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| Generally I'd be talking on 20" spacing as a standard, but I know what you are talking about.
If you were putting 20 gallons/acre out of a nozzle and 5 gallons/acre out of a nozzle, which would wear first?
Thinking about it now, I don't know if I've seen a really formal test for that matter for flat fan nozzles for that specifically, but at a paltry guess, I'd reckon the pressure you spray at would perhaps have more to do with the nozzle wear than the flow rate/spacing. As the nozzle is going to be sized to the flow (and spacing), if you are using a smaller nozzle on 15" spacing and a nozzle 33% larger on 20" at the same pressure, I'd reckon wear rate might be darn similar. But thinking about it more, the smaller the nozzle, the less you have to effect it to make a greater impact on flow rate as well, so I'd probably reckon the smaller nozzle WILL wear quicker and a relatively equal rate (e.g. a 15" nozzle sized in ratio to do the same gallons/acre).
As far as the nozzle cost, I feel you. The largest cost by far in our nozzles is the stainless steel insert (which are effectively hand milled to an extent as automation isn't consistent enough), and US stainless steel has gone up stupidly since covid as well, and we haven't aimed to do any push to getting stainless from China or having nozzles made anywhere but North America (and that won't likely change as thats why we do what we do). But yeah, we do bank on the nozzles lasting a long time so at least there is value there, but it does mean it is worthwhile double checking whether they are still good or worn out.
EDIT: As much as we can trust chatgpt, I figured I'd question it as well in case I was missing something, and it was also suggesting smaller nozzles will be worn out quicker. It was suggesting that the smaller nozzle will have less material (so any worn % impacts flow more), has higher velocity volume (as the velocity of the fluid inside the smaller orifice will have to be higher to keep the same flow rate at even the same pressure). Erosion is strongly correlated with erosion, which isn't a linear relationship (Depending on the liquid/mix, it could be a squared relationship or more)
So, it makes sense to me that the smaller the nozzle, the more variance it might get to when it comes to nozzle life, so PWM = larger nozzle = longer nozzle life too I'd suppose.
Edited by WilgerIndustries 8/5/2025 10:20
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Sprayer nozzle storage
