Flow Blender
Overview and Key Concepts
Flow processors are objects for which the input rate is always equal to the output rate. The flow blender is a specific shape of flow processor used to pull materials from multiple input ports based on percentages that you define. It is most commonly used for in-line blending when mixing is not done in batches.
The blender is similar to the pump and valve, except that it has its inflow rule set to "Balanced flow on rate %" by default. The blender always makes sure it is pulling the correct percentages. If the inflow rate is reduced on one of the input ports, all other ports will be reduced to keep the ratio between the inflow rates fixed. This implies in particular that if no material is available on one input port and its inflow rate drops to zero, that the blender will also stop the flow through all other input ports.
Events
The blender uses the standard events that are common to almost all FloWorks objects. See FloWorks Triggers for an explanation of these events.
Note that the outflow rule for the blender is fixed to "Preferred Order".
States
For statistical purposes, the blender's FloWorks state profile will be in one of the following states at various points during a simulation run:
- Idle - The blender is not receiving any flow.
- Processing - Material is being blended at a non-zero flow rate.
Properties Panels
The blender object has five tabs with various properties. The first three tabs are standard tabs that are common to all flow objects. For more information about the properties on these tabs, see:
The last two tabs are the standard tabs that are common to all fixed resources. For more information about the properties on these tabs, see:
Custom coding
You may control the behavior of the flow blender dynamically by writing FlexScript, for example in a Script window or by changing the code behind one of the options in an object trigger.
The flow blender is an instance of the FlowObject class, see the class reference
for information about its properties.