A cascading orifice mixer for mixing a viscoelastic material comprising a plurality
of chambers connected in series, including a first chamber, at least one intermediate
chamber and a last chamber, each chamber including an orifice providing fluid communication
between adjacent chambers thereby defining a substantially unidirectional sequential
flow path through the chambers is disclosed. Each chamber has a variable volume
ranging from a minimum volume to a maximum volume and the chambers are adapted
to transport the viscoelastic material along the sequential flow path by transporting
the viscoelastic material from a filled chamber containing a quantity of the viscoelastic
material to a next adjacent empty chamber wherein the filled chamber and the next
adjacent chamber are each at or near the maximum volume for the respective chamber.
The volume in the filled chambers is reduced to the minimum volume thereby forcing
the viscoelastic material through the respective filled chamber orifice and into
the next adjacent chamber. The process for mixing a viscoelastic material utilizing
a cascading orifice mixer is also described.