Go Ahead, Ask The Expert

Nov. 28, 2011
Our experienced professionals are at the ready to answer your questions.

While in New York City for last month's Chem Show, I had dinner with Editor Mark Rosenzweig (native New Yorker) and Chemical Processing's mixing expert, David Dickey, Ph.D. (Dayton, Ohio). I – a native Clevelander – love to get together for a face-to-face meeting because most of my correspondence is via e-mail or the telephone. In fact, Dave considers me to be one of his best telephone friends. And I consider him to be one of our most prolific Ask the Experts contributors on ChemicalProcessing.com. Indeed, he's nearing the 150 mark in questions answered for Chemical Processing readers.

Between bites of out-of-this-world corned beef on rye at the famous Carnegie Deli, I asked Dave how he got started as a mixing guru. Long story short, dozens of years ago he was thrust into it by an overzealous colleague. Dave had to learn on the fly.

It's obvious that he parlayed that challenge into a career as a mixing guru. His experience is unique in the field of mixing and scale-up, because he has had exposure to both the theoretical and practical aspects of real problems, and has learned about both successes and failures. Prior to starting MixTech, he had more than 25 years of experience with process equipment manufacturers. He has built pilot-plant reactors and systems and spent 16 years working directly with manufacturers of liquid mixing equipment. Dave has also engineered dry-solids mixing equipment, static mixers, heat exchangers, pumps, distillation and other process equipment.

All of his knowledge and experience (along with that of 25 other experts on our roster) is at your beck and call via our popular Ask the Experts portal (www.chemicalprocessing.com/experts).

For our experts, it's not a matter of simply answering a question. It's truly taking the opportunity to educate. That's why Dave also regularly gives continuing education courses on mixing for the University of Wisconsin and others. And as for his thoughtful answers, they can be used to better understand mixing processes to make your facility more efficient, safe and economically competitive.

For example, he's offered advice on successful scale-ups, where impellers should be located for maximum mixing efficiency, how to calculate agitator shaft size, advice on submersible mixers . . . the list goes on and on. To see for yourself, visit the mixing page at www.chemicalprocessing.com/experts/mixing.

He even takes the time to provide calculations for our readers to download and use in their facilities long after they've submitted questions. He recently offered five such calculations with an answer to "What's the easiest way to do impeller power calculations?"

Dave's passion for mixing is only surpassed by his passion for boating, trying great indie restaurants in the Dayton area and attending minor league baseball games to root for his Dayton Dragons. If you ask me, he's an expert in a lot of areas.

Traci Purdum is Chemical Processing's senior digital editor -- and a fan of Carnegie Deli's corned beef on rye. You can e-mail her at [email protected].

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