Clay-Based Adjuvant for Spray Syrup Viscosity and Flocculation Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current agricultural adjuvants fail to effectively address the physical and chemical incompatibility of phytosanitary products, leading to issues like flocculation, viscosity modification, and equipment damage, resulting in low-quality foliage coverage and inefficient spraying.
Innovation Solution
A clay-based adjuvant formulation combining water, emulsifying agents, surfactants, suspending agents, and a defoamer, which improves the compatibility and stability of spray syrups, preventing nozzle clogging and maintaining low viscosity, thereby enhancing the wettability and penetrability of pesticides.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple phytosanitary products are mixed in spray syrup, then the biological activity is improved, but physical and chemical incompatibility occurs leading to flocculation and viscosity modification
Solution Approach 1:
The adjuvant composition acts as an intermediary substance between incompatible phytosanitary products, preventing direct interaction that causes flocculation and viscosity changes. The surfactants and emulsifiers in the adjuvant create stable microemulsions that separate incompatible chemicals, allowing multiple products to coexist in the spray tank without reacting adversely.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses a composite adjuvant formulation containing multiple components (surfactants, emulsifiers, defoamers, and other additives) that work synergistically to maintain syrup stability. This composite material approach allows the adjuvant to simultaneously address multiple incompatibility issues that would be impossible to resolve with a single substance.
2Ease of operation
If adjuvant is added to spray syrup, then wettability and spreadability are improved, but syrup viscosity increases affecting spraying efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The adjuvant formulation is specifically designed with parameters optimized to provide adequate wettability and spreadability while maintaining syrup viscosity within acceptable spraying ranges. The concentration and molecular structure of surfactants are tuned to achieve the minimum effective surface tension reduction without excessive thickening of the spray mixture.
Solution Approach 2:
The adjuvant is applied at optimized concentrations that provide sufficient wettability improvement without causing excessive viscosity increase. Rather than using maximum amounts of surfactant, the formulation uses precisely calibrated levels that achieve the necessary surface modification while preserving spray flow characteristics.
3Device complexity
If phytosanitary products are mixed without adjuvant, then formulation simplicity is maintained, but incompatibility leads to nozzle clogging and equipment damage
Solution Approach 1:
The adjuvant serves as a protective intermediary that prevents direct harmful interactions between phytosanitary products and spraying equipment. By creating stable emulsions and preventing flocculation, the adjuvant eliminates the formation of solid particles that would clog nozzles and damage equipment, thereby protecting the spraying system without complicating the overall application process.
4Stability of the object's composition
If adjuvant composition is optimized for compatibility, then syrup stability is improved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The adjuvant formulation combines multiple functional ingredients (surfactants, emulsifiers, defoamers, pH buffers) into a single pre-mixed commercial product. This merging of functions allows farmers to add one product to achieve multiple benefits, rather than having to manually combine and balance multiple individual chemicals, thereby simplifying the manufacturing and application process while maintaining syrup stability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The adjuvant formulation ensures homogeneous and fluid spray preparations, reduces foaming, optimizes operational efficiency, and improves droplet deposition on plants, while preventing equipment clogging and increasing the effectiveness of phytosanitary products.
Implementation Method 1
surfactants, whose respective functions are: reduce surface tension
Implementation Method 2
The main types of physical incompatibility are: flocculation, viscosity modification, and the formation of lumps and fouling
Data Source
AI summary
A low viscosity agricultural adjuvant for spraying syrup comprising emulsifying agents, surfactants, suspending agents, defoamer, clays and water. This invention is directed to the agricultural sector and it is an adjuvant that can be classified as an activator and modifier of spraying and other modifiers. The adjuvant when added to the agricultural spray syrup, assists in the compatibility of phytosanitary products used for the formation thereof. This invention avoids the formation of possible organic and inorganic scale, which can affect the spraying equipment. The invention confers high syrup conditioning capacity and provides a homogeneous and fluid syrup preparation, with high efficiency from the outlet of the spray nozzle to the deposition of droplets in the crops.