ARS | Publication request: THE REICHARD SPRAY DEPOSIT ANALYZER, A TOOL FOR MEASURING SPRAY DEPOSIT BY MEASURING CONDUCTIVITY

Submitted to: Agricultural Engineering International Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: August 24, 1998
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: A calibration procedure was developed for a spray deposit analyzer (SDA) used to measure salt spray collected on a 5 cm wide, 2.5 m long plastic tape. Standard dilution calibration of the conductivity meter used in the SDA system was used to transform conductivity measurements of known amount of salt deposited at concentrated points along tapes pulled through the SDA to produce linear calibration curves for the SDA. To test the SDA response to spray patterns, 80 tapes were sprayed with either 1- or 3 flat-fan nozzles on a track sprayer. One tape of each sprayed pair was analyzed with the SDA while the other tape was cut into 12 sections, bottled, washed and salt concentration measured. In most cases, mean deposit for the 3-nozzle treatment (uniform swath deposits) were similar for the two measurement methods. The coefficient of variation among samples and across the swath were also similar for both measurement methods. The SDA provides a quick method for measuring spray deposits on plastic tape collectors, with accuracy similar to standard cut-bottle/wash techniques.