Instructional Videos
Instructional Videos
Introduction
Hello I’m Jim Train of EZ-flow foam systems here to tell you how easy flows foam-in-place equipment can save you money and reduce your loss from breakage during shipping.
If you have used foam in place before you know how valuable this process is for protecting your products in transit. You probably don’t like being forced to buy from a single source and being forced to pay high prices for your foam chemicals and supplies. We offer you a range of choices that can substantially lower your total cost and still give you the same convenience and protection that you’ve come to expect from foam-in-place.
If you’ve never used foam in place before you may think it’s too expensive. We can show you by using our equipment we’ll save you money over the packaging methods you’re using now and how our equipment will actually pay for itself usually in a year or less.
First let’s show you what the foam in place process is all about. The full setup consists of the two foam chemicals, the isocyanate A and the polyol resin beat. The drum pumps the heated hoses the dispensing gun and the controller assembly.
The two chemicals must be at the correct temperature and pressures in order to mix properly and make good foam. Once the pumps are activated and the temperatures are correct you cut a piece of poly film to line the inside of your box then shoot the foam into the poly going around the inside perimeter of the box first then doing the middle.
Then fold over the poly film while the form is rising and take the pieces to be shipped and place them in the box, letting the form rise up and around it. Now take your second piece of poly film making sure it’s plenty big enough, poly is cheap waste the poly don’t waste the foam, and put it over your item lining the inside of the box again then you’ll shoot the foam to make the upper cushion.
Now fold over the poly again close the box and hold the lid shut after about 30 seconds. The foam stops rising and you have a perfect two-piece clamshell cushion that perfectly fits the object you’re shipping and the inside of the box.
How good is the protection? Let’s see. So how did our fragile glass vase do? Looks pretty good to me.
We’ve helped customers to ship many different types of fragile and expensive items. Whatever your application is, from glassware to large cast iron pumps we’ve done something similar before and we can help you.
How much does this type of protection cost? Let’s compare it to two other common methods of packaging. Pelaspan commonly known as peanuts costs anywhere from 15 to 21 dollars per bag. A bag is 14 cubic feet, so your cost per cubic foot of packaging is about a dollar to a dollar and a half per cubic foot.
How good is the protection you get from peanuts? Let’s see. I’m going to fill this box and we’ll put our vase in the box, close it and shake it a bit. We open the box and find the device is settled to the bottom where the peanuts no longer offer any protection against shock from below. In other words after the vase settles to the bottom if we drop this box of vase breaks. Not much protection for your money plus the peanuts get all over the place and it’s messy and really irritating.
Now we consider bubble Pat. A roll of 24 inch bubble pack costs from 40 to 50 dollars and the roll is 20 cubic feet. Bubble pack costs from $2 to $2.50 cents per cubic foot. The protection is pretty good, but it’s expensive and it’s pretty labor intensive. It would take me five minutes or so to wrap this vase more than twice as long as it took me to shoot the foam cushions.
Peanuts cost a dollar to a dollar and a half a cubic foot bubble pack costs $2 to $2 and a half a cubic foot and foam in place costs about a dollar per cubic foot, the lowest price of the three.
Your average price for the foam chemical is two dollars and fifty cents per pound in 55-gallon drums. The most popular density is 0.4 pound per cubic foot which means that 1 pound of chemical makes two and a half cubic feet of foam that makes one dollar per cubic foot and you can see that the foam in place process is faster and easier than either bubble pack or peanuts as well as being less expensive.
Our equipment is designed to be simple basic easy to use and easy to maintain. It’s completely modular so if one component needs to be replaced it’s easily detached from the rest and easily replaced.
Everything is designed to be user-friendly as well as user serviceable. Our competitors don’t give you the customer much credit for intelligence or ability, but we know that you have a whole facility full of expensive equipment that you maintain every day.
Our equipment is no challenge at all to your maintenance people. If you do need help call us our technical people can resolve most problems with you during a short phone call. If you do need replacement parts we will ship them the same day.
We always ship parts the same day we get the order, if you need it the next day it’ll be there anywhere in the United States no excuses. We’ll be happy to discuss your particular application and give you a customized proposal for the equipment and the chemicals that you need.
You’ll see that you’ll have a range of choices and we’ll help you determine what will work best for you. Call us or email us today we look forward to hearing from you.
Setup
Hello. This brief video will help you to get your new Easy Flow equipment set up and operating.
First take a moment and make sure that you have all the components of your system:
The drum pumps – You’ll have two of these one each for the A and the B chemical.
- The heated hoses – One blue for the B, One red for the A,
- The dispensing gun with the cartridge.
- The electronic controller. If you have a streamer you will not have a controller.
- The air hose assembly.
- The gun holder tray.
- The hose hanger.
