Patent ID: 8893986

Claim:
A spray nozzle assembly for an irrigation system comprising: a housing having an inlet opening for attachment to a source of pressurized water and an outlet opening for emitting a stream of water; and a flow control element mounted in the housing that cooperates with the outlet opening to define an emission pattern for the stream of water, wherein the flow control element includes a resilient retaining portion which cooperates with a complementary element inside the housing to retain the flow control element in place inside the housing, but is resiliently releasible from the complementary element to allow removal of the flow control element from the housing, a portion of the flow control element which cooperates with the outlet opening includes a sloping surface inwardly tapered toward an upstream end of the nozzle assembly to deflect the stream of water as it exits the opening, whereby a water stream exit angle, and a spray range for the nozzle assembly are determined by the taper angle of the flow control element and further including an adjustment mechanism for manually changing the taper angle, and the portion of the flow control element which cooperates with the outlet opening is formed of a resilient body, and the adjustment mechanism is comprised of a member which is adjustable to apply a force to the resilient body to deform it to vary the taper angle.