Sprayer tank agitation check: A proposal for a simple instrumental evaluation

The performance of the sprayer agitation system has an important effect on both pesticide distribution quality and environmental contamination. The visual inspection of sprayer tank agitation systems during inspections of sprayers in use could not give enough precise and repeatable information also due to the human factor. With the aim to provide more reliable and objective results for the equipment already in use, experiments were carried out for individuating instruments and methods enabling to make a simple and quick evaluation of sprayer tank agitation systems efficiency. Use of a solid inert tracer (glass microspheres) characterized by high sedimentation velocity, to be inserted with the water in the main tank, was found suitable to provide useful information about the efficiency of tank agitation systems in a quick and reproducible way. Further tests are in course in order to confirm the reliability of results obtained using this tracer and to define the details of a test methodology to propose for inspections of sprayers in use.