Take charge with your favorite spray tips, 80- and 40-degree flat fans or disc/core with the power of electrostatics. Various independent research studies by USDA ARS Aerial Application Research Center at College Station, Texas demonstrate that electrostatic charged droplets produce positive results.
The new nozzle body has excellent insulation qualities and easily replaceable electrodes for the different spray tips. Now at one to five gallons or more per acre you can improve coverage and reduce drift by adding a charge to the droplets in the spray cloud. The smaller the droplet the greater the charge the greater the attraction to the plant canopy.
How it works: The aircraft is equipped with two small control boxes drawing less than five amps total. One induces a positive charge on the right side of the aircraft and the other induces a negative charge on the left side with up to 10,000 volts on spray droplets without changing the chemistry of the product being applied.
Why positive and negative? In order for the droplets to be charged they have to be released from a neutral body (which is the aircraft). If it was a positive charge only, the whole aircraft would be positively charged so the spray droplets would not be charged by the electrode. By adding the negative charge, the aircraft then becomes neutral. Both positive and negative charged droplets are then attracted to the earth which is a neutral body. The plants are grounded to the earth so they attract the droplets first. There is also a Coriolis wrap around effect that places a number of small droplets on, around, and under the leaves. Another benefit is that droplets with the same charge repel each other so there is less coalesce of smaller droplets joining two together to make larger ones in flight and also less droplets stacking on top of one another on the leaf surface. This greatly improves the area covered.
“This will be year fifty as a pilot in my aerial application business in North Dakota. I operate two Turbine Thrushes and a helicopter. Three seasons ago I installed the SPE Electrostatic system kits on all three aircraft. I have had excellent results on spraying thousands of acres of wheat, canola, peas, lentils, corn, soybeans, and sugar beets. I believe this technology is a great tool to keep us in business by helping to keep the spray droplets on target. I especially appreciate this when applying herbicides.” – Rick Marburger
SPE Electrostatic, a division of Travicar which started operating in southern Brazil in 1967 making replacement parts and accessories for agricultural aircraft for South America and other countries. They currently manufacture the spraying system components for the new Ipanema ag-aircraft built by Embraer. They also make all the replacement spray system components for Cessna, Air Tractor, Piper and Thrush in Brazil. Other products in production are rotary atomizers and GPS systems. SPE Electrostatic now has over 5000 installations of the latest electrostatic technology mounted on orchard sprayers, field ground sprayers, helicopters, and all ag-aircraft models in South America. Sales of the electrostatic installation kits are rapidly increasing.
Electrostatic technology is also currently being used for spraying disinfectants in airline interiors, hospital rooms and school rooms because it promotes the even coverage of droplets for controlling the Covid-19 virus.
For more information, contact Rick Marburger at: ag-flite.com, 701-572-3514 sales@ag-flite.com
