MAINTENANCE

Foam Packaging Equipment Maintenance

Learn about proper maintenance for your foam packaging equipment.

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.