3.4.4. Scaling of nozzles
In general, spray nozzles used for film coating are dual-fluid or air atomizing. Both hollow cone and solid cone patterns are used. A big advantage of dual-fluid nozzles is that the droplet size and liquid flowrate can be set independently by varying the atomizing air pressure. The characteristics of a typical air-atomizing nozzle are illustrated in Fig. 5. Even with larger equipment, there is normally only one nozzle per draft tube. When scaling up, it is desired not only to increase the flowrate of coating solution/suspension but also to maintain the average droplet size in the spray. Fig. 5 shows that by adjusting the air pressure, the droplet size can be maintained at higher liquid flowrates. For large scale-up, the nozzle itself may have to be changed since the higher liquid flows may not be accommodated with the small unit's nozzle. In this case, the nozzle for the larger unit should be chosen so as to give the same average droplet size. Finally, it should be noted that for smaller equipment, the air flow through the nozzle will not effect the solids flow pattern in the draft tube as much as with larger beds, Saadevandi and Turton [14].