Internal Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles For Maximum Adjustability

It’s not difficult to spray a liquid – oftentimes, you just need to pressurize it and force it out a small(ish) hole, or array of holes, in a nozzle-type device. If your application calls for small droplet size, a consistent & repeatable spray pattern, precise control of the flow rate, pattern size & shape, or the ability to turn the flow on & off, you might be looking for an engineered solution like EXAIR’s Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles.

With 142 distinct models, we can accommodate liquid flow rates as low as 0.14 gallons per hour, to as high as 303 gallons per hour, and patterns as small as 2″ round (at 6″ from the nozzle), and as large as a 13 foot hollow circular pattern.

Internal Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles mix the air & liquid internally (just like the name implies), which means that both the air supply pressure, and the liquid supply pressure, will affect the liquid flow rate, and the pattern size. This makes for an incredibly wide range of adjustability. Consider our Model AN1010SS Internal Mix Narrow Angle Round Pattern 1/4 NPT Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle. Let’s say we want to spray about 1-1/2 gallons per hour…that’s about 3 fluid ounces a minute, which is a pretty light mist, comparable to what you might get from a typical trigger spray bottle of kitchen or bath cleaner in your home. We can do that (or thereabouts) at several different combinations of liquid & air supply pressures, highlighted in different colors below:

• GREEN: With liquid at 10PSI, and air at 10psig, we can spray this amount with a fairly tight 2.3″ to 5″ diameter, when we get 6 – 15″ (respectively) away from the nozzle tip.
• BLUE: If we wanted to widen that out a bit, increasing to 20PSI liquid & 24psig air, the flowrate increases slightly to 1.7 gph (an extra half ounce a minute) but the diameter of the spray pattern increases to a 2.8″ to 6″ diameter.
• YELLOW: Increasing the liquid to 30PSI and air to 36psig increases the spray pattern to a 3.0″ to 6.5″ diameter, while keeping the flow rate in the same neighborhood.
• ORANGE: At 40PSI liquid & 48psig air, we can get a spray pattern diameter of 3.5″ to 6″ diameter.

We can get a 4″ to 7″ diameter with a little more air & liquid pressure, but that starts to increase the flow rate as well. If we want to keep the flow rate lower and still get a larger pattern, we’ll consider Model AW1010SS Internal Mix Wide Angle Round Pattern 1/4 NPT Air Atomizing Spray Nozzle:

• GREEN: Regulating the liquid to 10PSI and air to 10psig, this Wide Angle Round Pattern model now gives us a 7″ to 14″ round pattern…about three times as big as the AN1010SS under the same conditions, with the same liquid flow rate.
• BLUE: 20PSI liquid pressure and 20psig air pressure increase the flow pattern to 9″ – 15″ in diameter.
• YELLOW: At 30PSI liquid pressure and40psig air pressure, we’re going to ‘max out’ with a 10″ – 16″ diameter round pattern. Further increases in either liquid or air supply pressure will increase the liquid flow rate without appreciably changing the pattern size.

EXAIR has a comprehensive line of Spray Nozzles, engineered for efficiency & ease of operation. If you have a liquid spraying application you’d like to discuss, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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