HerbaSway Case Study

Using the 8AR for Scale-up

Herbasway is a developer and manufacturer of liquid herbal health supplements based in Wallingford , Connecticut . Dr. Jonathan Selzer, Technical Director, contacted Cleveland Eastern Mixers in early 2002 with a mixing challenge regarding Herbasway's Cranberry Magic supplement.

The process consisted of mixing a multitude of expensive powders into a water/glycerine base. There were two major challenges to the process. The first was to wet-out the powder without drawing in too much air. Too much air would make it foamy and then difficult to bottle. The other challenge was not inserting too much sheer that would cause a reaction in the cranberry powder that would make it thicker (sheer coagulation) and impossible to pass through an eyedropper, the retail delivery package.

Dr. Selzer had tried using high sheer countertop mixers with dissolver blades and high (3600) rpm. Not only were these mixers expensive (upwards of $4000), they would coagulate the product, costing well over $200 in wastage.

Cleveland Eastern recommended a lab stirrer that not only addressed the process goals but did so at a much lower cost. Although Dr. Selzer doubted that the 8AR could mix even one gallon of his product, once he tried the mixer he was convinced of how the low sheer, high flow impeller performed his process successfully.

He used the 8AR for six months while he tested the formulation. He has since scaled the process up to a 50 gallon batch and uses a more conventional portable mixer for these batches.