Atomizing Spray Nozzles for gas cooling, coating, humidification and fogging applications

Air atomized spray nozzles are the most common type of atomizing nozzles and are offered in many specialized designs. Available in virtually any material and several spray angles, another fluid (usually air) is mixed with the process liquid. The resulting spray is a high velocity flat or full cone pattern of very fine droplets. With this type of nozzle your air and liquid pressure ratios play a very important role in the droplet size received. Some of our air atomizing nozzles can generate droplets as fine as 10 microns SMD.

Typical low capacity Twin Fluid Atomizing Nozzle

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Air atomizing nozzles are often used for lubricating, scenting, coating, moisturizing, humidifying, cooling and gas conditioning because they can generate a range of droplets from fine to very fine in size. Air Atomizing Droplets can generate the finest droplet sizes of all atomizing nozzle types, as low as 10 microns SMD.

Why Atomize?
Imagine two droplets of the same size, one droplet you break up [atomize] into 1000 smaller droplets and the other you leave alone. If you measure the surface area of each "small droplet" and add them up, the result will be more than the total surface area of single large droplet. Simply put, the smaller the droplet size, the more surface area you'll have at a given flow rate. More surface area translates into more efficient heat transfer, surface contact or reaction within a gas stream.

"Which is better, a Twin Fluid Atomizing Nozzle or Hydraulic Atomizing Nozzle?"
As with most questions in life, that depends! Air atomizing nozzles usually have lower flow rates and as a result are measured in gallons per hour (GPH) vs. gallons per minute (GPM). In order to generate very fine droplets with hollow cone nozzles it often requires operating at higher discharge pressures (up to 2,000 PSI) and air atomizing nozzles require a compressor or blower air of some type. So the droplet size and flow rate required as well as the resources available all play a part in the decision making process.

There are several variations of air atomizing nozzles pictured to the left such as designs that have co-axial inlets (both atomizing fluid and process fluid enter from same side). Overview of the basic choices for Atomizing Nozzles

This is Where We Can Assist!
Most customers do not know what droplet size they require. They may not even know the flow rate required. Although each application has its specific requirements, you can tap into our experience for recommendations. In some cases a certain residency time is desirable, such in SOx reduction applications. In many applications the droplets require a certain mass and velocity in order to provide the distribution desired within a pressurized reactor or high velocity gas stream. These are all factors that help determine the droplet size required. We can work with you to help minimize the guesswork and maximize your spraying efficiency.

Specialty Atomizing Nozzles
We also manufacturer specialized nozzles for high flow rate gas cooling applications and chemical injection applications such as Lime Slurry Atomizing and Aqueous Ammonia Injection. A cost effective way for gas cooling that provides for a flow rate turndown ratio of 10:1 are Spillback Injection Lances. Spillback Lances maintain a constant pressure at the orifice while allowing for adjustments in flow rate depending upon the gas volume and temperature that you are cooling. These are often used in cooling towers prior to electrostatic precipitators and bag houses at Cement Plants, Waste-to-Energy Plants and other manufacturing processes that have a varied gas flow/temperature for gas cooling.

For atomizing Lime Slurry, Carbon Slurry and other difficult to atomize fluids Supersonic Spray Nozzle is often ideal. Supersonic Nozzles have the largest free passage of any equivalent capacity air atomizing nozzle and eliminate pluggage as a concern for applications involving slurries or particle laden gas streams.

High Flow Rate Atomizing Nozzles
The primary Metals Industry uses special pattern high capacity air atomizing nozzles for continuous cast products cooling, which includes bar, rod, plate and slab products. These nozzles are often specialized to the product being produced. An example of special continuous caster cooling nozzles is the MCG High Flow Atomizing Nozzle.

Can You Atomize Fluids Without Compressed Air or Using High Pressure?
YES! Consider using Ultrasonic Atomizing Nozzles. Ultrasonic Nozzles atomize the fluid via frequency oscillation and are used in a variety of industrial and research & development applications. They provide precise control over the sprayed fluid which is ideal for low flow rate applications and minimizing over spray. The flow range for these nozzles is is from 0.03 to 13 Gallons Per Hour with droplets in the 20+ micron SMD range. One key aspect of Ultrasonic Atomizing Nozzles is that practically all the droplets are the same size - the droplet histogram is very narrow. This level of performance comes at a cost - the nozzle and oscillator package for our smallest nozzles start at about $4,000 USD. As compared to about $30 USD for air atomizing nozzles and a few hundred dollars for specialized nozzles such as Supersonic Atomizing Nozzles, Ultrasonic Nozzles are only used for the most demanding applications such as wafer coating in the semiconductor industry, etching applications and lab size coating and reactor applications.

	T.P.S., Inc. Columbia NJ 07860
	Phone: 908.496.9020	Fax: 908.496.8080	inquiry@fluidproducts.com