When it comes to liquid spraying, EXAIR has a new line of all liquid nozzles. They are engineered to spin the liquid in order to break the surface tension. Passing through a precision orifice, the liquid will break into fine particles. The smaller the particle size, the greater the surface area, which reduces liquid use. For this blog, I will cover the HollowStream™ Cone Liquid Nozzles.
The HollowStream™ Cone Liquid Nozzles produce a liquid ring on the target. This will reduce the liquid usage as compared to the FullStream™ Cone Liquid Nozzles. They are available in NPT and BP female threads in ¼, 3/8, and 1/2 sizes with varying liquid flow rates. They are all made of 303 stainless steel with a vaneless design to help resist clogging. They can handle 250 PSIG (17.2 Bar) of liquid pressure and operate at temperatures up to 800oF (427oC). Some applications would include cooling, quenching, washing, foam breaking, sanitizing, and degreasing.
To share an application, we have worked with a metal pin manufacturer. Their process was to harden and temper the carbon steel pins to make them very strong. There are a few ways to heat-treat metal. For this company, they heated the pins to a very high temperature. Then they would quench the pins with oil to reduce the temperature quickly. After that, they needed to wash the pins to remove the oil. From there, the pins would travel to the tempering oven. The wash system was very important, as they needed to remove the oil from the surface of the pins. The “cleanliness” would affect the tempering process as well as create toxic smoke. The washing solution was expensive, and they were looking for a way to reduce this amount without sacrificing cleanliness. We recommended six pieces of the model HL1011SS to cover the work area when the pins came out of the oil bath. We also matched their current liquid spray usage with the six pieces of the HL1011SS as an assurance for this customer. When they started using the HollowStream Nozzles, they realized that the liquid surface area was enhanced, and they started to reduce the liquid line pressure. They were able to reduce the total amount of wash solution by 25%. As mentioned, when liquids have a larger surface area due to how they are applied, less fluid is required.
If you have a process where you need to reduce the amount of liquid to save money, EXAIR offers a line of Liquid Atomizing Nozzles as well as Air Atomizing Nozzles. The design is to reduce the droplet size to increase coverage. Here is a blog with the Air Atomizing Nozzles for improving Gummy Candy Production. In either case, if you have questions on how we can reduce costs and improve processes, you can contact an Application Engineer. We will be happy to help you.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb