Spray Nozzle Rigid Mounting for Uniform Droplet Placement
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current right-of-way sprayers face issues with non-uniform nozzle motion and vibration, leading to uneven herbicide application, increased maintenance costs, and residual fluid issues due to lack of rigid mounting systems and remotely located solenoids.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a monolithic registration plate with rigidly mounted nozzles, which provides uniform motion and prevents nozzle vibration, combined with relocating solenoids closer to the nozzles to reduce residual fluid and incorporating a reduced hose diameter to minimize drippage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If nozzles are threaded into elbows which are threaded into manifolds (non-rigid mounting), then the system allows for easier assembly and disassembly, but the nozzles experience disproportionate nutation and vibration causing non-uniform droplet sizes and uneven spray coverage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the nozzle, elbow, and manifold into a single rigidly mounted integrated assembly. The nozzle is directly mounted to the manifold body, eliminating the separate elbow component and threaded connections. This merging of components creates a rigid mounting structure that prevents nozzle vibration and nutation, ensuring uniform droplet sizes and consistent spray coverage while maintaining ease of assembly as a single unit.
2Manufacturing precision
If spray head is nutated to create droplet separation, then uniform spray coverage is achieved, but the non-rigid nozzle mounting causes elbows to rotate with respect to manifolds, moving nozzles out of position and creating overlapping spray streams
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated design merges the nozzle and manifold into a rigid single structure that moves as one unit during nutation. This eliminates the relative rotation between elbows and manifolds, preventing nozzle position drift and spray stream overlap while maintaining the beneficial droplet separation effect of spray head nutation.
Solution Approach 2:
The nozzle is nested within the rigid manifold structure, with the nozzle bore aligned concentrically within the manifold body. This nested configuration ensures that during nutation, the nozzle maintains its precise position and orientation relative to the manifold, preventing spray pattern distortion and overlap.
3Ease of operation
If remotely located solenoids are used to control spray flow, then the operator can control delivery of product to nozzles, but large quantities of residual fluid remain in the pressurized hoses beyond the flow control shut-offs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the solenoid flow control units from their remote location and relocates them immediately adjacent to the nozzle outlets. This extraction of the control function from the remote manifold and placement near the spray points dramatically reduces the length of pressurized fluid circuits beyond shut-off points, minimizing residual fluid volume in hoses and eliminating drippage during retraction or orientation changes.
4Strength
If heavy components are used in the spray head, then the structure provides rigidity, but the motion inducer must work in a high working load range, increasing the rate of motor and bearing failures
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs composite construction for the manifold body, combining materials with different properties to achieve both rigidity and weight reduction. The integrated manifold-nozzle assembly uses material composition and structural design that provides the necessary structural strength while significantly reducing the overall weight of moving components, thereby lowering the working load on the motion inducer motor and bearings and improving their reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
An improvement to a roadside sprayer fixates spray nozzles on a registration plate. The registration plate may include integral tabs depending on the application. Inclination of the tabs is adjustable to place streams and droplets in a desired swath coverage. With the nozzles rigidly mounted onto the plate, the entire plate is notated. The use of the registration plate in a spray unit creates a uniform nutation among the nozzles, thereby reducing variability in droplet placement, and providing a more predictable spray from the nozzles. In other embodiments, the spray unit is utilized in a spray system adaptable to service vehicles, and may be utilized in conjunction with a vegetation engagement device, such as a cutter to engage multiple zones of a roadway right-of-way. Additionally, an improved spray unit includes an electromagnetic field and an attractor to generate plate motion.