Tag: fogger nozzle

External Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles For High Flows, High Viscosity

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

If you’re just looking to spray water or just about any water-like liquid, you’ve got plenty of options…among them, any EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzle. We’d just need to find the one with the flow rate and pattern size & shape you’re looking for. That’s something we can handle in a short phone call, or if you’re a control freak, do-it-yourself-er like me, you can use the spec sheets in our Atomizing Spray Nozzles catalog section.

For applications involving liquids with higher viscosity or suspended solids, we’re going to look at our External Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles. Internal Mix models are limited to liquid viscosity of 300cP or less, and you can’t use Siphon Feds for liquids with higher than 200cP viscosity. While we don’t publish a maximum viscosity for the External Mix models, we have customers who successfully use them with 800cP viscosity liquids. They also have larger internal passages for superior performance with suspended solids.

Two of my favorite examples of applications involving these elements come from the food industry — the snack food sector, specifically. The first one is from a company that makes thin, light crackers called ‘crisps’ that come in different flavors, achieved by coating them with a variety of seasonings. To make the seasonings stick, they needed to spray a light coating of oil onto the surface of the crisps, immediately prior to sprinkling the seasoning onto them, and then baking it in. And they called EXAIR for help in selecting the right Spray Nozzle.

We started our selection of the External Mix line, not only because of the viscosity of the oil (it WAS close to 300cP, which ruled out Siphon Feds, and was close to the upper limit of the Internal Mix models) but also because, with an External Mix, the liquid supply pressure ONLY affects the liquid flow rate, and the air supply pressure ONLY affects the pattern size. So, since they had a VERY specific volume of oil to apply to each crisp, they could set the liquid supply pressure accordingly, and use the air supply pressure to spread it evenly & consistently onto each piece. We know it worked because they sent us a video of it:

Model EF9040SS 14.42 GPH 1/8 NPT No Drip External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Atomizing Spray Nozzle

The other one came from a food production facility as well — this time, from a bakery that wanted to spray oil with a suspension of cheese powder onto dough before baking it. And the reason that the External Mix models are best for high viscosity liquids is the same reason they’re best for liquids with suspended solids. Namely, the liquid doesn’t have to go through a cavity between the Liquid & Air Caps where resistance to flow, either from viscosity or particulate, could cause problems. Since the dough was on a 12″ wide chain conveyor, we specified a Model EB1030SS 14 GPH 1/4 NPT External Mix Wide Angle Flat Fan Pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzle. It’s a fairly continuous run, so they didn’t need (or want) the No-Drip feature to turn the spray on & off. They simply shut the pump and the compressed air off when they’re done making the cheesy dough.

External Mix Atomizing Nozzles are ideal for higher viscosity liquids, and those with suspended solids.

And now…I’m hungry! But seriously, if you need to spray liquid of any kind, EXAIR probably has a Spray Nozzle on the shelf for that…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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BETE MaxiPass Nozzle

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Last year we announced our merger with BETE. One of the things that excited us about this partnership was our ability to enhance each other’s product offering. To that end, several BETE nozzles have been available to EXAIR customers for some time. Earlier this year, we added a wide array of BETE options to the EXAIR Catalog 36. In this blog, I want to cover the MaxiPass, or MP series of nozzles.

The MaxiPass boasts a patented design that allows for maximum free passage, ensuring top-notch clog resistance when compared to other whirl-type nozzles. This guarantees dependable performance and high energy efficiency, even when dealing with dirty or lumpy liquids. Unlike standard X-vane nozzles, the MaxiPass is crafted with two distinct S-shaped internal vanes to enhance free passage, making it super reliable even in tough situations.

MaxiPass nozzles create atomization by swirling water internally through its vanes before it exits through the orifice, resulting in medium to coarse droplet sizes. Its spray pattern is more consistent than that of spiral nozzles, ensuring even coverage across various applications.

Great for use in chemical processing, pollution control, and even some fire protection applications, there are a variety of situations where the MaxiPass nozzle will shine. The droplet size produced by the MaxiPass is particularly good at breaking up foam. My colleague, Jordan Shouse, covers how an array of MaxiPass nozzles were the perfect solution for foam suppression in his blog here.

Due to the maximum free passage, the MaxiPass is ideal when working with liquids containing large particulates, like wastewater. This also makes them a great choice for liquid cooling applications, as the MaxiPass will atomize your liquid (which increases the surface area relative to the volume) without the risk of clogging.

Available in 3/8NPT and 3/4NPT sizes, in both poly-propylene and 316SS, with spray angles of 60°, 90° and 120° (with more options available directly from BETE). Flow rates range from 0.70 GPM to over 20 GPM (depending on pressure). If you would like to discuss if the MaxiPass nozzle is right for your application, then give us a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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BETE’s Foam-Busting Nozzles: Spraying Suds into Submission with Industrial Swagger

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

When I hear foam, the first thing that comes to mind is my salt water fish tank and the protein skimmer below it doing the dirty work of pulling all the fish waste from the water colum. In this case, the foam is good. It operates on the principle of air-water interaction and the hydrophobic nature of organic compounds. Air is pushed into the water, creating tiny bubbles. All those tiny bubbles provide a large surface area for the organic molecules to adhere to them. The bubbles rise to the top with those molecules and are collected into a cup at the top of the skimmer. Check out the photo below.

