Maintaining momentum in turbulent times
August 10th 2009 Welcome to the thirteenth edition of AirUser – Your Guide to Air Powered Systems 2009/2010. It is the official journal of the British Compressed Air Society and provides a wealth of information for users, distributors and manufacturers of compressed air equipment.
While many of the past year’s news headlines have made depressing reading in terms of economic slowdown, business failures, rising unemployment and so on, it is not all doom and gloom on the compressed air front and, as BCAS is quick to point out, although business has declined, it has certainly not disappeared. There are still business opportunities out there for those companies prepared for a challenge. Extracts from a recent Plimsoll Analysis echo this belief with just over half of the 247 air compressor firms surveyed reporting increased profitability.
On the other side of the fence, users of compressed air are looking at ways to reduce costs and become more efficient, and it is apparent that two of the core issues at the moment are maintenance and energy. In the short term many businesses are looking to continue with their existing compressed air equipment rather than buying new, so regular, effective maintenance is key. While it may appear an easy cost-saving measure to reduce the frequency of service visits or reduce the number of maintenance personnel on site, it is without doubt a false economy and will surely result ultimately in a less efficient, less reliable and far more costly compressed air operation.
Included within compressor maintenance is regular filter element replacement. If dirt, water and oil are not removed, the compressor has to work so much harder, as one of the articles in this publication explains. Filters are also the theme of a BCAS article on compressed air contamination and Greg Bordiak comments that users of compressed air can now be confident they are getting the right purity by asking for filters – of whatever type – which confirm to international standards.
In terms of energy efficiency, it is somewhat worrying that a recent BCAS study of compressed air systems found that more than 50% of the compressed air system operators surveyed had taken no action over the previous two years to improve efficiency – not even a leak maintenance programme to reduce the largest single source of wasted energy in a typical compressed air system – leakage. This Guide includes a feature on energy audits and assessments and an in-depth article on leak surveys.
Clearly if you don’t understand where leaks are occurring and are unsure as to whether they have been satisfactorily repaired, you could be wasting large amounts of money. Energy-efficiency crops up in most of the articles in this Guide and is a topic that is unlikely to fade away. For those wanting to find out more, The Energy Event 2009 addresses the latest issues through its seminar programme, while an exhibition of 120 stands enables visitors to meet experts in energy procurement, management and efficiency.
In an article that considers what the next decade may hold for those involved with compressed air, John Forman of Atlas Copco continues with the energy efficiency theme, commenting that it is likely that the role of the energy manager relative to compressor systems’ operation will assume greater importance and that it is a job function that requires the individual manager to be an agent of change.
While change in many areas of business is at the discretion of management, in areas such as health and safety it may not be an option. This guide includes an article from Greg Bordiak of BCAS in which he looks at powered tools with regard to both hand-arm-vibration (HAV) and noise.
If you need distributors then this publication and airuser.com provide the information that you need to get in touch with someone local to you. If you are not sure which of the companies to approach, then BCAS’ www.referenceline.com/bcas is a useful starting point as it provides the views (both good and bad) of existing customers.
I hope that you will find AirUser 2009/10 a useful reference tool – both for sourcing equipment and services and for advice on helping you to run your systems as safely, reliably and efficiently as possible in today’s difficult economic climate.
Val Kealey – Editor
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