Ex.

Study of sprayers

Relevant information:
Sprayers are of two types; hand operated and power driven sprayers.
I) Hand operated sprayers:
i) Knapsack sprayers - The knapsack sprayers are loaded on the back of the applicator. During
the spraying usually they carry metallic tank but plastic tanks are also used in to reduce the
weight. Three types of knapsack sprayers are available (a) hydraulic (b) manual pmeumatic and
(c) motorized pneumatic

a) Hydraulic knapsack sprayers - It works under hydraulic pressure. The tank capacity varies
from 5 to 15 litres with the provision of mechanical agitation of the spray liquid. The operator
operates the lever with his left hand and pumps the spray liquid in to the lance held by his right
hand. While operation it is usually possible to deliver the spray at almost constant pressure. The
hydraulic knapsack sprayer could spray at 3 to 5 kg/ cm2. This sprayer is of low cost, easy to
maintain and is a small holding farmer sprayer. It is more suitable for spot and band application
of herbicides.
b) Pneumatic or compressed system knapsack sprayer - This sprayer does not require
pumping during spraying and is not pressurized before loading on the back of the worker. It is
filled up as per the capacity of the sprayer. Then it is pumped either with a built in pump or from
an external source like a charge pump or carbon dioxide cylinder. The main disadvantage of this
sprayer is that uniform delivery pressure cannot be maintained due to decreasing spray pressure
during the spraying operation. This may cause uneven spray. It is more useful to spray in hilly
terrain or irrigated fields where walking is difficult. The cleaning of the tank is difficult as the
mouth of the sprayer is very small.
c) Motorized pneumatic sprayer - It is a low volume sprayer suitable for spraying concentrated
spray liquids. A blast of air acts as a carrier of herbicide concentrates in these sprayers which are
called blowers. The air is forced through the spraying jet of the delivery hose of the blower and
the nozzle tube ejects the spray liquid. In this blast the air blast atomizes the spray liquid into
tiny drops. In this sprayer air acts as a carrier. The atomization is more vigorous when the air is
pumped at faster rate in to the spraying unit.The herbicide is lost as spray drift as the blower
produces the droplet size of 50-100 microns. This blower is called as mist blower. The main
advantages of knapsack blowers are low volume spray resulting in reduction in loss of time in
refilling the tank ii) comfortable working and (iii) fast spraying. The discharge of a blower is
about 0 3-0.2 liter per minute which can be regulated with dosage sleeve. It has a swath of 7-8m
.There is requirement of 60 litres of spray liquid for spraying of one hectare of Land through
knapsack blowers. In this regard the applicator has to walk fast to keep pace with it discharge.
Low volume spraying with blowers is not as uniform as with high volume sprayers. The
knapsacks are more preferably used for spraying of short translocated type of herbicides.
ii) Foot sprayers - Foot sprayers are used for application of herbicides in larger holdings. The
pump lever of a foot sprayer has a pedal. The lever is conveniently worked with a foot. The pedal
pump sprayer has an external spray tank through an intake pipe fitted with a sieve at its sucking
end. The working pressure may range between 17 to 21kg/cm2. Foot sprayers have provision of
long delivery hoses fitted with a lance. The suction spout is dipped in a container filled with
herbicide spray solution which acts as a source of externaltank.
II) Power driven sprayers
The tractor mounted power driven sprayers work under a spray pressure of 1.4 to 2.8
kg/cm2. These are fitted with multi nozzle boom which make them useful herbicide application
equipment for the large holding farmers. The flowing and wide angle or reduced pressure cone
nozzles should be used in pre-emergence application. Flat fan nozzles are suitable if drift is not a
problem and the boom is maintained at constant height. The flat fan nozzles mounted at proper
height will provide uniform weed control. Flat fan or holder cone nozzles are suitable for post
emergence spray of herbicides. The flood jet deflecting type of nozzle provides the lower
penetration of canopy than the flat fan and holler cone nozzle.
The main advantage of tractor mounted sprayer is high uniformity of spray. But the
drawbacks are the high equipment cost and high level of skill required to operate it. The success
of tractor mounted sprayers depends on proper calibration of the sprayers and its boom
adjustment to avoid over lapping and gappy sprays. The spray pattern should be so developed as
to obtain a uniform spray. For directed spraying the nozzles falling on crop rows are turned off
and the boom height is so adjusted as to avoid the crop plants and spray the weeds.
The tractor mounted sprayer fitted with a tilted boom is used to spray total weed killers on road
side weeds. Now a day a recirculating type sprayer has been developed in which the excess
herbicide from nozzles that spray across the crop row is collected in recovery boxes. The excess
is then returned to the spray tank for reuse. This type of sprayer is used in treating the specific
weeds that grow taller than the crop rows.
Other sprayers:
i) Aerial sprayers - Aerial application of herbicides is limited to treat the weeds in stretches of
aquatic bodies and very large continues land occupied by single crop or areas under undesirable
plants. The spray drift is the main limitation of aerial sprayers.
ii) Hand held sprayers - The hand carried lighter weight low volume battery operated sprayers
are suitable in smaller holding size of the farmers of tropical and subtropical countries. Two
types of such spray are available to the farmers.
(a) Vibrajet - The vibrajet sprayers with the discharge rate of 100-200 litres/ha designed to
produce coarse spray of mean droplet diameter of 4.55 ml and above are drift resistant. It is
suitable to apply herbicide solutions and emulsions but not suspensions. In vibrajet, the spray
liquid is fed to special type of spray nozzle with a multi hole sleeve by gravity flow. The liquid
reacting there is put to fast oscillatory action produced with a 12 volt battery operated motor. It
breaks the solid stream of liquid into large droplets before it leaves the nozzle orifice. Vibrajet
type of sprayers hold good in areas prone to spray drift hazards.
(b) Controlled Droplet Applicator (CDA) – In this controlled application the spray droplet size
is 250 microns. This droplet size is more effective on plants than the larger droplets and these are
adequately drift tolerant. The controlled size droplets are known as ultra low volume sprayer. It
is done using an ultra low volume sprayer. It has a rotary atomizer and a spinning disc with a
serrated edge which revolves at a speed of 2000 revolutions per minute (rpm) to produce droplet
size of 250 micron. The herbicide spray solution is gravity fed to the disc from a plastic container
of 2.5 litres capacity. The atomizer is driven by a small electric motor which is attached to the
tube carrying the batteries that provide power for the motor. The spray volume is 15-20 litres/ha.
This sprayer is more handy for small holdings, treating rough topography land and wet paddy
fields. The sprayer covers the swath of 1.2 m wide with a walking speed of 3 to 5 km/hr. This
method is particularly useful in case of foliage applied systemic herbicides.
Granular Applicator – The pre-emergency application of granular herbicides is done in the
crop rows in bands. A granular applicator consists of the hopper in which the granules are
placed, a rotating disc device to get the broadcast application pattern, a long flexible discharge
tube with a nozzle of the distal end and a finger controlled mechanism for regulating the
discharge rate of the granules. By rotating the handle the granules are released from the tube
through the exit hole of the hopper. The granule applicator is made of plastic with capacity of 1
to 10 kg. It is carried on the back. The bigger type granule applicator is tractor mounted. It
consists of a band distributor that applies granules laterally and uniformly over the desired band
width.