Saltwater Skimmer

This is a purpose-built foam generating process that is a huge benefit for every saltwater reef tank.

However, the same thing can happen during industrial processes and, in most cases, becomes a problem to fix rather than a benefit. Foam is undesirable because it can overflow vessels, create slippery and unsafe working conditions, interfere with processing, damage materials, and cause tanks to drain and dry slowly. Controlling foam can be accomplished by spraying liquid onto the pool, vessel, or reservoir’s surface, and allowing the spray’s droplets to impact the foam bubbles, causing them to break.

While breaking this foam sounds easy, “Just spray some water on it” in the process, it can be a challenge to get the correct size of droplets to break the foam. Droplets that are too small often cannot pop the bubbles, and if the droplets are too large they can break through them and create more agitation which creates more foam. You want a sweet spot where they are large enough to pop the foam bubbles while small enough to not create more foam.

Here is a real customer case, where BETE Application Engineers were able to assist the customer with an array of MaxiPass nozzles to knock foam down in a wastewater tank.

Industry: Petroleum Processing
Application: Foam Control
Product Description: MP Nozzle Array

Situation: A customer had processed condensate wastewater in a petroleum processing facility. The wastewater was in a square tank that measured 10’ x 11’ by 9’ (3 m x 3.4 m x 2.7 m) deep.
As the wastewater entered the tank, foam was generated, which was undesirable in this process. The customer had about 25 gpm (94.6 L/min) available to use to control the foam. In
In addition, the customer was looking for a turnkey system that could be installed as soon as it
arrived on site.

BETE’s solution: BETE Applications Engineers first determined that a 3 x 3 array of BETE
MP187M nozzles operating at 10 PSI (0.69 bar) would give the desired flow of 25 gpm total and
knock down the foam that was being generated. The next step was to review the customer’s piping
specifications in order to come up with both a nozzle header design and a feed header design.
Using one feed header and three nozzle headers, the customer simply had to bolt and gasket the
flanges, hook the inlet up to a water source, and they will be ready to go!

Whether you’re looking to optimize your industrial processes, improve efficiency, or tackle specific application challenges, the right liquid nozzle or compressed air product can make all the difference. EXAIR and BETE offer industry-leading solutions designed to meet your unique needs with precision and reliability. From air-atomizing nozzles to liquid-only nozzles, our innovative products deliver top performance across a wide range of industries. Ready to take your operations to the next level? Reach out to EXAIR or BETE today to find the perfect solution for your application!

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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Protein Skimmer photo courtesy of Stacina via Flickr Creative Commons License

Application Spotlight! – BETE TurboMix Eductor Mixing Nozzles

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Application Spotlights have been something I’ve been doing for the better part of a year now. In these sessions, I draw from numerous phone calls and emails to guide you through the process our Application Engineering team uses to choose a product for a particular application! Today is especially exciting, as it features a BETE product, the 3/4TM150@7, ¾” MNPT, 316 ST.ST TurboMix.

The customer had a tank measuring 9 feet in diameter and 22 feet in height, containing approximately 10,000 gallons of water with suspended metal solids. They were relying on a 270 GPM inflow and outflow to generate sufficient movement to maintain the suspension of the metal solids. However, this method proved inadequate for achieving complete and proper mixing within the tank, prompting them to reach out to us. This scenario is a well-established application for the BETE TurboMix nozzles. Let’s jump into the technical side to see what we specified for this application.

To agitate liquids with suspended solids, we want to position the TurboMix at the bottom of one side of the tank and direct the plume upward toward the opposite side of the tank, aiming at the highest liquid level. To sweep solids along the tank bottom, direct the TurboMix plume upward at a 10º angle, using enough units to cover the bottom surface completely. (See the photo below) For some applications, directing the plume toward the pump inlet is useful.

We usually calculate based on turnover per hour. 3 or so is typical for general circulation; 5-6 is often more typical of blending operations. Being they wanted to have the ability to turn the mixing on and off, we calculated for the middle of the road at 5 times per hour, so the total required flow for mixing would be 872.5 GPM. Based on that, we recommend eight of our 3/4TM150@7, ¾” MNPT, 316 ST.ST. TurboMix Eductors.  Four on the 0-10* side of the half-moon and four on the 45-80* side.

At 30 PSI, each nozzle will be flowing 25.7 GPM, meaning the design pump flow required would be 205.9 GPM.  The design pump flow does not take into account the plumbing.

Whether you’re looking to optimize your industrial processes, improve efficiency, or tackle specific application challenges, the right liquid nozzle or compressed air product can make all the difference. EXAIR and BETE offer industry-leading solutions designed to meet your unique needs with precision and reliability. From atomizing nozzles to air amplifiers, their innovative products deliver top performance across a wide range of industries. Ready to take your operations to the next level? Reach out to EXAIR or BETE today to find the perfect solution for your application!

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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