Tracking product yield is an important part of our day to day operation. If you have purchased or going to be purchasing a mobile spray foam rig or spray foam equipment tracking your money in yield will help fine tune your operational cost and aid in the return of your investment.
Tracking tells us how and if the yield of the product is or is not being installed and/or estimated correctly or if the materials used are inconsistent with expected yield. In the warmer months we can see what yields are achieved in comparison to the colder seasons for losses.
We can compare the yields gained when pre warming the drums. We can see if the applicator is consistent and productive with the application. The crew can also make sure they don’t run out of product, thus requiring costly cleanup, re-purging the spray foam machine and hoses as well as the likelihood of having to rebuild the spray gun.
In addition we can compare how hard the drive systems of different spray machines have to work when processing the products. It’s not difficult to track when using the stroke/cycle counters.
| Machine | Approximate Output per Cycle (A+B) |
Stroke/Cycle Per Gallon |
| GH-25 | 240 cc | 16 |
| GH-40 | 160 cc | 24 |
| E-20 Reactor | 0.0104 gallon | 96 |
| E-30 Reactor | 0.0272 gallon | 37 |
| FF 1600 | 120 cc | 32 |
Prior to determining how many strokes to start with know the amount of material in each container and that different size transfer pumps have different lengths and may stop well short from the bottom of the drum. You will need to know what pumps you are using and if you are using the bung adapters or not.
Proportioning pumps are designed to pump on the bases of volume not weight; therefore a weight conversion must take place in order to determine how many strokes a set of foam will produce. A set of foam generally weighs between 1000 and 1051 pounds.
The general weight per gallon is @ 10 pounds. Therefore a 500 pound drum would contain @ 50 gallons. So a 1000 pound set would have @ 100 gallons.
Example 1) Determine amount of strokes for a 1000 pound set utilizing the E-20 96 strokes per gallon x 100 gallons per set = 9600 strokes
Example 2) Determine amount of strokes for a 1000 pound set utilizing the GH-25 16 strokes per gallon x 100 gallons per set = 1600 strokes
Remember these helpful points when processing spray foams:
- Apply the material within the manufactures recommended processing conditions. Reference the manufacture’s published literature.
- Both environmental and substrate temperatures including relative humidity and wind can affect the yield.
- Require the applicator to apply the product consistently while back checking the
installation. - Confirm correct processing conditions have been met.
