Tag: agricultural spray nozzles

EXAIR Internal and External Air Atomizing Nozzles

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment
EXAIR Atomizing Nozzles

In today’s market, the cost of consumable products is on the rise; especially with paints, oils, and yes, even the cost of water.  You can help ease some of that cost by being more efficient at spraying.  The EXAIR Atomizing Nozzles can accomplish this objective.  By using compressed air to shear the liquid, small, micron-sized droplets are produced.  As a reference, reducing the area of a particle by one-half will increase the surface area by eight.  With smaller diameter particles, your liquid spraying will go a long way; saving you money. 

EXAIR stocks three different body sizes in 1/8” NPT, ¼” NPT, and ½” NPT ports that support a large range of flow; so, you can create a light mist or a monsoon.  The combination of an air cap and a liquid cap controls the spray patterns and liquid flow rates.  These caps are easily interchangeable for each body size to change the spray patterns, control the amount of fluid, and reduce any downtime for cleaning.  The amount of liquid to be applied is easily adjusted by the inlet air pressure, the liquid pressure, and the liquid adjustment valve.  So, you can dial in the exact amount of fluid required for your process to stop any waste or excess.

EXAIR manufactures three families of Atomizing Nozzles; Internal Mix, External Mix, and Siphon Fed.  The Siphon Fed generates a vacuum from the compressed air to draw the liquid to the nozzle (no liquid pump is required).  The External Mix and Internal Mix require both air and liquid to be pressurized.  In this blog, I will narrow my discussion to the Internal Mix and External Mix Atomizing Nozzles.

Internal Mix

The Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzles are designed, as the name suggests, to atomize the liquid inside the nozzle.  This means that the liquid and air streams will come together just before leaving the Atomizing Nozzle.  For this type of Atomizing Nozzle, the air and liquid supplies are pressurized and independently controlled, but because of the internal nature, the pressures will have to be similar.

The Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzle can spray fluids with a viscosity below 300 CPS.  EXAIR manufactures these nozzles with stainless steel construction; making them compatible with many different kinds of liquids.  And they are used in many applications like washing, coating, cooling, quenching, and dust control.

External Mix

To expand on the External Mix Atomizing Nozzle, it atomizes the liquid outside the nozzle.  The air and liquid supplies are pressurized and can be controlled independently.  Higher viscosity fluids can be sprayed at up to 800 CPS using this type of atomizing nozzle.  Also, with the external mixing, it helps to diminish the drying effects of the solution.  EXAIR manufactures these nozzles with stainless steel construction, as well. 

No Drip Atomizing Family

What can make the Atomizing Nozzle even better?  The No Drip option is offered with all of our Atomizing Nozzles.  This patented design is used to keep the expensive liquid from dripping out of the Atomizing Nozzles during off-cycles.  When the compressed air is turned off at the nozzle, a valve inside the body will create a seal on the liquid side.  The No Drip function enhances the Atomizing Nozzles for intermittent processes as the liquid remains inside the body for quick spraying. With delicate applications, the unwanted drips will not occur and ruin the finish of your product.  Unlike some manufacturers, there is no need to run a separate compressed air line to operate the no drip function.  The Atomizing Nozzles with the No Drip option can give you the best performance in efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility without any drips.

If you need to maximize the liquid dispersion and reduce consumption, the EXAIR Atomizing Nozzles are the products to use.  The Internal Mix and External Mix Atomizing Nozzles can shear the drops into micron-sized particles, saving expensive consumable oils and liquids.  If you have a spraying application, you can speak to one of our qualified Application Engineers.  We will be happy to help you select the correct model.

John Ball
Application Engineer


Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Hot Off The Press (Release) – New Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle Video

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Research & Development Engineers continue to set a high bar on new product introductions, and our Marketing team continues to keep pace with them to get information about those new products to users who will benefit most from using them. To that end, a Press Release was issued on February 22, 2023 (coincidentally, a day we call Founder’s Day) to announce our newest video:

New Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle Video Provides Key Features & Advantages.

With 142 (so far) distinct models, odds are that no matter what you’re spraying, or what you’re spraying it onto (or into), EXAIR has an Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle (or Liquid Atomizing Spray Nozzle, which adds another 35 distinct models to our liquid spraying nozzle offerings) to meet your needs.

If you’d like to find out more about a particular Spray Nozzle, or any of our engineered compressed air products, for that matter, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Internal Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles For Maximum Adjustability

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

It’s not difficult to spray a liquid – oftentimes, you just need to pressurize it and force it out a small(ish) hole, or array of holes, in a nozzle-type device. If your application calls for small droplet size, a consistent & repeatable spray pattern, precise control of the flow rate, pattern size & shape, or the ability to turn the flow on & off, you might be looking for an engineered solution like EXAIR’s Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles.

With 142 distinct models, we can accommodate liquid flow rates as low as 0.14 gallons per hour, to as high as 303 gallons per hour, and patterns as small as 2″ round (at 6″ from the nozzle), and as large as a 13 foot hollow circular pattern.

