Pugmill Mixers

Bonnot Pugmill Mixers are continuous horizontal mixing machines used upstream of extruders to homogenise dry, semi-dry, and plastic materials before they enter the extrusion process. Unlike batch-oriented ribbon blenders or planetary mixers, the pugmill operates continuously – accepting dry powder, granules, or partially hydrated material at one end and delivering a uniformly blended, moistened, and de-lumped mass at the extruder feed point. This makes the pugmill the natural first stage in any continuous extrusion line where ingredients must be blended and conditioned before extrusion without interrupting production flow.

The pugmill’s twin horizontal shafts carry intermeshing paddles that simultaneously shear and fold the material, distributing added liquids – water, binder solutions, plasticisers – evenly through the dry base within a short residence time. This combined shear-and-fold action is particularly important for ceramic pastes, where the dry-to-plastic transition must occur uniformly across the full cross-section of the material to avoid hard and soft zones in the extrudate, and for catalyst preparations, where binder distribution directly affects pellet crush strength and attrition resistance in the finished catalyst body.