Where you apply paint, in a geographical sense, is just as important as the type of paint being applied. For example, at the same time of year, you could be spraying the very same product in a cold, dry Melbourne winter or in the heat and high humidity of North Queensland. What the X-Nozzle System offers is the ability to easily tune the SATAjet X 5500 to suit these or virtually any other application conditions, says Uwe Kuebler. As SATA Export Manager for this region, Uwe regularly visits Australia and New Zealand, including for the recent Collision Repair Expo.
“In the past, SATA has developed nozzle sets more or less according to the needs of paint manufacturers, to suit each paint system. As a result, SATA guns in RP and HVLP technologies featured nozzle sets mainly producing an oval spray pattern which basically allowed for a faster application process. However, like other conventional nozzle technologies, as you stepped up or down in size, the fan would be larger, smaller, wider or narrower. Not only this, the atomisation, as well as the film thickness, varied in a non-uniformed way and the material flow changed but not in linear steps. It’s something technicians have always had to compensate for but most have never really stopped to think about it.”
“Because of all this, SATA decided to create a system that fitted everybody’s need – the X-Nozzle System. Our development engineers identified two basic spray patterns – the I-Shape and the O-Shape. The shapes already existed but they were not constant across the nozzle range – with the X-Nozzle System, they are! For each nozzle size, you can now choose between the O-Nozzle, basically for a higher, more traditional SATA application speed, or the I-Nozzle, for a slightly slower, more controlled application. Whichever spray pattern you choose, it’s important to understand that if you change between nozzle sizes, the fan size and shape remains the same – the painter doesn’t need to adjust.”
“With the X-Nozzle System on the SATAjet X 5500, you have a range to suit the requirements of the different paint manufacturers but now you can also choose your nozzle setup based on the climatic conditions you operate in. For example, say application is too dry so you need a bigger nozzle size. With the X-Nozzle System you get exactly what you need and nothing that you don’t. The fan shape and size will be exactly the same, the only difference is that you get more paint material flow in linear steps. With the consistency of the X-Nozzles System, painters get amazing flexibility without the surprises when changing the nozzle setup.”
So, which of these nozzles will be right for your applications? To put you on the right track, SATA has come up with the SATA Nozzle Finder app. Using information, such as what spray gun you currently use, the type of paint system and even climatic condition (temperature, humidity, etc), the SATA Nozzle Finder can recommend an X-Nozzle best suited to you. Download the app for free from Google Play or the App Store.
If, after all this, you are still not 100 percent convinced that a SATAjet X 5500 is for you, Uwe recommends giving it a try. You can do that by speaking to a PPG Territory Manager or Protec Territory Manager who have access to trial SATAjet X 5500’s and full set of nozzles. He says trying the number one way to convert people to SATA.
“If you just look at the price you can see SATA is not the cheapest but we know we have the advantage over our competitors. I am really confident that, if someone tries a SATA gun, they will see and feel the difference and they will like it. It’s the same right around the world!”