Spray Nozzles Resist Clogging, are Easy to Clean
THE ULTIMATE CLOG LESS SPRAY HEADER....
Our "Brush & Flush" spray headers, a.k.a. "Stamm Showers" were originally designed decades ago for pulp and paper mills. In paper mills the push towards recycling resulted in mills trying to spray reclaimed "industrial" and "white" water. As we know, particles and spray nozzles don’t mix - the potential for plugging nozzles and getting growth inside the headers is enormous. It used to be that the only solution was to finely filter the fluid prior to re-spraying it by installing sophisticated filtration systems.
What does this have to do with Primary Metals Manufacturing? Well, instead of spraying "white water" you’re spraying "industrial water" or even raw water from a river, lake or bay. The potential for plugging nozzles and getting growth inside the headers is enormous and it used to be that the only solution was to finely filter the fluid prior to re-spraying it.
There is nothing wrong with strainers and filters, it’s one of the product lines that we represent. But when one takes a systems approach and chooses the right nozzle header it minimizes the filtration required. Minimization of filtration reduces clogged strainers and resulting maintenance.
So how do they work? To begin with the nozzles themselves are very different for a typical flat spray nozzle. Most flat sprays have a "V" milled across a hole and it’s the "V" that creates the flat spray pattern. The resulting hole is elliptical in shape and is usually described as being in the shape of a "cats eye".
Here’s how a nozzle usually plugs-up, even when the fluid is filtered:
Particles in the fluid stream tend to settle in-between nozzle ports because these are areas of lower velocity and turbulence. Eventually even small particles that would pass through an orifice will clump together until they gain enough mass to "roll" into the orifice. Since the free passage is less towards the slit ends of the elliptically shaped orifice, that’s usually were a clog begins. From there the clog grows, eventually blocking the entire nozzle.
And the process continues, as each nozzle plugs, the solids in the fluid become concentrated and the other nozzles plug-up even faster in succession. Straining or filtering the fluid helps matters, but that’s often not practical for mills that require large volumes of fluid.
And here’s where brush & flush spray headers come in!
Our nozzles have a "reverse orifice", which means that the elliptically shaped orifice protrudes into the header itself. Located inside the spray header is a stainless steel brush rod assembly, which runs the full length of the header (covering both the nozzles and low-velocity areas between nozzle ports). The brush rod assembly is attached to a valve and hand wheel (which can be motor driven as an option). When the hand wheel is rotated the stainless steel brushes scrape against the interior walls of the shower pipe and across the orifices themselves, dislodging any material inside. It takes about 3 turns of the hand wheel to completely unseat the internal valve in the shower pipe. When fully opened about 20% of the total header flow rate bypasses through the valve (the path of least resistance), and all the particles inside are also "flushed" through the valve.
By observing the spray header one can usually see if the nozzles are totally or partially plugged. A quick and simple rotation of the hand wheel cleans the pipe and nozzles, flushing the particles through a large 1½" discharge valve. This is a safe, efficient and effective way to clean your nozzles while you keep spraying.
Our headers are designed to either flush out through a discharge line or directly into a spray box – whatever suits your requirements the best. When Lechler supplies them with Victaulic Couplings it provides the ability to swivel the spray headers for maintenance or "fine tuning" of spray impact.
As a result of using these headers, strainers can be sized with larger perforated screens and therefore will have to be maintained less frequently. These showers are especially useful when used in conjunction with steam accelerators since partially clogged nozzles throw-off the entire steam-to-water ratios.
Our brush and flush spray headers have a low profile, are easy to install, increase reliability of your sprays and decrease maintenance costs/time. They pay for themselves very quickly.
DON'T BE FOOLED BY IMITATIONS!!!!!
Our headers are designed so that when you're done with rotating the handwheel, THE INTERNAL BRUSHES WILL NOT BLOCK THE NOZZLE ORIFICES.
Our headers can be designed to flush-out "in the box" or over the strip and if a hole needs to be made in the mill housing than you'll only need one hole.
Victaulic Couplings can be supplied to enable independent swiveling of nozzle orientation and the feed line. This makes maintenance easier and allows you to fine-tune where the spray impacts.
All 1½" and 2" brush and flush spray headers are constructed of 316 stainless steel. Larger pipe diameters are available.
Click-on the following four thumbnails to read about an incredibly tough application solved with our Stamm Showers. Each color "slide" will open in a new window, simply close it when your done reading to select the next one (In ascending order from left to right).
As with most of the products we supply to mills, contact us with your requirements and we’ll schedule a visit to your mill. We can usually perform a thorough evaluation within 30-90 minutes and provide you with a written proposal in just a few days.
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