Application Bulletin AC001
Quadro Comil
 

DRY BLEND MILLING FOR BLUSH AND FACE POWDER
 

Background/Requirement

When manufacturing compact blush and face powder, the dry powder ingredients (talc, preservative, pigments) are sifted, weighed and blended to create a homogeneous product. The pigments in the homogeneous blend are then dispersed with a mill. Undispersed or oversized pigments show up as colored spots in the compressed compact and show up in a draw down tests as colored streaks under a 10 power glass. The customer was using a high energy pulverizer for dispersing the pigments. The pulverizer was extremely noisy, dusty and difficult to clean between batches. The customer required a mill that would perform as the pulverizer in dispersing the pigments, however, with less dust, noise and cleaning time.

Comil Performance

The Comil dispersed the dry blends for all the various blush and face powders as well as the pulverizer did. When multiple passes were required on the pulverizer, the same number of passes were required on the Comil. The Comil ran very quietly (75dBA), eliminating the need for ear protection on the operators. When using the pulverizer, the operator required up to 1.5 hours between each batch to clean the room and the pulverizer. However, when the Comil was used, the room need not be cleaned because the Comil did not generate as much dust. The Comil can also be cleaned easily in less than 20 minutes.

Summary

The Comil provided an excellent dispersion of pigments at a much higher capacity, with much less dust and noise generated. The changeover time was improved by more than 75%.