Safety & Equipment
Training

The Equipment Landscape

Before the hazards, the hardware — a quick map of what you'll operate (each piece gets its own deep-dive module in the Equipment track):

• Rigs: V-nose bumper-pull trailers, box trucks (16–28 ft), goosenecks (26–36 ft), and tractor trailers at the top end. Above 10,000 lbs GVWR, additional DOT requirements apply — verify the licensing rules for your weight class and state before you tow.
• Proportioners/reactors: PMC P50 (hydraulic, ~30 lb/min), Graco E20 (electric, ~20 lb/min — underpowered for Deep Lock much past 8 ft), Graco E30 (electric, ~30 lb/min).
• Stick pumps: PMC P52 and the Graco T-series. The ratio is the key spec — a 2:1, 3:1, or 4:1 pump multiplies your air pressure into fluid pressure by that factor.
• Generators & compressors: gas or diesel, pull-out or mounted — sized to your heaters and hose heat (see The Rig Masterclass for circuits).

Moisture, ISO & the Sacrificial Whip

Module 01 taught you the chemistry: ISO reacts with water. That's the reaction that lifts slabs — and the one that destroys equipment when moisture gets where it shouldn't:

• Air dryers are mandatory equipment. A refrigerated dryer protects stick pumps from moisture and corrosion (watch for frosting in cold weather); a desiccant dryer shows its state — blue means good, pink means spent, on roughly a 30-day replacement cycle.
• ISO crystallization is the slow killer — vent barrels properly, keep the system closed, and check Y-strainers on the schedule every equipment module repeats: weekly.
• Whip hoses are sacrificial by design: an unheated whip (~$220) between your heated hose (~$1,000+) and the gun means a blockage or backup costs you the cheap hose, not the expensive one. In serious cold, heated whips exist — but most crews never need them.

Chemical Hazards — ISO, Catalysts & Cleaners

The A-side (ISO) is the chemical to respect most. Skin contact causes irritation — but the real danger is sensitization: exposure is cumulative, and your body builds sensitivity, not tolerance. Veterans of the spray-foam industry who worked unprotected for years now react to trace exposure and can't work near the material at all. That's a career-ending condition, and it's entirely preventable with the PPE in Lesson 7.

• Catalysts are corrosive — Cat 106 and Cat 107 (the 700-series catalysts) cause chemical burns on bare skin. The $60K claim from Lesson 1 was exactly this.
• Brake cleaner deserves respect too: the chlorinated formulas are toxic enough that roughly a dozen states have banned them. Check what's in your can, ventilate, and glove up.
• Keep a change of clothes in the vehicle. Soaked clothing holds chemical against your skin for hours — the cheap fix is a dry shirt and pants behind the seat.

Fire & Engine Safety

• Never refuel a running or hot engine. Gasoline vapor finds hot mufflers and exhaust manifolds — shut down and let it cool, every time, even when the schedule is screaming.
• Vapor is the fire, not the liquid. Flashpoint is the temperature at which a fluid makes enough vapor to ignite — solvents and fuels in enclosed rig spaces build vapor fast.
• Hydraulic fluid atomizes. A pinhole leak in a pressurized hydraulic line produces a fine mist that ignites readily — another reason damaged hoses get replaced, never patched.
• A fire extinguisher is rig-essential equipment — mounted, charged, and reachable, not buried behind the drums.

And from the Void Filling module, the materials-side fire rule: large confined foam pours are staged in lifts with cooling time — the curing reaction makes real heat.