Tag: mister nozzle

Adding Sesame Seeds to Bagels

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

I was contacted by one of our overseas distributors for a coating application.  Their customer wanted to use a small amount of water to spray on the surface of bagels.  The thin layer of water will create surface tension for sesame seeds to stick to the top of the bagel.  We went over some details of the application to determine the best product.

Since the sesame seeds were being applied prior to baking, the amount of water used affects the bake time. Therefore, it is important to control the amount of water applied.  They wanted to spray the water only on the top of the bagels, and not on the baking sheets.  The bagels were lined up in four rows per pan.  Since the pans were moving on a conveyor, a flat fan spray nozzle pattern would work best to coat the entire width.  And since they needed to direct the water only to the tops of the bagels, the No-Drip option was a necessary feature. 

With liquid solutions, the smaller the droplet size, the greater the fluid surface area which can be exposed.  With larger droplet surface area potential, less liquid can be used to cover the same target area (bagel tops in this case).  For this application, I ended up recommending model AF9010SS Internal Mix Atomizing Nozzle with a flat fan spray pattern and No-Drip option.  They needed a minimal amount of water to keep the sesame seeds in place without saturating the surface. By adding compressed air, we can shear the water into a much smaller droplet size range.  And as mentioned above, we can use less liquid to cover the same area.   

The stainless-steel construction makes the Atomizing Nozzle corrosive resistant for Food and Beverage applications.  The flat fan pattern is able to reach multiple bagels and hit the target area evenly.  The No Drip option is a patented design to keep the 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.  This No-Drip function enhances the Atomizing Nozzles for intermittent processes as the liquid remains inside the body for quick spraying. The Atomizing Nozzles with the No-Drip option can give you the best performance for fast, direct spraying.  Our customer was extremely happy with the performance. They shot a short video to show the operation. 

If you have liquid that you would like to spray evenly, efficiently, and effectively, EXAIR Air Atomizing Nozzles can do that for you.  We offer three different port sizes with a variety of liquid flow rates and spray patterns.  If you would like to discuss more about an application or need help in selecting the correct model, an Application Engineer will be happy to assist you.  For the customer above, the bagels had plenty of sesame seeds to satisfy the application requirement.      

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Photo: Sesame seeds by allybally4b.  Pixabay Content license.

Hot Off The Press (Release) – EXAIR’s New PowerStream Liquid Atomizing Nozzle

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Following up on the success of our OmniStream and HollowStream Liquid Atomizing Nozzles, EXAIR is excited to introduce our newest Liquid Atomizing Nozzle line: the PowerStream. While the OmniStream and HollowStream models generate conical spray patterns, the PowerStream makes a fan-shaped pattern, creating a curtain, or sheet, of liquid flow.

PowerStream Liquid Atomizing Spray Nozzles discharge the liquid stream against a precision finished & angled surface, creating a wide-angle, flat fan with a 70-150° spray angle.

All PowerStream Liquid Atomizing Spray Nozzles have 1/8 MNPT threads, and their compact design allows for installation in tight quarters, so you don’t need a lot of room for them. Their stainless steel construction makes them durable and corrosion resistant. They’ll hold up in aggressive environments, and work well with water, light oils, rust inhibitors, chemicals, paints, dyes, etc. The clog-resistant design makes them ideal for liquids with higher viscosities or suspended solids.

PowerStream nozzle rinses conveyor belt.

With five distinct models, they’re capable of flow rates from 0.15 to 1.84 gallons (0.57 to 6.97 liters) per minute (tested with water). If you need to spray liquid in a flat fan pattern for cooling, rinsing, washing, coating, dust control – just to name a few applications – EXAIR’s new PowerStream nozzles are worth a look. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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NEW Product Release! Introducing EXAIR’s PowerStream Liquid Atomizing Nozzles

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

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

These nozzles produce atomized droplets by forcing the pressurized liquid to impact onto the surface of the nozzle. With the PowerStream style of Nozzles, the liquid exits the nozzle at a 75° angle from the liquid inlet axis. The pattern produced is a fan-shaped pattern, compared to the full-cone on the OmniStream and the hollow-cone for the HollowStream nozzles. Flow rates for this nozzle range from 0.25 GPM at a pressure of 10psi, up to 1.84 GPM at 60psi with the largest Model DL8075SS.

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 a tight tolerance in liquid flow rate is needed, the Air Atomizing Nozzles will provide more precise control over the application of fluids.

EXAIR’s PowerStream nozzle is our smallest liquid-only nozzle, coming at 1/8 NPT from stock. The wide-angle spray pattern can be used to create a “water curtain” or a wide sheet of atomized liquid.

As with our other Liquid Only Atomizing Nozzles, it’s constructed of 303 Stainless Steel and rated for pressures up to 250 PSIG. As with any stock product from EXAIR, you can also count on same-day shipping with orders received by 2:00 ET for US customers.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

X: @EXAIR_TD

Atomizing Spray Nozzles In The Food Industry

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Every morning, I fry a couple of eggs, toast a couple of English muffins (or sandwich buns or croissants or even plain white bread in a pinch), prepare some sausage (or sometimes a Cincinnati staple called goetta), for a breakfast sandwich that rivals just about any fast food offering. The first thing I do is heat the skillet & spray it with a thin layer of cooking oil, even if I’m frying the sausage or goetta first.

Spraying a thin layer of cooking oil onto a cooking surface is also a great application for our Atomizing Spray Nozzles. We can accommodate a wide range of flows & pattern sizes, and with the No-Drip option, they can be turned off & on up to three times a second. This makes them popular in larger food processing facilities, which run the pans full of food through an oven on a conveyor, and route the pans back to the starting point to be refilled (after re-oiling) and through the oven again. All day long.

I had the pleasure of helping a caller recently who makes custom cakes, and wanted to automate the process of applying melted butter to their pans. They needed a quick ‘spritz’ of about 1/4 ounce into a 9″ diameter cake pan, and they wanted to supply the melted butter from an open, unpressurized container. For this, I specified a Model SR2040SS No-Drip Siphon Fed Round Pattern Atomizing Spray Nozzle. With a siphon height of 8″ (that means the liquid in the vessel is 8″ below the centerline of the Spray Nozzle), it’ll spray water at a rate of 5.3 gallons per hour, in an 8.8″ diameter pattern at a distance of 15″ away.

5.3 gal/hr ÷ 60 min/hr ÷ 60 sec/min X 128 oz/gal = 0.2 oz/sec, so a one second spray gets them really close to 1/4 oz.

We can work the same math for, say, a Flat Fan model to spray a rectangular sheet on the above-mentioned conveyor oven setup. Or an array of Narrow Angle Round models for a muffin pan.

142 distinct models. 8 different patterns. Liquid flow rates from 0.1 to 303 gallons per hour. If you’ve got a spraying application, EXAIR has an Atomizing Nozzle for you!

If you need a fine, controllable mist or spray that’ll give you reliable performance all day, every day, EXAIR has 142 distinct models of Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles, and almost two decades of experience in providing the best one for a particular application…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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