From Round Patterns (left), to Flat Fan Patterns (middle), to Hollow Circular Patterns (right), EXAIR has Spray Nozzles to suit your liquid spraying needs.

Internal Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles mix the air & liquid internally (just like the name implies), which means that both the air supply pressure, and the liquid supply pressure, will affect the liquid flow rate, and the pattern size. This makes for an incredibly wide range of adjustability. Consider our Model AN1010SS Internal Mix Narrow Angle Round Pattern 1/4 NPT Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle. Let’s say we want to spray about 1-1/2 gallons per hour…that’s about 3 fluid ounces a minute, which is a pretty light mist, comparable to what you might get from a typical trigger spray bottle of kitchen or bath cleaner in your home. We can do that (or thereabouts) at several different combinations of liquid & air supply pressures, highlighted in different colors below:

  • GREEN: With liquid at 10PSI, and air at 10psig, we can spray this amount with a fairly tight 2.3″ to 5″ diameter, when we get 6 – 15″ (respectively) away from the nozzle tip.
  • BLUE: If we wanted to widen that out a bit, increasing to 20PSI liquid & 24psig air, the flowrate increases slightly to 1.7 gph (an extra half ounce a minute) but the diameter of the spray pattern increases to a 2.8″ to 6″ diameter.
  • YELLOW: Increasing the liquid to 30PSI and air to 36psig increases the spray pattern to a 3.0″ to 6.5″ diameter, while keeping the flow rate in the same neighborhood.
  • ORANGE: At 40PSI liquid & 48psig air, we can get a spray pattern diameter of 3.5″ to 6″ diameter.

We can get a 4″ to 7″ diameter with a little more air & liquid pressure, but that starts to increase the flow rate as well. If we want to keep the flow rate lower and still get a larger pattern, we’ll consider Model AW1010SS Internal Mix Wide Angle Round Pattern 1/4 NPT Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle:

  • GREEN: Regulating the liquid to 10PSI and air to 10psig, this Wide Angle Round Pattern model now gives us a 7″ to 14″ round pattern…about three times as big as the AN1010SS under the same conditions, with the same liquid flow rate.
  • BLUE: 20PSI liquid pressure and 20psig air pressure increase the flow pattern to 9″ – 15″ in diameter.
  • YELLOW: At 30PSI liquid pressure and40psig air pressure, we’re going to ‘max out’ with a 10″ – 16″ diameter round pattern. Further increases in either liquid or air supply pressure will increase the liquid flow rate without appreciably changing the pattern size.

EXAIR has a comprehensive line of Spray Nozzles, engineered for efficiency & ease of operation. If you have a liquid spraying application you’d like to discuss, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Liquid ONLY Atomizing Spray Nozzles: FullStream & HollowStream

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

New to EXAIR’s line of Atomizing Nozzles are the FullStream and HollowStream Liquid Only Atomizing Nozzles. This family of nozzles does not require any source of compressed air to operate, just a supply of pressurized liquid.

They produce droplets by spinning the liquid and breaking its surface tension through a precise orifice or by impacting the liquid onto the surface of the nozzle. Compared to EXAIR’s Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles, these nozzles generate more liquid volume and produce a coarser spray pattern. This higher liquid volume is beneficial for industrial applications including cleaning, cooling, rinsing, dust suppression, and washing. Constructed of Type 303 stainless steel, these durable and rugged nozzles are ideal for industrial applications. They’re available in three sizes: ¼ NPT, 3/8 NPT, and ½ NPT for the Fullstream and ¼ NPT & 3/8 NPT for the HollowStream. These nozzles can achieve flowrates ranging from 0.06 GPM and up to 17.64 GPM with the largest ½” NPT FullStream.

This style of nozzle is a good fit for general-purpose applications in industry and will commonly be used to spray inexpensive liquids such as water, rinse aids, or detergents. They’re also effective for spraying a variety of chemicals, pesticides, and herbicides.

Adjustments to the nozzle’s liquid flow rate can be achieved by regulating the liquid pressure supplied to the nozzles. As we increase the liquid pressure, the flow through the nozzle will increase. As the pressure increases, not only do we increase the overall liquid flow rate but also the size of the spray pattern. If tighter control of liquid flow rate is needed, EXAIR’s Air Atomizing Nozzles will provide such level of control over the application of fluids.

The FullStream Cone Nozzles produce a full cone spray pattern and are among the most common style of spray nozzle available on the market today. They produce a uniform distribution of liquid in a cone shaped round pattern. Their tangential flow is vaneless, creating open internal features that are resistant to clogging for liquids with suspended particles.

The HollowStream Cone Nozzles produce a ring of liquid rather than a full cone. As such,  their overall liquid flow volume will generally be less than that of the FullStream coutnerparts. Both the FullStream and HollowStream nozzles work very well with liquids containing particulates.

The nozzles are manufactured out of Type 303 stainless steel for durable and rugged applications up to a maximum temperature of 800°F. With absolutely no moving parts, these nozzles are Built to Last. All sizes are available in stock to ship today with an order in by 2:00 EDT.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Twitter: @EXAIR_TD