When selecting a spray gun, are you choosing the correct nozzle size to spray? What exactly is the difference between the various sizes? What nozzle tips do buyers focus on when purchasing a spray gun? What are the different parts that professional painters will choose?
Now, let’s learn the difference between the nozzle size of spray guns!
5 difference in specification
- Fluid Flow: The spraying flow of a large size gun is much than a small one. You can observe with the naked eye the nozzles’ diameter, compared with 1.0mm and 1.8mm. And more paint is sprayed out when working with large sizes per minute.
- Pressure: The pressure of the large-diameter spray gun is lower than the small-diameter one because, under the same air inlet pressure, the force area of the small-diameter weapon is limited, the pressure is forceful. This refers to the internal pressure of the gun. The final spray-out pressure will be much smaller through the corner holes on the airflow cap and auxiliary air holes.
- Spraying Width: The width of the spraying differs, as does the spray volume, and the width of the 1.8mm nozzle size spraying is also more significant than that of the 1.5mm size.
- Paint viscosity: Spray gun nozzle size in 1.6mm or more can choose the thicker paint, thicker film, such as water-based paint, lacquers; Small nozzle size of spray guns with 1.3mm or less, always should choose a thinner viscosity, after appropriate dilution of paint.
- Drying time: The spray gun with a small nozzle size wetting area is more concentrated, and the spray width is smaller, the need to spray a long time, the drying time is correspondingly longer. Large size gun, the spray area is large, can be faster to complete the work, the corresponding drying time is short.
The craftsmanship of nozzle size for a professional manufacturer
The smaller the tips, the more complex it is in production machining. It is necessary to ensure the coaxiality of the entire gun, i.e., the consistency of the nozzle, airflow cap, and needle. As a manufacturer of professional spray guns, we use an imported machining center exclusively to produce nozzles. In particular, the accuracy of small-diameter nozzles is exceptionally high, with tolerances generally below 0.5 mm, and each nozzle requires a unique material needle to be paired with it.
Choose the right size for different applications.
- When using a spray gun for repairing, choose small nozzle sizes; 0.3 mm, 0.5mm, 0.8mm are more common currently on the market. This type of gun looks small, has a good handing feeling, and is suitable for small parts of the spray, generally with gravity-feed and easy to change the paint.
- If the working area is large, you can choose 1.3mm, 1.4mm, 1.6mm, 1.7mm, 1.8mm for automotive painting. Auto painting generally involves thicker paint primer, color basecoats, and brighter clearcoats or varnish, so choose the right nozzle size for different paint surfaces to achieve the best results.
- If the area is enormous, the appearance of the requirements is not very high. You can choose 2.0-2.5mm. The general spraying of wood will use a 2.0mm size of the spray gun, requiring uniform paint film, not easy to drip hanging, and quicky drying. This mass work will choose pressure-fed spray guns connected to a pressure pot or diaphragm pump. The atomization set requires high wear-resistant anti-corrosion.
In general, choosing the proper nozzles plays a role in professional painting works, especially for automotive refinishing or yachts painting. Like, heavy-bodied primers and primer surfacers work best when you use a nozzle size of 1.6-2.2mm，basecoats should be sprayed with a 1.4mm to 1.6mm nozzle. Clearcoats or varnish should be sprayed with a 1.3mm.
The summary of different nozzles is as below:
- 0.8: Fine mist, suitable for small part or repair finishing
- 1.3: Fine finishes, clear coats, basecoats, and stains (for wood applications)
- 1.6: Generally suitable for most paints, General-purpose- medium viscosity coatings and lacquers. Be warned: not ideal for light layers as there is a risk of orange peel.
- 1.8: Primers you need to apply quickly
- 2.2-2.5: Resins, gel coats, thick paints.
