TECHNICAL: Nozzle cleaning made easy: Ultra-fast with ultrasound. Clean nozzles are essential for good spray coverage. Ulrich Lossie, from Duela Nienburg, has tested various ultrasonic-based cleaners.
Poor mixing, hard water, incorrect filters — all are reasons why spray nozzles can need cleaning. A regular careful check of the spray pattern and pulling the injector will immediately reveal
when it’s time for cleaning. Sadly, the nozzle blocking deposits are often stubborn and typically collect in areas that are very tricky to get at. This is why many users will shy away from the tedious cleaning job. But there is some tech to make the job less gruelling, such as ultrasonic cleaners. These are not only relied on by opticians but also in many medical and industrial domains. The Ulrich Lossie, from the Deula vocational training institute in Germany, is an instructor for spraying equipment. The cleaning capacity ranges from no more than a few millilitres to several cubic metres.
They all operate on the theory of targeted cavitation, meaning water is vibrated by a sound generator at a frequency of approx. 40kHz. This equates to 40,000 pressure surges per second, which produce microscopically small vapour bubbles that burst the moment the pressure changes. As they burst, they effectively eat away at the blockage-making material.
Before you remove the nozzles, you should clean them thoroughly on the outside so that no sand or similar material adheres to the nozzle. Another handy advantage of such a pre-clean is that the bayonet caps come off more easily. It is advisable to rinse them separately in a bucket, as ultrasonic cleaning is not really necessary for this part of the cleaning operation. Sealing rings, filters and nozzles, on the other hand, should all be immersed in an ultrasonic bath.
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