The vast unknown world of spray measurement

When Malvern sells a Mastersizer, the sample introduction is pretty much a known entity….a powder, or a suspension. There isn’t much mess created, much discomfort during the measurement, or surprises.

Measuring sprays is a different world, as we must adapt the laser instrument to the customer’s spray. I had a true “slap in the face” example of this on a recent Spraytec demo, consisting of:

Houston, Texas…outdoors…sunny, 95F (35°C), and 60% humidity

Gulf mosquitoes that were very hungry

Wearing a nomex 1 piece jumpsuit, with hardhat and goggles

In the shadow of a chemical reactor that gave off an occasional light scent of something that made my brain feel like it was swelling inside my skull

No chance to take a break for lunch

And the spray we were measuring, you ask?

1GPM (4 liters per minute) of water added to HP steam, with 6 orifices (a large spray). Imagine a steam locomotive that has burst a pipe.

Sufficiently loud volume to require ear protection, making conversation impossible

Believe it or not, all of that water added to the steam made a rather cool mist of liquid that occasionally drifted back onto us. The measurements were fairly successful, and additional testing was scheduled.