THREAD SIZES - ROLLOVER VALVES AND THE ADJUSTABLE CONEJET

THREAD SIZES - ROLLOVER VALVES AND THE ADJUSTABLE CONEJET

THREADS (SKROEFDRADE) NPT, NPS, BSPT, BSPP

Let's clear up the issue of thread sizes; well at least these. Not everyone in the world has gone metric and it is unlikely that all countries will change even in decades to come.

Here we have an image of a rollover valve with slotted strainer, ceramic nozzle-tips and cap. Take note of the parallel inlet thread with lock nut.

This image shows a rollover valve with male inlet thread and a male hexagonal barrel nipple.

The inlet thread of the rollover is parallel (BSPP) while that of the nipple is tapered (BSPT).

BSPP = BRITISH STANDARD PARALLEL PIPE thread.

BSPT = BRITISH STANDARD PIPE TAPERED thread.

BSP or British Standard Pipe are standards in UK, (not much of a united kingdom anymore), Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

And finally the Adjustable Conejet or "Superjet" as some refer to it with its external 1/2" (NPT) and internal 1/4" female (NPT) thread. 

NPT = NATIONAL PIPE TAPER thread. NPT is an American "standard". 

This unit is not manufactured with BSP threads!

You may also come across NPS -NATIONAL PIPE STRAIGHT thread which is the STRAIGHT or parallel form of the National Pipe Taper thread. Refer to page 70 in the Teejet 51A - M catalogue.

So! What's the difference? Quite simply the there is a slight difference in the shape of the thread. The pitch or number of threads per inch are the same.

Next post : UNIFIED NATIONAL - capnut thread.

INTL Mobile +27 83 289 0327

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TREE CROPS - MACADAMIAS, CITRUS, PECANS - From litres per hectare to litres per minute.

As explained in the previous post, spreadsheets can't be inserted or attached. Here's the link showing calibration and determining the volume per planted hectare using a set of existing nozzles. 

http://chemiconsa.blogspot.com/2014/10/nut-and-fruit-trees-mist-blower.html  

The image below is the print out of the spreadsheet covering the mistblower calibration starting off with a pre-determined volume per planted hectare.  You still have to enter the data to determine speed and inter-row spacing.  Just send an email to chemiconteejet@gmail.com and I'll send you the files. 

In my opinion, this is the correct way to undertake spray-applications.  The problem is that farmers are sold spray-rigs with an ex-works set of nozzles which are suitable for spraying Olives, Vines, Apples and Pears etc.  They eventually discover that this is not a plug and play unit especially when it can't cope with big trees. 

Once you have the spreadsheet you fill in the essential data as marked with **. Nozzle tip flow rates are taken from the suppliers information.

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MACADAMIAS - THE SMALLER GROWER AND A SECOND LOOK AT SPRAYING WITHOUT AIR ASSISTANCE.

MACADAMIAS - THE SMALLER GROWER AND A SECOND LOOK AT SPRAYING WITHOUT AIR ASSISTANCE.

Here's the link to the previous posting.

http://chemiconsa.blogspot.com/2014/09/macadamias-small-grower-simple-spray.html

These pictures show the inter-row spacing and the foliage density.

On the previous occasion the AIC -05 and -06 capacities were tested .

(REFER PAGE 10 - TEEJET CAT 51A-M OR PG 8 CATALOGUE 51 -M)

This time, smaller capacity Air Induction flat-fans were tested and these failed to penetrate the canopy. The maximum pressure achieved was 10 bar. 

THE PROBLEM'S NOT OUTSIDE IT'S INSIDE.

Not much getting through. See the pics below. The WS cards were placed at 1 metre centres on aluminium tubes starting 1 metre above ground level.

Ignore the spot on the card at 5 metres; probably the sweat from my brow.

Two points worth mentioning. When placing the aluminium tubes extremely dense trees were selected.

The pump, a Wanner Hydracell D10 with an X camshaft capable of pressures up to 70 bar delivers only 30 liters per minute at 1450 rpm. UNFORTUNATELY THIS SETUP PROVED TO BE TOO SMALL TO TEST A FULL SET OF BIGGER CAPACITY SPRAY-TIPS.

THE AIM WAS TO TEST AIR INDUCTION NOZZLE-TIPS TO SEE IF THE CANOPY COULD BE PENETRATED.

Because the smaller capacity AIC's failed to penetrate the canopy I decided to test the big Adjustable Conejets. Here's the link.

http://chemiconsa.blogspot.com/2014/03/mango-citrus-macadamia-pecan-almond.html

Here are a few pics showing the arrangement and the spraying.

