Spray Foam Equipment For Sale

Choosing the right spray foam equipment takes more home work than you might think.

When you purchase a spray foam machine or that new spray foam rig, remember that when you use that equipment you are manufacturing the products on-site thus becoming the manufacture. Understanding how a spray foam machine works and how the processing of chemicals works can greatly impact your decision when making that purchase.

Let’s look at manufacturing a 2lb closed cell spray foam for example. The first thing is to understand that from the drums through the spray foam machine and on out to the spray gun temperatures plays a major factor in the process including the density’s manufactured and expected yields of the products you are purchasing.

Manufactures product data sheets have all of the testing posted that gives you drum temperatures, Viscosity’s Density’s, R-Value’s, Spray foam machine settings, storage and so on. This testing is all based on processing the products in a controlled environment.

Typically we find the drum temperatures are maintained in the range of 70 to 77 degrees manufactured through the spray foam equipment around 115 to 130 degrees at the end of the spray gun with a sprayed pressure range around 800 to 1,200 PSI. We are told that a set of 2lb density spray foam should yield us about 4,000sf sprayed at 1” thick. Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of controlling are  environment that also greatly affects the density and yields expected.

When our drum temperatures fall below 60 degrees the products thickens in viscosity in return affecting the transfer supply pumps performance. Due to thicken viscosity the transfer pumps are unable to supply the product to the machine when it is needed.

Assuming we are manufacturing at the cold end of the spectrum, now we are processing the products from 60 degrees and need to raise the product temperature through the equipment out to the spray gun at 115 degrees. When choosing a spray foam machine and or a spray foam rig the question should be asked, what is the spray foam machines Delta T? In short, the temperature rise from the drum process through the machine and out to the spray gun.

This effects the density of the product manufactured affecting the expected yields of the product purchased. When choosing a spray foam machine understanding a machines delta Ts performance can make the difference of manufacturing what product density’s and expected yields gained ultimately affecting your profits when manufacturing products.

Most all smaller spray foam machines have low delta Ts in the range of only 30 degrees or less. So if your drums are at 60 or so degrees and you have a machine that can only raise the temperature 30 degrees we are only manufacturing the products at 90 degrees thus affecting density and yields expected. You would think we could just raise the drum temperatures to 95 degrees and problem solved. Unfortunately when manufacturing a 2lb spray foam the B component blowing agent (245f) will boil at 90 degrees
turning the liquid into a gas potently ruining the product as well as overflowing the product out of the drum call frothing.

When choosing spray foam equipment or a spray foam rig understanding the process will help aid in you in your decision. Ask your spray foam equipment and the spray foam chemical providers to supply the data needed for processing the products before you make your investment.

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Dave Penta is the VP of Sales at SprayWorks Equipment Group. For the past 30+ years, Dave has worked with multiple industries including; commercial and residential buildings, along with spray foam and coatings systems.

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