In some operations, it's easy to determine the root cause of high scrap rates. For example, in coating operations, it's pretty obvious that baked goods don't look right due to over-application of chocolate or products aren't released from molds or pans due to under-application of oil. However, in other processes, such as cooling, washing, spray drying and gas conditioning, it's much more difficult to determine source of the problem.
In operations using spray technology, slightly worn nozzles, clogged nozzles or improperly sized nozzles could be the culprit. However, since spray nozzles are small and not always in plain view, they may not be at the top of the list when troubleshooting. Even when the sprays are visible and appear satisfactory, it doesn't mean you're getting the desired performance. Slight changes in spray performance wont' be visible to the human eye. You'll need to check flow rate, spray pressure, volume and more to determine if nozzle performance has deteriorated. Just like with any precision component, nozzles wear over time.
Detecting Spray Nozzle Performance Problems