Abstract
Abstract The study focuses on the design and modernization of a feed mixer and demonstrates the impact of what might seem like a non-primary machine in the technological line for producing vitamin-enriched salt lick blocks (SLB) on the quality of the final product, the salt block. Furthermore, it examines the effect of SLBs themselves on animal growth and productivity, including increased milk yields and weight gain. Original recipes and ingredients of the feed salt mixture with their granulometric composition, moisture content, and mass fraction in the composition of the vitamin-enriched salt premix lick block are provided. The design of the mixing shaft is shown, and the operation of the modernized mixer is described. Experimental equipment from the technological line for the production of premix lick blocks is presented. The results of statistical regression analysis are given, adequately describing the working process of the mixer and allowing the calculation of the specific productivity of the new mixer, energy consumption, and mixing homogeneity within the selected intervals of variation of input factors. The component composition ratios of the SBL were found, which allowed achieving maximum specific productivity and homogeneity, as well as minimum energy consumption in a wide range of input parameters of the mixing process in the new mixer. The effect of the final product, vitamin-enriched salt premix lick blocks, on the growth and productivity of animals was studied.