A spray system that is not working optimally can very quickly cost your operation tens – even hundreds – of thousands of dollars annually. When nozzles become partially blocked, spraying efficiency is compromised and process and/or product quality typically deteriorate. Scrap, maintenance time and lost production can also quickly escalate.

Simple But Effective Ways to Prevent Clogging
Proactive maintenance is the best way to prevent clogging problems from occurring but even well maintained systems can experience problems from time to time. Most spray systems can be efficiently maintained in good operating condition by manually cleaning nozzles at regular intervals. But a word of caution – only use materials that are much softer than the nozzle orifice surface. It is very easy to damage the critical orifice shape and/or size and produce distorted spray patterns or excess flow. When nozzles become clogged and manual cleaning with the appropriate tools doesn’t solve the problem, try soaking the orifice in a non-corrosive cleaning chemical to soften or dissolve the clogging substance.

Most applications can benefit from adding strainers, which are an easy and economical way to minimize clogging. Strainers, including spray nozzles with built-in strainers, trap larger particles and prevent debris from entering the spray nozzle orifice or vane.

Popular and effective strainer types include:
Integral strainers can often be ordered as part of the nozzle itself and are available in a variety of mesh sizes and materials for standard and quick-connect spray nozzles.

T-strainers and simplex/duplex basket strainers are another option. Most allow a system to be quickly shut down for strainer basket cleaning or change-out. Some can be cleaned on the fly without shutting down the pipeline.