Different Types of Trigger Sprayers

Trigger sprayers or trigger spray pump are plastic made, liquid dispensing system. These small plastic tools are quite common and play an important role in both commercial and domestic cleaning products industries.

After years of development, there have been numerous variants of trigger sprayers in daily life. Benefiting from completed supply chain and abundant resources, China is the biggest exporting country of trigger sprayers in world. Even some well-known giants of trigger sprayer manufacturers have placed their production field in China. While buyer or international sourcing are looking at importing trigger sprayers from China or other countries, they might start consideration from design, functionality and pricing. However, do you know that we manufacturers have our own assortment method for trigger sprayers?

To know how does factories assort trigger sprayers will help you choose the most suitable dispensing tool for your cleaning products. As well as communication between you and your supplier will be more efficient and smooth.

This article will introduce different kinds of trigger sprayers from the aspect of piston pump types. If you need more guidelines to help decide which trigger sprayer is most suitable for specific liquid product, check this article.

1. How does trigger sprayer work?

Even there are countless designs for trigger spray pumps, Their working principle are basically the same and quite straightforward.

Firstly, we need to know trigger sprayers consist of several key parts: trigger lever, piston, pump cylinder, spring, one-way system, dip tube and nozzle valve.

When the trigger lever is once pulled back, liquid reserved in pump cylinder is compressed, as well as the spring in cylinder is compressed. Due to the pressurized liquid closed the gate of downside one-way system(usually is a glass or S/S ball), so the liquid is forced to go through a narrow barrel to the end of nozzle tip with a small orifice, generates mist spraying, stream spraying or foaming, depending on the nozzle patterns.

Afterwards, when the trigger lever is released, compressed spring starts to kick-back, drives piston push back. This motion produces instant vacuum inside pump cylinder, so one-way system works inversely, the MBR valve closed and downside glass/metal ball is lifted up. This extraction motion draws fluid from the bottom of the reservoir inside the bottle, and the cylinder is filled with fluid again to prepare for next pressurization. These two strokes of the piston contribute to the entire pump cycle.

When users pull back and release the trigger lever, we simply repeat these two motions inside trigger sprayers. This process is basically principle of most of trigger sprayers. However there is exception, for example our continuous spray bottle. Instead of hand-held trigger spray pump, the working principle of continuous spray bottle is closer to Backpack pressurized sprayers used in gardens. Anyway, we won’t elaborate in this article.

2. Shroud or non-shroud trigger sprayer

So, how do we manufacturers assort trigger sprayers easily? firstly, we simply divide them up to shroud trigger sprayer and non-shroud trigger sprayer.

As the name suggests, Shroud trigger sprayers have detachable, decorative shrouds. Shrouds can be different designs, for purpose of increased rear support, spraying comfort, and outstanding appearance. Also, shroud trigger sprayers usually have a square shaped, switchable nozzle design, and usually can be set on OFF pattern. This feature allows chemicals in bottle is secured during transportation to avoid leakage. So shroud trigger sprayer can usually also be called “shipper trigger sprayer” by customers.

Non-shroud trigger sprayers have visible pump structure, the core function part is integrated with outside skeleton. These trigger sprayers are more common seen in car care products. In contrast of shipper trigger sprayers, non-shroud trigger sprayers usually have a rotating style, round shaped nozzle design, and usually default on ON pattern by factories. So they are sometimes also called “non-shipper” trigger sprayers by customers.

Following sections we will further classify both shroud and non-shroud trigger spray pumps.

3. Division in shroud trigger sprayers

Usually, we divide shroud trigger sprayers into three types according to their pump structure.

Type.1 – ordinary pump:

This type of trigger sprayer is the most basic and primary one. The characteristic is they have an upright pump structure, which is invisible under shroud.

The ordinary pump trigger sprayer is almost the simplest and cheapest type. They have the smallest output (dosage rate) comparing to other typical shroud trigger sprayers, which is 0.6-0.7ml per stroke.

Also, because the dip tube connects directly with the same part of piston, dip tube will be lifted up and down for every squeeze. This will result to chemical waste since the dip tube can’t reach to the very bottom of bottle, and occasionally dip tube can bump against bottle’s inside wall causing noise.

