Sprayers must be equipped with a clean water tank available to the operator (“hand washing”) and easily and safely provide for the cleaning of filters. With the entry into force of Directive 2009/127/EC, the presence of the lava tank system for all machines that are placed on the market becomes mandatory. According to ISO 16119, the volume of the system lava tank shall be at least 10% of the declared capacity of the main tank or 10 times the volume of the dilutable residue. The connection must also be such that the pipes and the main tank can be washed separately. The internal washing of the container must allow at least 80% of the contamination to be eliminated. At the end of the washing process, the liquid remaining in the sprayer must have a concentration below 2% of the initial concentration. For each sprayer, the manufacturer should provide the farmer with data on the non-distributable volume and procedures for maximum use of a foam tracer device.
The machines already in use and without tank lava plant can be easily equipped with the same; are commercially available auxiliary tank kits to be applied near the main tank and connectable to the main pump sprayer. All sprayers must also be equipped with an attachment point to the pump to allow external washing of the machine in the field with the water contained in the system lava tank.