Spray controllers can monitor and automatically adjust all system components to compensate for changes in conditions that can affect the efficiency of the operation.

Conditions that can be monitored include:

• Liquid pressure, atomizing air pressure, fan air pressure
• Flow rates
• Cycle times and duty cycles
• Conveyor speed
• System Integrity Checking for detection of worn or plugged nozzles
• Temperature and humidity

Depending on the operation, other conditions can also be monitored. If the controller cannot maintain the desired system performance, alarms are activated to prompt human intervention and/or shut down the system before quality suffers.

Click here for more information on automated spray systems.

Achieve Effective, Efficient Gas Cooling with an AutoJet® Gas Conditioning System

For paper mills, steel mills, power plants, waste incineration facilities and cement plants with gases to cool or condition, spray technology remains the most effective solution. Cooling prior to baghouse or ESP, NOx control and SO2 removal are areas where evaporative cooling via spray technology is ideally suited.

In recent years, evaporative cooling utilizing air atomization has become the preferred solution for a variety of reasons:

• More efficient reduction of gas volume results in lower energy costs
• Maintenance is minimized
• Wet deposits and wet walls are eliminated
• Precise control of humidity prior to electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) improves dust collection efficiency and opacity correction
• Significant reductions in the creation and emission of toxic dioxins and furans are also possible, making compliance with government regulations less costly

The patented three-stage atomization process used by FloMax® air atomizing nozzles is extremely air efficient and is the primary reason why it is the preferred nozzle for gas conditioning

Solutions that Have Worked for Your Peers and That May Help You Boost Performance, Too

Efficient Gas Cooling Improves Production

Small droplet sizes produced by FloMax air atomizing nozzles allow greater volumes of gas to be cooled without wetting and maintenance headaches.

Induct Gas Cooling Prior to ESP

High-efficiency FloMax air atomizing nozzles reduce gas temperature and correct opacity to improve ESP performance.

Historically, control of spray nozzles in most manufacturing plants has been a manual task or handled via a PLC. However, new options from AutoJet® Technologies, our turnkey systems division, have changed the way many plants approach spray system control.

Our new dedicated spray controllers save on programming time with pre-defined, pre-tested control modules that are application specific. Spray controllers are able to optimize the performance of air atomizing nozzles and automatic spray nozzles because they provide very fast response times — up to 10 times faster than PLCs — and have nozzle performance data built in.

If product quality is affected by spraying, or high-cost fluids are being sprayed, the benefits of precision spray control can be significant. The following spray control strategies may help you increase efficiency and improve product quality:

• Closed loop temperature control (constant temperature, fluid pressure varies).
• Closed loop flow control (constant flow rate, fluid pressure varies).
• Open loop pressure control (constant fluid pressure).
• Open loop flow control (constant flow rate with tight tolerances).
• Open loop flow pulse width modulation (constant flow rate and constant fluid pressure).
• Open loop batch control (variable spray parameter for multiple spray applications on a single line).
• Open loop speed control (constant application rate, variable fluid pressure).
• Open loop speed pulse width modulation (constant application rate, constant fluid pressure).

Visit our Automated spray control systems page for more information on how automated spray control systems often pay for themselves quickly through productivity gains and lowering of costs such as labor and production consumables.