- The maintenance pack – A small package of a rings and other spare parts.
Next, locate the chemical drums where you want them. Open the bungs of each drum.
Take the pumps out of their packaging. You’ll have two of these. You will not need the grounding lug that comes with a pump. Press the pump filter on to the bottom of each pump.
This is the pump adapter – attach the pump adapters to the outputs of each pump. Wrap the threads of both sides in teflon tape first. Now put the adapter into the pump on the pump output and tighten it down.
Now you’re ready to wet out the pumps.
Drop one into the A drum and one into the B drum. Once a pump has touched one of the chemicals it can never be allowed to touch the other one.
Next attach the hoses to the pumps – make sure to attach the red A hose to the pump in the A drum and the blue B hose to the pump in the B drum. You attach the hose to the adapter like this and then tighten it down.
Now you can stretch out the hoses. Try to get them out full length. Of course, the pump is going to be in the drum. We’re doing a representation here to show you what to do. You’ll probably be stretching the hoses out on the floor. They’re 20 feet long. Get them out full length.
Then take the air hose assembly, attach the two short hoses to the drum pumps. Red for A, blue for B.
Now you’ve got the air hoses attached to the drum pumps. Take the longest air hose and stretch it out between the two chemical hoses A and B.
Now take the dispensing gun. Attach the air hose (the long air hose) to the back of the gun. Attach the red A hose to the left side of the gun and attach the blue B hose to the right side of the gun. You don’t need teflon tape for these connections.
Now with a wrench you’ll tighten the swivel fittings of the hose to the 45-degree connections.
Now you can connect the manifold to your compressed air source. If possible, feed the air a little at a time or start with a lower air pressure and work it up gradually. If you connect it directly to a hundred psi, the pumps will cavitate or jump up and down.
Once the system is pressurized with a hundred pounds per square inch or 100 psi of compressed air input. You will have 200 psi of fluid pressure in the hoses because the pumps are 2 to 1.
Now you can bleed the air out of the hoses. If there is air in the hoses when the heat is turned on you will risk burning out the heaters. It’s a good idea to wear gloves for this part.
So, turn both of the valves off on the gun and remove one of the filter nuts.
Aim the gun at a waste container and open the valve. You’ll get a hiss of air then some fluid and finally a steady pulsing stream of chemical like this. Then close that valve, replace the filter nut and do the same thing on the other side.
Take the filter net out, aim at a waste container and try not to make a mess.
When you get a good flow. You turn the valve off, replace the filter nut and tighten it.
You’re almost done.
Now find the place on the wall that you want to attach the controller. If you have a streamer system you won’t have a controller and this step is not necessary.
Once the controller is mounted on the wall you can plug it into its power source. Either 110 volts or in this case 220 volts.
Don’t turn the power switch on yet.
Then attach the heater cables to the heaters. The blue cable of course goes to the blue hose. Push it in and screw it tight. And the red cable goes to the red hose. Push it in and screw it tight.
Now you can turn on the power at the controller.
The Gen 4 system will prompt you to make sure that the pumps are activated. This means that the compressed air is going to the pumps and there’s full pressure to the hoses.
Once you’re sure of this press yes and the system will start to heat chemical in the hoses.
Once the temperatures have gotten close to their proper level. Aim the gun at a waste container with the valves in the on position and pull the trigger. When you pull the trigger don’t pull it back halfway or be nervous about it. Just pull it all the way back. Now you’re shooting foam. Be sure to wipe the tip after every shot.
Now you’ll need to locate a place to mount your poly film as we’ve done here and a place for your gun holder as we have here.
Now you’re ready to start shooting foam.
To see how to package a box please refer to our promotional video.
If you have any questions about any part of this process, feel free to call us at any time at (858) 279-3569.
You can also watch our short video on maintenance and solving common problems.
Maintenance
Hello I’m Jim Train. In this brief video I will help you learn how to maintain your easy flow equipment and to fix common problems. We will give you some simple procedures that will help prevent problems and tell you how to deal with a problem that you may be having.
First I’ll show you what we call the 10 minute cleaning procedure. Doing this once a week or so depending on your usage will help prevent clogs and other maintenance issues. It’s a good idea to do this with the system turned off and the pumps disconnected from the air to prevent accidents.
Turn both valves to the off position, reach underneath the gun and find the cartridge knob and unscrew that. Now you can lift the cartridge out of the gun make sure the slot on the motor shaft is aligned properly upward. If it’s misaligned you can turn it with a small wrench to allow you to remove the cartridge.
With the cartridge out of the gun inspect the saddle area where the cartridge sits and make sure it’s clean. if there’s a buildup of foam or chemicals here it’ll prevent the cartridge from seating properly and it can cause leaks or clogs so use some solvent or a razor blade and clean this area out.
