James Snodgrass looks at some of the latest mixers used in battery manufacture, listed by mixing type, and shares the latest news from mixer manufacturers.
Battery manufacturing may be scaling at pace, but the same cannot be said for entirely new mixing equipment – for good reason. Battery-specific mixing equipment is a rarity, the same machines you might be using to produce battery materials might also be used for making paint, animal feed or explosives.
Across slurry, powder and dry-mixing applications, suppliers have focused on increasing throughput, improving reproducibility and reducing energy consumption rather than reinventing core mixing architectures.
That emphasis is reflected not only in product launches, but also in corporate activity. While companies such as Netzsch and Bühler have pushed partnerships and large-scale installations, others are strengthening their operational base. In March 2026, Michigan, US-based B&P Littleford appointed a new CEO, John Mayer, alongside completing a large-scale mixer facility expansion tied to a Taiwan defence project – an indication that demand for high-performance mixing extends well beyond batteries, but draws on the same core technologies. Against this backdrop, the following overview groups the latest battery-relevant mixing developments by process type.
Planetary/planetary–disperser mixing (high-viscosity slurries, pastes)
In March 2026 Ross introduced the PDDM-10 Planetary Dual Dispenser. A mixer intended for pilot-scale production, it is capable of mixing slurries and pastes. It has a dual planetary action and dual dispensers, is vacuum capable, and can mix up to 12 gallons (45 litres).
In May 2025 Netzsch introduced its PMH 4000 Planetary Mixer. This mixer is used for electrode slurry at production scale, with high reproducibility. Netzch claims the mixer offers a 2-3x reduction in mixing time, and that battery manufacturers will require fewer mixers per gigafactory line. The company says its core advantage is simultaneous kneading, dispersion and degassing.
In corporate news, Netzsch announced the opening of a new office in Bologna, Italy in April this year. Whilst in June last year, it announced its cooperation with Zhejiang MESNAC for battery process solutions, with the intent to supply complete plug-and-play process lines.
Continuous slurry mixing (twin-screw/integrated processing)
We didn’t report on any new continuous slurry mixing systems over the last year. But Switzerland’s Bühler did announce new deployments of its existing continuous slurry mixing systems, including a continuous mixing line supplied to UKBIC for its pilot line, and multiple lines supplied to FIB in Italy, both in April 2025. In February this year Bühler announced that it had sold 113 continuous mixing lines globally.
Bühler says its continuous mixing processes are energy efficient (with reportedly 4x lower energy use compared with batch processing) and that they are scalable from lab-to-gigafactory volumes; indicating a key trend shift from batch to continuous electrode production.
Ploughshare/plow/intensive powder mixing
Ploughshare (actually a Lödige registered trademark), plow (or ‘plough’) and intensive powder mixing machines are typically used for cathode precursors, dry blending and for processing recycling feedstock. They are critical for precursor homogenisation and recycling feed preparation and increasingly feature wear-resistant coatings (ceramics, carbide). These machine types have increasing relevance for LFP manufacturing, and for recycling streams.
We didn’t report on any new product launches within this niche over the last year. However there were two application-driven updates of note:
In December 2025, UK-based PerMix announced an update to its Easy-Clean Plow Mixer with an emphasis on contamination control and fast changeover.
Meanwhile Lödiger announced in May 2025, at Battery Show Europe, that it had introduced a battery-specific variant of its Ploughshare mixer. The ceramic-lined, wear-protected design is intended for the production of Li-NMC battery pastes.
High-intensity dry mixing (including DBE-adjacent processing)
This is another niche that saw no known new launches in the last year, but Mixaco offered clarification that its products are suitable for battery manufacturing. In 2025, Mixaco released notes on its High Intensity Mixer HM, which explicitly referenced battery mass and dry electrode mixing. It had previously been marketed towards PVC dry blending, wood-plastic composites and powder coatings.
High intensity dry mixing is still in an early stage compared with the dominant slurry mixing process. But its use is linked to emerging dry electrode (DBE) processing and may become more relevant as manufacturers react to consumer and regulatory pressures for solvent-free manufacturing.
