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The complete operating course for Alchatek's single-component injection rig — from priming and batch mixing to live injection, flow control, and the cleanup procedure that decides whether your pump survives the year. Taught by Colt, Alchatek's lead technical trainer.
After this module, you'll be able to prime, run, and shut down a PolyShark on a real job — batch mix catalyzed resin without wasting product, control injection to avoid fracturing, and execute the flush-and-store procedure that prevents the service calls that take rigs out of the field.
The PolyShark is Alchatek's single-component, gas-over-hydraulic injection rig. A hydraulic ram drives the pump piston; the pump pulls catalyzed resin through a suction hose and delivers it down the injection hose to your rod. There are no proportioning ratios to manage — you're pumping one pre-mixed fluid.
Why the rig exists: before the PolyShark, single-component crews ran multiple Titan 440 airless pumps with two laborers constantly filling pails, adding catalyst, shaking, and swapping them on the pumps. The PolyShark replaces that entire circus — it pulls straight from a tote or batch container and runs all day.
The mental model the trainer hammers home: every operation on this rig is displacing one fluid with another. Priming displaces pump lube with chemical. Flushing displaces chemical with cleaner. Storage displaces cleaner with pump saver. Once you see the machine that way, every procedure makes sense.
The pump ships and stores with pump lube in it. Priming on a job is simple displacement:
When a PolyShark won't prime, it is almost always one of two parts. First: the suction-hose cam-lock gasket. Resin exposure hardens the seal until it stops sealing, and the pump pulls air instead of fluid. Second: the foot valve — the check valve at the bottom of the suction line. If it sticks, nothing moves. Carry spares of both; they're cheap and they're the fix for most "the pump's broken" calls.
Know your two cam-lock sizes: the pump runs 1-inch cam locks; every Alchatek tote has a 2-inch cam-lock fitting on the bottom. The gaskets are a commodity item — any hydraulic or tractor supply store carries them, and they come in bags by the thousand. There is no excuse for a rig rolling out without spare gaskets in the toolbox.
The hydraulic ram drives the piston. Here is the most misunderstood fact about this rig: turning the pressure up does not increase pressure at the point of injection. It increases how fast the pump can deliver. Open your valve with the system cranked high and it sends a gallon much faster — which is exactly how new operators lose control of an injection.
The hose reels carry the fluid through the reel swivel itself. Alchatek upgrades every reel to a 10,000 PSI swivel as blowout insurance, but the rule still stands: relieve system pressure before you crank a reel. There can be close to 3,000 PSI sitting in those hoses after you shut down.
The standard field setup is a 40-gallon Brute trash can staged next to the rig (in a trailer or flatbed, the tote rides over the axles right behind the pump). The procedure:
Why batch instead of catalyzing the tote? Once resin is catalyzed you have roughly two weeks to use it in warm conditions before it coagulates too thick to pump. If your job needs the whole tote — catalyze the whole tote and pump straight from it. If there's any chance of leftover, batch it. A typical residential seawall runs about 100 gallons — that's two and a half trash cans, and each one takes five minutes to fill. Five minutes of mixing beats writing off a few hundred gallons of product.
Catalyst percentages and rise times vary by product and temperature — always confirm against the current TDS for the resin you're pumping (set times range from ~20 seconds to several minutes depending on catalyst type, dose, and temperature).
The consumables on this rig are simple: AP ½″ steel injection tubing (4,800 PSI working pressure), compression fittings (ferrule + nut), and wing nuts. Learn the compression fitting once and never fight it again: the nut goes on first, then the ferrule — tightening the nut swages the ferrule into the fitting and mechanically crimps it to the pipe. That crimp is what holds against thousands of PSI. The ferrule also keeps the fitting from spinning freely on the pipe, which is exactly what makes knock-off quick-connects miserable to tighten.
Rod prep depends on the ground: cut the rod tip at 45 degrees for seawall and erosion work; in hard ground for soil stabilization, drive it with a sacrificial carriage bolt in the tip so the rod doesn't plug with soil. Before you connect, pre-pump a little resin through the rod — if the tip picked up a dirt plug on the way down, you want to find out now, not at 3,000 PSI.
Connect the hose to your rod, confirm the valve is closed, bring the pump up — and then do the thing that separates trained operators from everyone else: crack the ball valve. Don't open it.
Injection on this rig is about fill, not force. Crack the valve until you see fluid movement, let the ground take what it wants, and watch the pump strokes — they tell you exactly what's happening underground. When the ground stops taking fluid, the pump stops stroking. Shut the valve.
The demo uses Alchatek's single-component, water-activated foam line (AP Fill 700 / AP Fill 720 — per the TDS, AP Fill 720 free-rises as much as 40–49X with Gen Cat at 77°F). That expansion is also a trap: if resin mushrooms around the top of the rod, it locks the nut and ferrule in foam. You'll be coming back with a grinder to nip the rod top off. Keep the rod top clean while you work.
Single-component resin permeates and encapsulates slowly — it soaks through the soil matrix and binds it. Two-component foam displaces rapidly. Respect the difference: single-component work rewards patience.
Fracturing is the failure mode that kills jobs. Put too much pressure on the ground and it cracks — and that crack becomes the new path of least resistance. Resin has traveled 60 feet from the injection point down a fracture. That's product you paid for, stabilizing soil nobody asked about. If an engineer digs out a column and finds it wandered off-target, you're absorbing that cost.
Crack injection and leak-seal work follow the same discipline at smaller scale: barely crack the ball valve — you'll feel the system push back against you, then flow starts. Open it too wide and you'll blow the packer right out of the crack. Slow and controlled wins every time.
Two site rules pay for themselves on every job. First: park the flatbed over your drill points when you can — the truck protects the work area, keeps hose runs short, and puts your batch cans next to the pump. Second: this resin stains everything it touches, permanently. Plastic-sheet the driveway and any finished surface on residential and apartment work before the first gallon moves.
Expect to burn flush fluid — it's a known cost of the system. The name of the game is keeping the rig as clean as possible, every single day it runs.
Daily storage (rig runs again tomorrow): flush, then leave cleaner sitting in the hoses overnight. Pull the suction hose and let the residual drain. That's it — though budget two or three days of purging to get all that cleaner out of the system when you return.
Long-term storage: flush with AP Flush 121 until the return is 100% clear, then displace with Pump Saver 195. The pump's piston packings are nylon and leather, riding in an internal oil bath that lubricates them on every stroke. Over time the packings score and wear — Pump Saver 195 conditions the seals and fills those scores so the pump holds prime and doesn't leak when you need it next season. Run it weekly if the pump works daily, and any time the unit goes into storage.
Score at least 4 of 5 to unlock module completion.