The right equipment for your application in food manufacturing is going to ensure efficiency benefits across a spectrum of areas, including cost, staff safety and sustainability. Are your spray nozzles creating efficiencies and working hard enough? Are you checking them often enough and are you using the correct nozzles for your application? This article takes a deep dive into what creates an efficient spray nozzle for your application and how the right choice can save your company time and money.

Cleaning and sanitation: Certain volumes of water and chemicals are needed in order to achieve the required level of sanitation within the food industry, and the costs of these products plus treatment and removal of cleaning waste is something that businesses aim to keep as cost-efficient as possible. The selection of correct equipment and automation as well as optimising cleaning processes and regular maintenance to check for declining performances or failed components will go a long way to reducing wastage and improving sustainability.

Food coating: When liquid products are added to foods it requires specific nozzles depending on the viscosity and weight of the liquid being sprayed. Whether you’re coating pans, spraying oils, bakery release agents, or applying solutions to a product travelling on a conveyor belt the right nozzle will provide an even spray coverage with minimal waste. The nozzles themselves will have different designs such as air atomising or a standard spray fan depending on its application. Additional factors to consider involve understanding the size of the droplets that need to be applied to prevent overspray while still making an even coating, and the thickness of the coating required. The wrong type of nozzle can mean product waste, or uneven distribution and therefore substandard outcomes. The right nozzles will allow for the spray to freely move over the products optimally and reduce the amount of potential waste and cleanup.

Food safety: It’s fundamental of course that the spray nozzles meet the standards of the food processing industry. Considerations for the right stainless steel nozzles include high corrosion resistance for a long-life span, strength retention when exposed to high and low temperatures. Hygienic for food and beverage usage, durability and with today’s focus on sustainability of course, that they are recyclable, reducing your carbon footprint.

Staff safety: Each year staff are injured from manually cleaning equipment in the workplace. Tank cleaning inside confined spaces, walking on wet production floors staff are at risk of falling, tripping or slipping. Safety should be a priority in any processing plant to ensure employees can remain safe in the workplace; retractable hoses and nozzles automated cleaning systems and CIP tank cleaning nozzles will help towards staff safety while also reducing risk of using excess water or cleaning chemicals.

Sustainability and efficiency: Using damaged, worn or incorrect nozzles wastes water and affects overall performance. Both from an overall cost and environmental impact perspective, the right choice of nozzle for each application will have significant effects. With current environmental legislation, a faulty spray system can be costly, even if you’re just spraying water and recirculating it after processing the wastewater. Identifying and preventing spray nozzle performance problems can help you lower your production costs while reducing the amount of chemicals and energy you waste.

Factors right from the offset, such as choosing correct, quality tech right through to how you care for, maintain and inspecting your equipment, will in the long run save you time and money. Even if you have the best equipment, improperly maintained nozzles decrease spray impact and distort spray patterns, reducing the efficiency of your spray system.

Tecpro has been servicing the food and beverage industry for over 40 years. We have experience across all verticals including dairy, wineries, breweries bakeries and more, so you can trust that we have the know-how to assist with any application or process you need to improve.

Our friendly team will help you find the right product for your application, and keep you updated on how to maintain it. Contact us today and chat to the Tecpro team to ensure your spray nozzles are doing the absolute best job they can be.