The operation of an atomiser and its numerous uses

• An atomiser is a device that creates a mist of particles from a liquid on demand.

• Liquids are easier to store, but sprays spread better.

• Atomisers are designed to meet the needs of various industries, including fuel injection, steel manufacturing, irrigation, and firefighting.

Different Spray Sizes

• Spray drop sizes can be measured by the average surface area or volume of the drops.

• The Relative Span Factor (RSF) is a statistical figure that denotes the distribution of drop sizes.

• The greater the angle at which light is scattered by a drop, the smaller it is.

Spray Pattern

• The distribution of the spray’s drops once they hit the target surface.

• The spray on a deodorant may want to deliver drops to a wide area on skin, while a spray in a coal mine may need to deliver a ring of drops spreading in a conical shape through the air to quickly trap as many coal-dust particles as possible.

Areas of Application

• Atomisers create sprays by blowing up some liquid.

• Simple implementations include forcing liquid flowing through a wider channel into a narrower channel, creating a flat fan, or shattering into drops.

• More complicated designs cater to specific applications, such as delivering an aerosol.

Use of Atomisers

• Atomisers are used everywhere where a liquid needs to be distributed in a specific and efficient way across a surface or through a space.

• In power plants, they are used to spray coolants on spinning turbine blades and lubricants on machines with high-contact moving parts.

• In the automobile and aerospace sectors, fuel injectors spray pressurised fuel into engines.

• Firefighters often use foam sprays for putting out fires involving flammable solids.

• Farmers use spray-based irrigation systems when planting in poor percolation soils.

• Atomisers are ubiquitous in medicine, serving as nasal sprays, pain relief sprays, antiseptics, and disinfectants.

• In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists tried to model the pathogen as an aerosol.