Besides, this kind of trigger sprayer usually don’t set air venting hole on bottom of closure, which means too soft bottle may collapse after too many squeezes.

After all, this is the most common and original trigger sprayer, its unbeatable advantage is the cheapest pricing among competitors.

Type.2- horizontal pump:

This type of trigger spray pump have a horizontal pump structure. This structure gives possibility to increase size of cylinder and piston, for purpose of higher dosage rate. The dosage rate can vary from 0.8-1.5ml per stroke depending on different manufacturer’s slightly different designs.

Besides, air venting hole is achievable with horizontal pump style trigger sprayer. Also the dip tube is fixed and won’t be lifted up and down like ordinary pump does.

It’s worth to say that, all plastic trigger sprayer usually use this type of pump design.

The variation from this type of trigger sprayer is most complicated and abundant. Benefiting from its flexible pump size design, stable spraying functionality, and affordable pricing. This kind of trigger sprayers become favored by many industries like cleaning products, garden chemicals, car detailing etc.

Type.3 – oblique pump :

Oblique pump trigger sprayers have a pump structure with 45 degree lean direction. Comparing to other pump types, this structure allows longest stroke and biggest diameter range.

The most advanced feature is that, this type of trigger sprayer won’t leak even nozzle is on “ON” pattern. That means after users finish spraying work and leave the trigger sprayer there on “ON’’ pattern, the bottle with this type of trigger sprayer won’t cause leakage after accidentally falling off.

Besides that, this type of trigger spray pump have a big range of dosage choice, from 0.8-1.5ml per stroke depending on the different manufacturers’ pump specification. And certainly this pump has air venting hole on bottom of closure.

Oblique pump trigger sprayers perhaps are the most advanced type in shroud trigger sprayer range, with their excellent performance and abundant variations.

4. Different classes of non-shroud trigger sprayers

Trigger sprayer without shroud are usually classified into class “A,B,C,D”, according to their different design.

Class. A:

“A” series trigger sprayer is the most basic one among all non-shroud trigger sprayers. They have a classical and concise appearance. Nozzle can be rotated to switch spraying pattern from OFF to mist and stream. It’s common to see air venting hole under bottom on gasket, but have to say that some manufacturer’s A series trigger sprayer don’t have this useful feature. The output is 0.7-1.0ml per stroke. This A series trigger sprayers can be widely used for general purpose including cleaning products, car care products, garden chemicals, pet care products etc.

Class. B:

Trigger spray pump “B” series has a visible horizontal pump. Big trigger lever is more comfortable for big hands. The output is also range from 0.7 to 1.1ml per stroke. These trigger sprayers are popular in car care industry, and gradually developed many new version. For example, highly chemical resistant sprayer with “VITON” rubber piston and high output trigger sprayer with enlarged pump structure.

Class. C:

C series trigger spray pump is quite similar as A series, but with a different rear support design. The output is also 0.7-1.0ml per stroke.

Class. D:

The distinct feature of “D” series trigger sprayers is that they have an enlarged overall dimension. And there is extra rod beneath piston pump for supporting the trigger lever. The output of these trigger sprayer is 1.0-1.4ml per stroke. These trigger sprayer is also be widely used on water-less car wash, tire cleaner, window cleaner, stain remover etc.

5. Other special trigger sprayers.

Following this assort method introduced above, we can classify most of normal trigger sprayer in market. However, there are still many trigger spray pumps come exception. We introduce two popular types here.

Continuous trigger spray bottle

Continuous trigger sprayer is an innovative product. After several press, the trigger spray bottle will release a prolonged spraying lasting for seconds. So the fine mist will be continuous if users keep pulling trigger, rather than a one time application that normal trigger sprayer does.

Ultra fine mist trigger sprayer

High-end ultra fine mist trigger sprayer, also be called “G” series trigger sprayer. Excellent mist effect with a dosage of 0.3ml per stroke, allows this trigger sprayer to be the perfect choice for air freshener, Hair salon etc.

6. Summary

Different types of trigger sprayer comparison list:

There are too many factories and products in this industry, we always recommend customers do sample test with the corresponding solutions. Vanjoin has been supplier of trigger sprayers for more than 10+ years. If you’d like to arrange a free sample test or have any comment and question with our company, please feel free to contact us today.