These two white o-rings must always be in place. They form the seal between the gun and the cartridge and if they’re missing or damaged you will have a mess. Make sure that both o rings are in place before replacing the cartridge.
Now while the cartridge is still out of the gun take off one of the filter nuts. We’ll start with the ‘A’ side here. Take the nut off inspect the filter screen. The filter screen is this small tubular screen. Make sure that it looks ok. You should be able to slide the filter screen out. Be sure there’s no chemical build up inside the filter nut.
Look inside the filter we’ll be sure there’s no chemical buildup in there as well. If you see hardened or dried chemical in here clean it out right away use some solvent and a scraping tool of some kind as necessary.
When this area looks clean take one of the white cleaners from your maintenance pack and run it through the passage between the cartridge and the filter well. If you have a compressed air gun you can also blow air through this passage to make sure it’s clear.
Now that one side is done replace the filter nut and follow the same steps on the other side take the filter nut out inspect the filter and the filter not in the filter well. Clean the passage put it back together.
You will have more problems on the ‘A’ side than on the ‘B’ side because of the propensity for the ‘A’ chemical to crystallize. Now when both filter nuts and filter wells are clean and the filter nuts have been replaced it’s time to look at the cartridge itself.
You’ll notice that it looks like a little face with two eyes and a nose. The eyes are the ports that the chemicals come through to mix inside the cartridge these ports must always be kept clean. Use your slide spray solvent to clean them out. If the ports are clean you can look inside them and see the small 40 thousands hole of the orifice.
You can shoot the slide spray solvent directly into the port of the cartridge to clean it out. Also make sure that the underside of the cartridge is clean. Scrape off any build-up now give the ports one more shot with the air gun or with your slide and put the cartridge back into the gun.
Again make sure that the two o-rings are in place. It’s a good idea to replace these o-rings regularly and this procedure is a good time for that. The cartridge goes back in. The knob goes back on and tightens. This whole process should take you 10 minutes or less if you’re doing it regularly and you haven’t allowed dried chemicals or form to build up. If the gun is messy and not clean it’ll take you longer than 10 minutes but it’s always time well spent.
It’s easier to clean the gun when it’s working properly than it is when it’s clogged and you’re trying to clean it up and clear the clog at the same time. When you do get a clog it shouldn’t be that hard to clear it’s a common problem and everyone runs into it once in a while.
First take the cartridge out like we did a while ago. Most clogs are on the ‘A’ side so look at that side first then shoot some slides spray solvent into the airport. If there’s visible residue or hardened chemical in there dig it out. It helps to have a dental pick or similar probe type tool to clean any hardened chemical out of these ports.
Don’t use the same tool on both sides, use a different tool for the ‘A’ and the ‘B’ side. You may find that even when the port looks clean you’re still not getting a good flow. Sometimes there’s a partial clog that’s hard to clear and sometimes you’ll get a really stubborn one. For these situations here’s a special procedure.
With the cartridge in the gun and the air connected turn both valves to the off position and pull the trigger. Hold the trigger back while you unscrew the cartridge knob and lift the cartridge out of the gun. You’ll see that the valving rod is retracted don’t leave the cartridge like this for very long. Ten minutes or so is okay but don’t leave it like this overnight or it won’t push back into the cartridge.
Now that the cartridge is out of the gun and retracted use your air gun to blow air into the front of the cartridge where the foam comes out and see if you get a flow of air out of both of the small ports. If you do then you’ve successfully dislodged whatever was blocking it. If you don’t feel air coming out of both sides when you do this then use your dental pick or other probe gently to push through the orifice, probably on the a side and clear the passage.
Don’t push hard enough to go all the way through the cartridge to the other side. The inside of this area of the cartridge is made of soft Teflon it is easily damaged so be careful once you’ve pushed your probe through so that you can see the probe through the little hole. Blow the air again. You should now feel the same flow of air out of both small holes. Again pull the trigger on the gun. Drop the cartridge back in. Hold the trigger down while you tighten the knob and then release the trigger. Turn the valve back on and you should be shooting good foam.
There are a couple of other potential problems that you may run into and I’ll briefly explain those.
If you see an error code on the screen or the display doesn’t make sense just turn the power off and wait about 15 seconds and then turn it back on. This usually solves problems like that.
If one side starts heating uncontrollably and it goes over a hundred and seventy degrees turn the system off and call EZFlow. Fortunately this problem is rare. If you see it do not try to fix it yourself. Call us and we will walk you through a diagnostic procedure and send you parts if necessary. If one side is not eating at all you may have a bad heater or you may have a problem with your controller. Again call us and we will help you to run a diagnostic check for any other problems you may encounter.
Check your instructions that came with the system or call us we will always be glad to help you.
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