Ultra-fine tuning of the outlet orifice shape and other aspects of a low-drift spray tip design has resulted in the new Syngenta 3D ninety for critical herbicide and fungicide applications.

Reckoned to give a 90% reduction in drift when compared with a regular flat fan nozzle, the 3D ninety is said to have proven its efficacy credentials with a 2.5 percentage point improvement in blackgrass control compared with conventional low-drift nozzles.

It has also performed 9% better in trials than Syngenta’s 3D tip, which is reckoned to set the industry standard, at the recommended 200-litre/ha water volume.

Syngenta applications technology expert Harry Fordham said: “Growers can be fully confident of the product efficacy with the 3D ninety, along with all the operational advantages of low drift technology.

“Avoiding drift keeps all the product on target and in the crop, as well as mitigating the effects of wind gusts that can disrupt the spray pattern during application; the intention of the 3D ninety design is to achieve the most even distribution across the whole target area.”

The new tip, which is angled so that the spray intercepts vertical targets such as grass weeds and to penetrate crops with lots of foliage, is a pre-orifice design rather than an air induction type, which is commonplace for low drift nozzles.

Mr Fordham maintains this is a better solution for use with pulse width modulation (PWM) spraying systems, which use rapid on/off control to maintain desired spray quality characteristics over different working speeds.

A 3D ninety 05 recommended for blight and pre-emergence herbicide sprays will be available first, with a choice of sizes from 03 to 08 following.

Altek’s new Smart-C-Spray 124 system provides ‘intelligent’ spray tip selection through twin or quad nozzle holders, making it possible to rapidly adjust outputs to compensate for differences in speed along a sprayer boom through a turn.

The system can be used to control each nozzle assembly individually or in sections, with pneumatic (rather than electric) valves on each assembly providing rapid tip selection and on-off control.

Richard Riley of Altek noted that in addition to turn compensation, the Auto Nozzle Select function changes spray tip size combinations automatically to compensate for changes in working speed or for variable rate application, while the system’s Nozzle-Spy feature continuously monitors whether each nozzle is performing as it should.