Spray Tech Lab

ILVO's Spray Tech Lab is one of the few accredited spray technology laboratories in the world specialising in the characterisation of sprayers and nozzles. In addition to accredited testing, the laboratory has the experimental facilities to develop spray application systems and evaluate them under field or laboratory conditions. Recent examples include a PDPA laser based spray droplet characterisation facility and a fully automated spraying unit. Current research priorities include greenhouse and open field spray applications, spray drift, nozzle characterisation, orchard spray applications and biological crop protection applications.

Services

Spray nozzle characterization

Evaluation and optimization of application techniques in laboratory and field conditions based on deposition and drift measurements

Sprayer testing

Development and validation of precision spray application technologies

Features

Automated spray unit for natural rainfall simulations (different intensities, rain droplet characteristics, etc.)
Four BELAC accredited test setups for the characterization of spray and rainfall nozzles
A Phase Doppler Particle Analyser for the measurement of droplet size and velocity of spray and rain droplets
(High speed) cameras and image processing software for the analysis of droplet characteristics and droplet(impact) dynamics
Deposition measuring techniques using different types of tracers, artificial collectors, chemical analysistechniques, cameras and image processing software to measure and visualize droplet deposits