Sprinkler Basics.

The sprinkler is the instrument that allows irrigation in a field. Before it there are a series of elements of vital importance for the system such as the pump, the pipes or the safety elements. But the sprinkler is the last one and without it the distribution of water in the field would be completely impossible.

Types of sprinklers.

• Hammer sprinklers.
  The movement of the jet is done by the back and forth motion of a hydraulically operated hammer. It is a very non-uniform movement that can cause drying when the ET is high. But in their favour they have very long ranges.
  

• Diffusers.
  Small water fountains that support coarse irrigation. They are often placed in areas that are difficult to irrigate, such as bunker slopes.
• Turbine sprinklers.
  They are the most standardised type of sprinkler in new installations in any field. They provide a high degree of uniformity and have a great deal of configuration flexibility.
  

Irrigation area

• Sectoral
  Sector sprinklers are designed to irrigate an arc of circumference. Normally this arc ranges from 15º to 360º and its main purpose is to irrigate the edges of irrigable areas, for example a street where the raft is not going to be irrigated or the edge of a football pitch.
• 360º
  These sprinklers water everything around them in a concentric manner. They are very common in all types of installations and are the ones with the best distribution.

There is a wide variability of sprinkler configurations.

Since we have already discussed the variability of the turbine sprinkler, we can talk about the different parts of the turbine sprinkler:

• Make and model
  Each manufacturer standardises different sprinklers with different working pressures and ranges, apart from the distribution offered.
• Nozzle
  One of the most important variables is the sprinkler nozzle. It determines its range and water distribution. When a sprinkler modification is made, all nozzles must be modified, not only the main nozzle, but also the short and medium range nozzles. If this change is not made, there is a danger of having interleaved dries because, for example, the middle nozzle does not reach far enough.

• Stator.
  The stator is the great unknown of sprinklers. It turns out that it is rarely properly positioned and greatly affects the distribution of irrigation. The stator controls the rotational speed of the sprinkler, and needs to be modified depending on the flow rate of the sprinkler and the operating pressure. A turbine sprinkler requires 2.5 to 3 minutes to make a complete turn.
• Working pressure.
  For a sprinkler to give the proper distribution and throw it must operate at the proper pressure. Newer models of sprinklers have the ability to change their Tare allowing for minor modifications to the initial irrigation design.