standard procedures installed, and each one leads the operator through the mixture step by step, including the point where the sand goes in. Control runs through built-in software on a dedicated keyboard, with an alphanumeric display of 2 × 16 characters.

Guided procedures matter most where several technicians share one mixer. The sequence comes from the program rather than from memory, so a new technician and an experienced one mix the same way, and a result does not depend on who was at the bench that day.

The interface is simple to work with: the operator picks a procedure on the keyboard, follows the prompts on the display and starts the run. Speeds within a procedure are either the standard values or user defined, so the same screen serves routine testing and research mixes.

Yes. The NG-AutoDigiMix keeps a procedure memory, so a previous mixing procedure can be recalled or a new one created and stored next to the standard procedures already installed.

That is useful when a laboratory runs the same non-standard mix again and again: a research blend, a client's own method, or a trial series where only one parameter changes from run to run. Once it is stored, the procedure is called up from memory rather than set up from scratch each time.

Recalling a stored procedure also keeps a trial series honest. If every batch in a series is mixed by the same saved procedure, any difference in the results comes from the material being tested and not from a change in mixing that slipped in between batches.

The bowl sits on a mounting device with a three-point supporting system, which allows the space between beater and bowl to be set accurately. Three points define a plane, so the bowl seats the same way each time it goes back on the NG-AutoDigiMix.

The bowl and beater fit and come off without tools. In daily use the bowl is taken off after every batch for emptying and cleaning, so a mounting that returns to the same position without adjustment saves time and keeps the clearance from drifting between batches.

The bowl is stainless steel and holds 5 litres (1.32 gal), and the beater is the EN pattern supplied with the machine. A consistent gap between the two is what lets the beater work all of the mortar without scraping the bowl, and the three-point seat is what keeps that gap the same from one batch to the next.

The NG-AutoDigiMix stops immediately when the front grill is opened, and a micro-switch prevents it from starting if the bowl is not in place. An emergency stop button is fitted as well, and the machine meets CE requirements for operator protection.

Each device covers a different moment. The grill guards the bowl while the beater turns, and opening it cuts the drive at once. The micro-switch covers the changeover between batches, when the bowl is off and hands are near the beater. The emergency stop is there for anything the operator sees going wrong during a run.

Because the bowl and beater come off without tools, the operator handles them many times a day. The interlocks mean that routine handling never relies on the operator remembering to stop the machine first.

The NG-AutoDigiMix is a table mounted machine rated at 370 W. Its overall dimensions are 465 × 540 × 620 mm (18.5 × 21.25 × 24.5″) and it weighs 35 kg (78 lbs), so it fits on a standard laboratory bench.

The bench should be solid and level. A planetary mixer at high speed passes vibration into a light table, and a firm bench keeps the machine and the bowl steady through the whole procedure.

Leave working room at the front for opening the grill and taking the bowl out, and access to the top for pouring sand through the hopper. Placing the mixer close to the balance and the moulding table keeps the walk between weighing, mixing and casting short on every batch.

It depends mostly on how many batches you mix in a day. With a manual hopper the operator stays with each batch to pour the sand, which suits a laboratory where mortar mixing is one task among several.

Where mortar is mixed all day, the dosing model, the NG-AutoDigiMix 2, takes the sand addition over and frees the technician during the cycle. The two machines belong to the same class, so a laboratory can choose by schedule and keep the same mixing principle either way.

The mortar standard you work to matters too, since the installed procedures are built around the standards that describe manual pouring.

Tell us your standard and the number of batches in a normal day through our online request form, and our team will recommend the model that suits your schedule.

Mortar from the NG-AutoDigiMix goes into moulds and then into curing, so a climatic curing chamber is usually the next instrument on the list. It holds the specimens at controlled temperature and humidity until they are tested.

Cement testing also runs on paste and powder. Setting time is checked on a Vicat apparatus, fineness on a Blaine apparatus, and soundness in an autoclave, and each of these sits beside the mixer in a quality control laboratory.

We equip complete cement laboratories as one coordinated project, so the mixer, the curing cabinets and the cement apparatus arrive as a set that works together. That spares the laboratory from matching instruments from several suppliers and gives it one partner for the whole room.

NG-AutoDigitMix - Automatic Programmable Mortar can be complimented with two hoppers simultaneously for the purpose of admixtures and additives.