A blender is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, puree, or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender jar with blade at the bottom, rotated by a motor in the base. The newer immersion blender configuration has a motor on top connected by a shaft to a blade at the bottom, which can be used with any container.
A line of blenders.
Construction[]
The blending container can be made of glass, plastic, stainless steel, or porcelain, and often has graduated markings for approximate measuring purposes. At the top of the container is a lid to prevent ingredients from escaping during operation. At the bottom is a blade assembly, sometimes removable for cleaning purposes. In cases where the blades are removable, the container should have an o-ring or gasket between the body of the container and the base to seal the container and prevent the contents from leaking. The blending container is generally shaped in a way that encourages material to circulate through the blades, rather than simply spinning around.
The container rests upon a base that contains a motor for turning the blade assembly and has controls on its surface. Most modern blenders offer a number of possible speeds. Low-powered blenders require some liquid to be added for the blender to operate correctly. This is because the liquid is used to move the solids around the jar and bring it in contact with the blade as the "whirlpool" fluid movement brings items from the top to the bottom. High-powered blenders are capable of milling grains and crushing ice without such assistance.
The hand-held immersion blender has no container of its own, but instead has a mixing head with rotating blades that can be immersed in a container. Immersion blenders are convenient for homogenizing volumes that are too large to fit in the bowl of a stationary blender or, as in the case of soups, are too hot to be safely poured into the bowl.
Some of the functions of blenders have been taken over by food processors. In particular, thicker mixtures such as mayonnaise and hummus are conveniently made in food processors.
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Applications[]
Blenders are used both in home and commercial kitchens for various purposes, such as to:
- Mix and crush ice in cocktails such as the Zombie, Piña Colada and frozen margaritas
- Crush ice and other ingredients in non-alcoholic drinks such as Frappucinos and smoothies
- Emulsify mixtures
- Make smooth purées of semi-solid ingredients, such as cooked vegetables and meat
- Reduce small solids such as spices and seeds to powder or nut butters
- Blend mixtures of powders, granules, and/or liquids thoroughly
- Help dissolve solids into liquids
Blenders also have a variety of applications in microbiology and food science. In addition to standard food-type blenders, there is a variety of other configurations of blender for laboratories.
Development[]
North America[]
The Polish-American Stephen J. Poplawski, owner of the Stevens Electric Company, began designing drink mixers in 1919 under contract with Arnold Electric Company, and patented the drink mixer in 1922 which had been designed to make Horlicks malted milk shakes at soda fountains. He also introduced the liquefier blender in 1922.
In the 30’s, L. Hamilton, Chester Beach and Fred Osius, produced Poplawski’s invention under the brand name Hamilton Beach Company. Fred Osius improved the appliance, making another kind of blender. He approached Fred Waring, a popular musician who financed and promoted the "Miracle Mixer", released in 1933. However the appliance had some problems to be solved about the seal of the jar and the knife axis, so Fred Waring redesigned the appliance and released his own blender in 1937, the Waring Blendor with which Waring popularized the smoothie in the 40’s. Waring Products is now a part of Conair. Waring long used the spelling "blendor" for its product.
Also in 1937 the founder of Vitamix, W.G. Barnard introduced an all-new product "The Blender". A reinforced blender with a stainless steel jar instead of the Pyrex glass jar used by Waring.
Europe[]
In Europe, the Swiss Traugott Oertli developed a blender based on the technical construction and design style conception of the Waring Blendor, releasing in 1943 the Turmix Standmixer. Based on the blender, Mr. Traugott also developed another kind of appliance to extract juice of any juicy fruit or vegetables, the Turmix Juicer, which was also available as separated accessory for use in the Turmix blender, the juicer Turmix Junior. Turmix had promoted the benefits of drinking natural juices from fruits combined with other vegetables, beyond a sort of recipes using juices to promote its blender and juicer.
South America[]
In Brazil, Waldemar Clemente, ex-staffer of General Electric and owner of Walita electric appliance company since 1939, designed a blender based on the Turmix Standmixer and released in 1944 the Walita Neutron blender. Clemente also created the name liquidificador, which ever since designated a blender in Brazil. Near after, Walita acquired the Turmix patents in Brazil and also released the Turmix juicer, designated it as Centrífuga Walita as well the others Turmix accessories for use with the blender motor, as fruit peelers, grinder, crusher and batter mixer. Using the same marketing strategy as Turmix in Europe, Walita passed the million-blenders-sold mark a few years later in the early 1950s. Walita were the first manufacturer to release a wide range of blenders in the 1940s. In the 1950s, Walita made blenders for Siemens, Turmix, Philips, and Sears (Kenmore), among others. In the 1960s Royal Philips Co. approached Walita, acquiring the company in 1971, becoming Rpyal Philips' kitchen appliances developer division specializing in blenders, which are sold under the Philips brand outside Brazil.
In 1946 John Oster, owner of the Oster barber equipment compant, bought Stevens Electric Co. and designed its own blender, which Oster commercialized under the trademark Osterizer. Oster was bought by Sunbeam Products in 1960.which released various types of blenders, as the Imperial series and still make the traditional Osterizer blender since nowadays.
The Austrian immigrant Hanz Arno, owner of an electric motor manufacturer in Brazil since the 1940s, released a blender in 1947, based on the blenders made by Hamilton Beach and Oster. The Liquidificador Arno was exported to other South American countries. As Arno had stocks of Electrolux, that brand was used on the blender in some countries. Later in 1997 Arno was bought by the SEB Group, owner of Moulinex, T-Fal, Rowenta, and other home appliance brands.
[edit] Television advertising[]
When television made its debut in 1949, Vita-Mix introduced the new and improved Vita-Mix using a 30-minute time slot on WEWS-TV in Cleveland and created the first-ever direct response commercial. This commercial, which ran for several years in many markets, made blender a household word. A copy of this early infomercial holds a special place in the Direct Marketing Association archives.
Increased versatility[]
With the introduction of the "Kitchen Center" in 1969, the Vita-Mix 3600, and later the Vita-Mix 4000, Vita-Mix extended what could be done in a blender. The large motor and friction cooking capability enabled these machines to freeze and dispense solid ice cream, grind grain, cook soup and make a creamy, smooth juice from whole foods.
With the rising popularity of smoothies, Frappucinos and other frozen drinks prepared in front of the customer, new models of commercial blenders often include a sound-reducing enclosures and computerized controls.
Specialized blenders for making smoothies are becoming popular, chiefly resembling an ordinary model with a spigot added for quick serving. Some models also feature a gimballed stirring rod mounted on the lid, constructed so that mixtures can be stirred whilst the machine is running with no chance of the stirrer fouling the blades.
Mechanical operation[]
A blender consists of a housing, motor, blades, and food container. A fan-cooled electric motor is secured into the housing by way of vibration dampers, and a small output shaft penetrates the upper housing and meshes with the blade assembly. Usually, a small rubber washer provides a seal around the output shaft to prevent liquid from entering the motor. Most blenders today have multiple speeds. As a typical blender has no gearbox, the multiple speeds are often implemented using a motor with multiple stator windings and/or multitapped stator windings; in a blender with electromechanical controls, the button (or other electrical switching device or position) for each different speed connects a different stator winding/tap or combination thereof. Each different combination of energized windings produces a different torque from the motor, which yields a different equilibrium speed in balance against the drag (resistance to rotation) of the blade assembly in contact with the material inside the food container.