NOTE: GIVEN THE PUMP LIMITS, THE ADJUSTABLE CONEJETS (AC) WERE SPACED ON THE VERTICAL BOOM AS PER THE PICTURES. THE SPLIT-EYELETS ON THIS WET BOOM ARRANGEMENT ARE SPACED AT 50 CM CENTRES. THE INITIAL PRESSURE WAS SET AT 10 BAR AND THE CONEJETS ADJUSTED TO JUST ABOUT THEIR MAXIMUM ANGLE.

A general shot of the spraying. It is clear one would need additional AC's in this particular orchard where trees are planted 5.5 m x 3m. The left  picture shows good overlap but the lower nozzle-tip size is too small in my opinion.  The pressure was reduced to 8 bar from 10 bar and the AC adjusted (right pic)to create bigger droplets and improve penetration.  

Here the overlap is adequate with good canopy penetration. Selection of the nozzle-tip sizes will be critical. Pressure on the guage -- 10 bar.

The pressure was reduced to 8 bar and lowest AC adjusted or "opened" to reduce the angle and increase the droplet size to achieve better penetration with less drift. The overlap is inadequate.

Inter-row spacing is a major problem. INTERNAL DISTRIBUTION WILL BE UNEVEN BECAUSE THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OVERLAP. See the results below. These however are minor problems.

THE RESULTS - Intial set-up at 10 bar.

THE RESULTS

SUMMARY:

AIR INDUCTION FLAT FANS Without air assistance the smaller capacity Air Induction Flat Fans operating at 10 bar(AIC - 02 through -04) did not adequately penetrate the dense Macadamia canopy.

ADJUSTABLE CONEJETS         MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!

These need to be mounted on a vertical STEEL DRY BOOM EQUIPPED WITH HOSE SHANK NOZZLE BODIES AND CLAMPS which will allow for variable spacing.

WARNING : WITHOUT AIR ASSISTANCE JUST BE CAREFUL WHEN USING SMALL CAPACITY CONE TIPS AT HIGH PRESSURES (20 BAR OR MORE) AS THEY PRODUCE ALOT OF FINE DROPLETS WHICH DO NOT APPEAR TO PENETRATE THE DENSE MACADAMIA CANOPY. THE FOLIAGE APPEARS TO ACT AS A "SOLID" BUFFER ZONE. I.E. THE DROPLETS FLOW WITH THE LEAST LINE OF RESISTANCE. JUST AN OBSERVATION.

Next time I'll take a look at other conejets and arangements..

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MACADAMIAS - THE SMALL GROWER - A SIMPLE SPRAY RIG WITHOUT AIR ASSISTANCE.

MACADAMIAS - THE SMALL GROWER - A SIMPLE SPRAY RIG WITHOUT AIR ASSISTANCE.

This is the initial "trial and error" to see if it's possible to get effective canopy penetration without air assitance using various air induction nozzles-tips

THE TREES

Macadamia var. Beaumont. Height 5 to 6 metres. Inter-row spacing 5.5 metres and intra-row plantings at 3 metres. Trees per hectare = 624. Trees pruned.

VERTICAL BOOM

Here's a pic showing the vertical boom set-up.

Nozzle espacement = 50 cm. Note the pressure guage (0 - 4000 kPa) at the bottom of the boom.

THE PUMP. A positive displacement pump with a maximum output of 30 litres per minute was used. This flow rate obviously limits the size of the tips used.

COVERAGE - The only way to monitor coverage is to use water sensitive paper to see if the droplets reach the target.

Two 5 metre aluminium tubes with water sensitive paper placed at 1 metre intervals were placed close to the tree centres.

THE NOZZLES - AIR INDUCTION TIPS

Two types were tested. The eight AITX air induction hollowcone tips used allowed a maximum pressure of 15 bar which was actually ideal. OR SO I THOUGHT.The problem was that canopy penetration was poor to non-existent as evidenced by the use of water sensitive paper.

The second type was the AI air induction flat-fan tip. The 7 tips used allowed only a maximum 7 bar (700 kPa) pressure. Here's a pic of the AIC tip mounted on a split eyelet.

Here are the pics of water sensitive paper from the bottom up. The first cards were placed 1 metre above ground level.

NOTES

Variation in droplet distribution is to be expected depending on canopy density and branch and foliage obstruction. Good penetration was achieved.

Vehicle speed = 4.5 km/ hr. A similar rig would be mounted behind a tractor. Slower speeds and better placement of the vertical boom would help.

Spraying on a slope and clearance between the rows is always going to be a problem.

Smaller nozzles in the AI, AIXR and AIC range need further testing. Second "trial and error" coming up.

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TREES PER HECTARE - Nut and fruit tree crops.

 TREES PER HECTARE - Nut and fruit tree crops.

