Spray Nozzles
A spray nozzle is a simple device used to break apart a fluid flow into a spray pattern. Despite the apparent simplicity of nozzles there a very large number different products in our range reflecting the multitude of ways different industries need to spray various fluids. Our product range consists of 10's of thousands of nozzle design variants and we have built our entire business around advising on and selling the humble nozzle that's why we are the spray nozzle people!
There are 5 basic spray pattern types: flat fan, solid stream, full cone, hollow cone and mist/fog. Various nozzle designs are deployed to create these patterns and details on each can be found in the sections below. Air atomising nozzles have their own section as they can be used to create many different patterns and work in a fundamentally different way to hydraulic nozzles. Similarly the various tank cleaning nozzles and head available from BETE are organised into their own section. Finally we have a section for special purpose nozzle that do not logically fit within any of the other sections.
Flat fan nozzles
Flat fan nozzles produce a line of spray. They are often used in coating and cleaning applications on conveyors where product is passed under a spray bar of several fan nozzles. There are two main designs of fan nozzle: deflection and a standard shaped orifice.
Hollow cone nozzles
Hollow cone nozzles produce a ring of spray. This spray pattern will generally consist of the smallest droplet sizes of any spray pattern. Three designs of nozzle can be made to produce hollow cones: spirals, axial whirls and tangential whirls.
Full cone nozzles
Full cone nozzles produce a solid circle of spray. These nozzles are used when the objective is to distribute the fluid evenly over an area. As with the hollow cone nozzles there are three designs of nozzle that can produce full cone patterns.
Mist or fog patterns are characterised as having the fluid finely atomised with little or no momentum. A homogeneous fog is produced that will largely be directed by any surrounding air flows rather than by the nozzle itself. There are two design types that produce this pattern: impingement and small orifice.
The straight jet pattern concentrates the fluid into a high impact dot of spray. The aim of such nozzle is generally to deliver as much impact as possible for cleaning or cutting applications. Other low impact uses can for the precision deliver of fluid to specific parts of a process. There are two design type for this pattern a standard shaped orifice nozzle and an
enhanced laminar flow design.
Tank cleaning
The tank cleaning "pattern" requires fluid to be delivered to the whole area of a vessel that needs cleaning. Typically this means a 360o delivery of fluid. There are 3 basic designs of tank cleaner that will achieve this: rotary jet cleaners fro high impact, rotary fan cleaner for medium impact and static cleaners for low impact.
Air atomising is not a pattern as such. The use of air to break apart a fluid is a fundamental change to the way standard pneumatic nozzles operate and so air atomisers warrant their pattern section. All patterns, except solid stream, can be created by air atomising nozzles and there are various designs variants within the group.
Special purpose nozzles
This section includes nozzles that do not naturally fit within the other sections or that are for very specific applications like spray drying.
Spray nozzle pattern vs design chart
The interactive chart below summarises which designs of nozzle are capable of producing the 5 basic spray patterns. By moving the mouse over the chart you can click through to the relevant parts of this website. Please feel free to download and use the image below, if you wish to publish this on your own website then all we ask is that a link back to this page is added to credit the author.