Application specialist Tom Wolf says we’ve hit the limit with nozzles when it comes to reducing spray drift.
It’s now time to think about wind shear.
“Wind shear has two powerful impacts: it makes the spray finer and it sucks the little droplets out of the spray cloud,” says the Saskatoon spraying systems researcher.
“Those little guys normally hitch a free ride down to the canopy in the wake of the big droplets. Headwind or wind shear sucks them out of the wake so they drift. Pattern Master addresses those factors. I’m encouraged by the idea.”
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Wolf has used a Pattern Master but hasn’t conducted research. He said the brushes create a semi porous air barrier so that a little bit of wind makes it through the bristles. This allows the bristles to feather out and moderate airflow.
“In aerodynamics, you always have to be concerned with edge effect. You don’t want to instantly go from a full air block to no block at all. The brushes achieve that,” he said.
“The beauty of the brush is that you could customize the density and number of strands for more porosity or less porosity to change the aerodynamic characteristics to meet your needs.”
University of Nebraska researcher Greg Kruger, who is the only scientist to document Pattern Master performance, said altering the air curtain around any spray pattern changes the way it deposits product on the target. However, he’s not convinced Pattern Master affects droplet size.
“In terms of protecting droplet size from wind shear, I don’t think it happens,” he said.
“Our research shows we don’t see a change in droplet size from wind shear until we get over 55 to 65 m.p.h. It affects the movement of droplets, not the size.”
His research delved into the off-target movement, which is the spray particles that moved out of the spray swath.
“It’s unclear whether the brushes actually catch these small droplets or just give them more opportunity to get to the target. Based on the water sensitive cards he (inventor Kurt Kamin) sent and the videos, there’s something here that shows promise,” he said.
“But I’ll tell you that what we’ve seen isn’t nearly as promising as the things you’ve seen. At this point, we have more questions than answers.”