I thought it might be useful to look at common inter-row and intra-row spacing and do some calculations.   The highlighted blue numbers are for the more common espacements.   The red figures are for spacing between rows (INTER-ROW) and the purple horizontal figures are for spacing between trees in the row (INTRA-ROW).  Here are the results:











For other tree espacements  just use the formula provided.

trees /  hectare =   100 / I  x ((100 / i ) + 1)   where I is the inter-row spacing in metres and i the intra-row spacing in metres.

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NUT AND FRUIT TREE CROPS. MACADAMIAS - A practical calibration.

NUT AND FRUIT TREE CROPS. MACADAMIAS - A practical calibration.

There are many lessons to be learned from this practical calibration exercise so spend some time digesting  the observations. Do the calculations and see if my litres per tree are correct.

The mistblower used is equipped with a set of ceramic hollow-cone tips all of the same size. This is fine when spraying vines and small trees up to 4 or 5 metres. The Macs in this situation are about 8 to 9 metres high. I will return to this aspect further on.

Checking the air flow. I used 2 metre ribbons attached to the nozzle bodies. The top centre-right is suspect. This method gives you a pretty good idea where the air is going.

Water sensitive paper. It is easy to say: 'staple water-sensitive paper directly onto the leaves at the periphery and inside the canopy at the top, in the center and lower part of the trees.'    In practice there are two problems; one is getting there (mac leaves are tough and prickly and the branches are brittle) and two; how many cards and exactly where to place them at "random" to get a good idea of the spray distribution. If you are undertaking a foliar feed or a light cover application it won't be necessary to place the cards in the tree centre.

If the target pest is an insect like stinkbugs on the macs then you would want a fullcover spray and it would be essential to get to the tree centre.   I decided to use a 5 metre aluminium 25mm square tube and attach the ws-paper at 1 metre intervals. This was then fed into the tree as close to the tree centre as possible. When testing different nozzle arrangements one can use the same position and the same tree.

A 5 m  25mm aluminium square tube  accurately marked at 1 metre centres.  

Here are the results. The ceramic hollow-cones produced a heavy coverage at 2 and 4 metres while the AITX's (Air Induction ceramic tips) appear to give a coaser droplet but more evenly distributed. The mistblower was not very effective above 4 metres.

ATR tips distribution above.  Water sensitive paper placed at 1 metres centres ; No 1 on left.

AITX tips distribution.  

Speed. 50 metres was accurately marked and the time recorded with a stopwatch.  Tape on the ground lower left in image.  In this case it took 1 min and 12 secs to cover the 50 metres. Speed in km/hr?

Nozzle arrangement.*** Nozzles fitted ATR's each deliver 3.6 litres per minute at 20 bar. 12 were used and 4 were shut off. Total delivery in l/min?   It would have been better to have tips of different sizes to achieve better coverage. In my opinion I would aim for 30% to the top third, 45% to the middle 1/3rd and 25% to the lower 1/3rd of the tree.   Each farmer will decide what's best.

Tree density. In this case the inter-row is 10 m and the spacing intra-row is 2.5 m. There 41 trees per 100 m and 10 rows per hectare. Trees per hectare?

*** Special notes relating to the nozzles.   It is clear that this mistblower is not going to cope with the tree height. The problem with this particular nozzle-body is that the capnut thread is 18mm metric so it was not possible to test other nozzle types especially the Adjustable Conejet. To increase the volume per tree, the rollover valves will have to be replaced to allow for other higher volume nozzle-tips.

So how much spray went onto each tree???

According to my calculations, the ATR ceramic tips achieved 2.53 litres per tree.

The AITX 8004VK's each delivering 4.06 litres per minute increased the volume marginally to only 2.85 litres per tree.

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Crocodile River.

Also Hippos!  Eyes open.

  

TREE CROPS AND CALIBRATION - theory is theory and practice is practice and never the twain shall meet.

TREE CROPS AND CALIBRATION - theory is theory and practice is practice and never the twain shall meet.

Off to the farm "R U NUTZ" belonging to R J "Ozzie" Beaumont to see if I can come up with some answers to the calibration problem in tree crops. Of late I hear talk of "2000 litres per hectare". Where does that come from?

The first thing I notice is there are orchards with different varieties, varying tree-heights and widths. Crown densities vary according to the variety. It is clear that there is no standard spray-volume per hectare. I decide to look at the sprayer used.

Ozzie uses a mistblower or as some refer to it as an airblast sprayer. I take note of the nozzle-tips used and find out that all products are applied at 20 bar pressure.

Anyway we decide to use a "practical" example to see if we can come up with a volume per tree. Here's the data used for the calculations.

Crop: Macadamia

Orchard : Tree density Inter-row 10 metres and intra-row 2.5 metres

Trees per 100 metre row: 41

Tree rows per hectare : 10 (Actually 11 rows but you're only spraying half of the two outer rows)

Trees per hectare : 410

Mistblower nozzles: 16 in total or 8 per side.

