If variations in your spray operations affect the quality of your product or process, you can reduce your operating costs by adding a spray controller. Adding spray control usually yields these benefits:

• Reduced use of costly chemicals, water and energy
• Reduced manual operation and monitoring, freeing workers for other tasks
• Reduced maintenance time by minimizing or eliminating overspray and misting
• Reduced scrap through improvements in quality
• Reduced downtime for set-up and batch changes

There are many spray control options available:

• Fluid delivery systems that include standard pump and motor sets provide can optimize the performance of a wide range of nozzles including tank cleaning nozzles
• Basic spray controllers provide precise on/off liquid and air control for automatic spray nozzles
• More sophisticated controllers provide advanced timing control to optimize the performance of automatic spray nozzles, electronically monitor pre-set spray variables in real-time and offer advanced fault monitoring to alert operators to problems. Some can be pre-programmed to monitor and automatically adjust spray performance based on process variables such as conveyor speed, temperature and batch control
• Fully automated systems are available for advanced spray operations such as gas cooling, lubrication, panel board spraying, antimicrobial application, coating with viscous fluids and more.

Reductions in operating costs will obviously depend on your spray application and the level of spray control selected. Often, the cost of adding spray control or a fully automated system can be recouped in just a few months.

Here are just a few examples of how manufacturers are using spray control to lower operating costs:

Meat processors are applying precise doses of antimicrobials onto meat and/or into packaging prior to vacuum sealing. A spray controller uses a trigger signal from an indexing conveyor to activate the spray. Chemical consumption is dramatically reduced without compromising food safety.

Bakery and snack food manufacturers coat conveyors with grease to prevent products from sticking to the belts. Instead of pouring grease on the conveyors, a simple automated system is used to pull grease directly from a container and coat the conveyor uniformly without any waste or mess. Considerably less grease is used and downtime for maintenance to clean up the excess lubricant is eliminated.

Manufacturers of engineered wood products use automated spray systems to apply release agents to boards and conveyors during processing to prevent boards from sticking to belts, variations in board thickness and bursting. The even application of the release agent has resulted in scrap reduction by as much as 95% and release agent consumption has been cut by at least 50%

Enclosing nozzles in a header or manifold is a simple, cost-effective way to minimize maintenance downtime and extend nozzle life.

If you’ve ever struggled with connecting air and liquid lines or been faced with a tangled mess of tubes, you will immediately understand the value manifolds can bring to your operation. Set-up and maintenance time can go from hours to minutes and result in increases in production time. Downtime due to performance problems caused by bends or kinks in the tubing is eliminated and the added protection of the man¬ifold keeps nozzles operating at peak efficiency longer.

There are many types of manifolds readily available:

• Channel manifold: Basic spray nozzle manifold incorpo¬rated in a C-channel for easy mounting and maintenance
• Pipe-in-pipe manifold: Conventional spray manifold mounted inside a slotted pipe to protect nozzles from the external environment. Nozzles and tubing are enclosed in the manifold
• Modular manifold: Lightweight and easy-to-assemble, this manifold keeps tubing organized
• Compact manifold: Service nozzles while keeping tubing in place with lightweight, compact manifolds

Manifolds are available for both hydraulic atomizing and air atomizing nozzles. The cost for standard manifolds is typically low and easily recouped.

Installing spray manifolds above and below conveyors can save hours of labour and thousands of litres of water and cleaning chemicals. Automating conveyor cleaning also enables workers to be deployed to other projects.

Manifolds are typically equipped with flat spray nozzles to cut through debris and sticky build-up. Nozzles are positioned to ensure cleaning of the entire belt width and edges. Full cone nozzles with extra large free passage are often used to minimize clogging when recirculated water is used for cleaning. A basic spray controller can be used for precise on/off control, activate cleaning cycles based on pre-determined schedules and ensure nozzles are only spraying when needed.

The specifics of your application will determine how much you can save by automating conveyor cleaning, but most processors report water and chemical reductions in the 50 to 60% range.

When was the last time you checked your spray nozzles or took the time to measure the capacity?

If the answer is “never” or “I don’t remember”, you may be surprised at how much that oversight may be costing. Using nozzles that are spraying just 15% over the rated capacity could be adding almost $200,000 per year to your operating costs.

A quick look at your nozzles will only reveal obvious problems such as clogging, corrosion or damage. Wear of the nozzle orifice isn’t visible but it can be very costly. Here’s just one example:

Nozzles spraying 15% over capacity; total system flow of 379 l/min:

The cost of increased electricity or pump wear is not in¬cluded in this example. Water is estimated at $2.75 per gallon; chemicals at $1.00 per gallon with a 10:1 dilution ratio and the system is in operation 2,080 hours per year. This is a conser¬vative estimate and is based on one spray system.

Most plants have many spraying operations so $182,800 in waste could easily become $500,000 or $1,000,000 if multiple systems are in use.

You can prevent this waste from occurring. Measuring flow rate is a quick and easy process and well worth the small effort required.

If you are using centrifugal pumps:

• Monitor flow meter readings to detect increases. Or, collect and measure the spray from the nozzle for a given period of time at a specific pressure
• Then, compare these readings to the flow rates in the manufacturer’s catalog

If you are using positive displacement pumps:

• Monitor the liquid line pressure for decreases. The flow rate will remain consistent

The cost to replace nozzles is usually far less than continuing to use worn nozzles. It is recommended that you do a simple analysis like the one above, determine the cost to replace nozzles and pre-determine a replacement interval. Most us¬ers elect nozzle replacement when nozzles are spraying 10 to 15% over capacity.

Paper highlights:

• A detailed look at the difference between dust prevention and dust suppression and how to determine which strategy is right for you
• What you need to know about matching liquid drop size to dust particle size and what happens when there is a mismatch
• Tips on choosing the correct nozzles for optimal dust control

Paper highlights:

• How nozzles wear and the impact of worn nozzles on water, chemical and energy use, wastewater costs, pump life and product quality
• How to detect nozzle wear when it isnÕt visible
• Steps you can take to extend spray nozzle life
• How to develop a proactive nozzle inspection/maintenance program

Paper highlights:

• The costly consequences of clogging in spray operations
• An in-depth look at the most common causes of clogging
• Three ways to detect clogging instantly
• Seven approaches to minimizing or eliminating clogging

Paper highlights:

• Five reasons why you should reduce compressed air use in addition to the cost-savings
• Three options for reducing your compressed air use by 25 to 90% and how to determine the feasibility of these approaches in your operations
• How to eliminate the use of compressed air completely

Paper highlights:

• The primary causes of water waste in spray operations
• How to calculate the true cost of water waste in your applications .
• Specific steps you can take to maintain nozzles for optimum performance .
• Water-saving alternatives to open hoses for manual cleaning and sanitation.

Paper highlights:

• How to shore up cleaning operations to minimize waste and reduce cleaning time.
• The role headers and manifolds play in spray system operational efficiency and how using the right header can ensure optimal performance and significantly reduce maintenance time
• A look at the benefits of spray system automation and the quick payback of spray control.
• Case studies documenting the savings realized by other manufacturers.