APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISSOLVING POWDERS IN SOLVENTS

The present invention relates to apparatus for manufacturing at least one liquid, by dissolving or suspending powders in solvents. The apparatus may be arranged for inclusion in a pellet coating system to supply the liquid to a downstream apparatus such as a Post Pellet Liquid Application (PPLA, 44).The apparatus includes: a mixing system, comprising a mixing pump (27), a mixing vessel (33) and piping for mixing substances located in the mixing vessel (33) by liquid recirculation; solvent supply means, comprising a supply tank (37) arranged to supply solvent to the mixing vessel (33); a feeding system, comprising a Hopper (32) for storing a first particulate material, a ramp arranged above a weighing tray (34) and a hopper vibrator (3.1) for feeding a first particulate material to the weighing tray (34);a weighing system located above the mixing vessel (33), the weighing system comprising the weighing tray (34), a weighing tray loadcell (5) for weighting a first particulate material and a weighing tray vibrator (4) for feeding a first particulate material to the mixing vessel (33); a blending vessel (40) to which a liquid comprising the first particulate material is transferred from the mixing vessel (33) and to which additional solvent may be added to reach a desired concentration of the first particulate material in the liquid; optionally a day tank (39) to which a liquid comprising the first particulate material is transferred from the blending vessel (40.1) for storage; and a control system, wherein a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) (25) is arranged to receive signals from the weighing system and to control operation of at least part of the feed system according to the signals received from the weighing system to deliver a target mass of first and at least a second particulate material to the mixing vessel (33). The apparatus for manufacturing at least one liquid according to the invention may be connected to system for coating pellets, such as feed pellets. The system for coating pellets may include: the apparatus for manufacturing at least one liquid; a pellet source; a pellet coating device; means for feeding at least one liquid from the manufacturing apparatus to the pellet coating device; wherein the pellet coating device is arranged to apply the or each liquid to at least some of the pellets received from the pellet source.The present invention includes a method for manufacturing a liquid, by dissolving or suspending powders in solvents. La présente