Flow rate at 20 bar : 3 litres per minute per nozzle or 48 litres per minute for 16 nozzles.

Speed: This varies but we settle on a slow 50 metres per minute or 100 metres per 2 minutes or 3 km per hour.

Given this speed the mistblower will spray 96 litres on 41 trees in 2 minutes. Spraying both sides = 1 tree. So the litres per tree 96 ÷ 41 = 2.342 l/tree. Wow! To the third decimal place.

There are 410 trees per field hectare so the volume per hectare is 2.342 x 410 = 960 l/ha.

IF WE LOOK AT A SPRAYRIG AND NOTE THE NOZZLE-TIPS WE CAN CALCULATE THE TOTAL VOLUME OUTPUT AT A SPECIFIC PRESSURE AND GIVEN THE SPEED WE CAN CALCULATE THE VOLUME PER HECTARE FOR EACH ORCHARD TREE DENSITY.

Let's see if we use our old faithful formula to calculate litres per hectare --- l/ha

l/ha = 600 x litres per minute ÷ speed km/hr x spacing in metres

l/ha = 600 x 48 ÷ 3 x 10 = 960 l/ha Hey! That looks the same.

WATCH OUT; THIS IS FOR BOTH SIDES. NOTE THE VOLUME IS FOR THE WHOLE SPRAYER OUTPUT.

GETTING BACK TO THAT 2'000 LITRES PER HECTARE.

If Ozzie wants to double the volume ("2'000 l/ha") the sprayer has to travel at virtually 1.5 km/hr. Yawn!! When are we getting there?

Given the "2'000 litres per hectare", what must the total volume output in litres per minute be?

l/min = l/ha x speed km/hr x swath or row spacing in metres ÷ 600

l/min = 2'000 l/ha x 3km/hr  x 10row spacing ÷ 600 = 100 litres per minute for all nozzles. OR 6.25 l/min per nozzle.

As I drive away leaving a rather bewildered Ozzie with a Teejet catalogue and some questions about coverage and those 8 metre high trees, I reach for the speed dial on my smart phone ................ HOUSTON; WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

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SUGARCANE - ROW APPLICATION l/ha and l/min calculations

SUGARCANE - ROW APPLICATION

Cane or sugarcane is planted locally in rows at 1.5 or 1.9 metre centres. When it comes to liquid fertiliser applications the rate per hectare is known. For example a product may be applied at 100 litres per treated hectare. The speed at which it is applied will vary due to the equipment and the terrain. When dealing with high fertiliser concentrates it may be better to apply the product to standing crops in a single or multiple solid stream pattern to minimise leaf-burn.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLE.

FERTX at 100 l/ha. Speed 6 km/hr. Cane row spacing 1.9 metres. Application as a single solid stream. Refer to page 45 in Catalogue 51M. We need to determine the flow rate of a nozzle-tip in litres per minute??

l/min = l/ha x speed in km/hr x swath or rather row spacing in metres ÷ 600

l/min = 100 l/ha x 6 km/hr x 1.9m ÷ 600 = 1.9 litres per minute

That was quite handy ...600 divided by 600 leaves 1.9. For an explanation of the 600 constant refer to the previous posting.

With a bit of algerbraic jiggery-pokery you can reverse the process and given the flow rate you can determine the litres per hectare:

l/ha = 600 x l/min ÷ km/hr x m 

l/ha = 600 x 1.9 ÷ 6 x 1.9 = 100 l/ha

Looking in the catalogue on page 45 you'll find a H1/4U SS 0006 or a TP0006-SS. At 2 bar or 200 kPa this tip delivers 1.93 litres per minute. Close enough for the real world!

By now you must be asking what do these tip numbers mean? The HU type refers to a spray-tip with a 1/4" thread male inlet, the SS stands for Stainless Steel and the 0006 refers to the angle and flow rate. The first 2 digits (00) refer to the angle and in this case it is zero degrees (solid steam)  and the 06 refers to the rated flow rate in United States gallons per minute at a specific pressure. A USGal is 3.7854 litres. An Imperial gal is 4.54 litres. (Customs officials helped themselves to the difference when they imported Scotch from across the pond) Neat little excise duty as the story goes. Anyway the 06 means 0.6 gal per minute or 2.27 litres per minute at 40 pounds per square inch or about 2.8 bar pressure.

BE CAREFUL! THE SPACING IN THE CATALOGUE IS 75 CM OR 0.75 METRES.

If you are not happy with these formulas refer to the postings covering calibration.

The real world.  Overall or broadcast application at 8'000 litres per hectare. Speed 7 km/hr. Swath 1.5 m. Flow rate?

chemicon@multispray.com

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