TESTING THE UNIFORMITY OF SPRAY DISTRIBUTION UNDER DIFFERENT APPLICATION PARAMETERS

The study was conducted to determine the differences between commonly used nozzles TeeJet XR110-03 (new and used) during the testing of field boom sprayers on an electronic table (spray scanner) as they were affected by spraying pressure. The tests were carried out at three working pressures (2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 bar) and the uniformity of spraying, the liquid flow rate of the spray nozzles mounted on the field boom and the number of nozzles beyond the tolerance were determined. The spraying angle was also measured which could influence the coefficient of variation (CV) of the spray distribution. The results showed a poor CV value (more than 10%) as the operating pressure decreased for the new nozzles while they were (CV values) under 10% for the used nozzles at all the range of test pressure values. This suggests that the spray distribution uniformity test depends on the sprayer boom setting and operating factors more than on the work life of the nozzles.