Ex Study of nozzles
Relevant information
The important components of a sprayer are: tank, nozzle, pump, strainer, pressure regulator and
hose. Depending upon spray patterns and droplet size different types of nozzles are available.
i) Cone nozzles - In this nozzle, the liquid is forced through one or more tangential or helical
passages into a swirl chamber through which the liquid passes a circular orifice at a high rotary
velocity to form an air cone within the orifice and swirl chamber. The liquid emerges from the
orifice as a hollow or solid cone. In case of solid cone nozzle, the liquid also passes centrally
through the nozzle to fill the air cone. The liquid also emerges from the orifice as a hollow cone.
The hollow cone nozzles produce the heaviest droplet distribution on the edges of the pattern.
The cone nozzles are used for spot application of post emergence herbicides.
ii) Flat fan nozzles - In flat fan nozzle the tip has a rectangular orifice behind which two stream
of liquid meet because of the shape of the cone. The deepened edge flat fan nozzles are preferred
for broadcast application of herbicides on flat surface. The rectangular pattern flat fan nozzles
are used for band application of herbicides in row crops. The flat fan nozzles give more uniform
coverage than the cone nozzles.
iii) Flood jet deflector nozzles - It delivers coarse droplets of fluid spray under pressure, thus
minimizing the drift hazard. It also produces a wide angle fan pattern of spray. The clogging is
considerably reduced as the nozzle orifices are large. This nozzle is also used in the subsurface
application of herbicides.
iv) Boom nozzles - A boom is a horizontal pipe with two to several nozzles on it. These nozzles
are spaced from 3o to 60 cm apart on the boom length as the distance between nozzles at two
ends of the boom may vary from 1 to 15 m. Short booms with 2 to 3 nozzles are used with
manual sprayers while the longer ones are attached with tractor mounted sprayers. A spray boom
obviously covers in each trip a wider spray width than a lance. Vertical height of the boom and
nozzle spacing on the boom can be adjusted to obtain a uniform spray.
N:B:-
(I) It is to be mentioned that a nozzle usually has four different parts like nozzle body, strainer,
spray tip and nozzle cap. Spray tip is the most important nozzle component of a nozzle because
depending upon its design the flow and distribution of the spray are determined.
(II) Power driver sprayers are usually fitted with a pressure regulator so as to push the liquid at a
constant desired pressure. With out a pressure regulator the nozzle will deliver more liquid at one
time and the less at the other in the same time.
(III) Knapsack sprayers do not come equipped with a pressure regulator as it is too expensive.
However, regulator valves intended specifically for knapsack sprayers can be used alternatively.