The problem: How to spray sealers and other solventbased liquids onto concrete as if they were paint. The solution: The Solvenator Premier Concrete Sprayer.
The new sprayer is a standard hand-pump model that Floric Polytech Inc. has retooled with fixtures and seals that stand up to solvents. This sprayer applies solventbased materials and can be cleaned with solvents without damaging a single part.
The basic steel sprayers are manufactured by Chapin Manufacturing Inc. with Floric Polytech’s name on them. Workers at Floric Polytech retrofit the sprayers for solvents, replacing rubber seals, O-rings and gaskets with parts made from solvent-resistant polymers and plastics. They also replace the plastic check valve in the pump barrel with a brass valve engineered to withstand higher pressure — specifically, the 200 pounds of pressure needed to spray solvents, which can be thicker than a sprayer’s typical cargo. “When you pump up to 200 pounds of pressure, the plastic valves just blow out,” says Floric Polytech business development manager Craig O’Hara.
The Solvenator, which sports a 3.5-gallon tank, was designed to spray Floric’s CS-101 Clearseal, but will apply other sealers and solvenated urethanes as well.
Because the brass fittings at the bottom of the pump resist corrosion and the pump is airtight, excess solvent can be left in the tank for a later job. “You can actually store some short term as long as the level of the sealer in the sprayer is safely above the bottom of the check valve,” O’Hara says. “It’ll maintain pressure.”
Since the pump can be cleaned with solvent, it can be used over and over. Standard sprayers on the market can only be used once, O’Hara says, because the solvents that would clean them will dissolve their parts. The Solvenator can stick around for a year, possibly even longer, he says.
There are other pumps that are billed as being solventresistant, but they won’t outlast the Solvenator, O’Hara says. “You might be able to get two or three uses out of one, but ultimately it’s going to fail.”
Contact: Floric Polytech Inc.
(866) 435-6742
www.floricpolytech.com
