Stop spoiling your product
September 03rd 2009

Compressed air can spoil product. Greg Bordiak – technical officer – BCAS looks at compressed air contamination.

Joni Mitchell sang about spots on apples, however compressed air – as far as we are aware – is not involved with apple growing. Spots on paintwork, spoiled drinks, food, pharmaceuticals and silicon chips are a problem and compressed air is involved in their processing or manufacture.

Compressed air is a utility necessary in most industries. Considering compressed air as a utility in critical processes does not bring the right focus on what it takes to ensure that product is not spoiled. A paint finish may be capable of rectification but a spoiled silicon chip can only be thrown away.

Coalescing filters, activated charcoal filter, depth filter and absolute filter are interesting to compressed air experts, spoiled product is your interest as the user of the compressed air.

The confidence that you the user of the compressed air are getting the right purity of air is now possible by asking for filters of whatever type which conform to international standards. These standards have been recently introduced to provide you with a performance comparison.

The air purity that you require is identified in the long established and recently revised ISO 8573-1 and the performance of filters is identified in the new ISO 12500 series. For good measure there is a performance standard for most types of dryers in ISO 7183.

You should ensure that your supplier is providing your air purity and equipment to these standards. Either look for the standard reference in the company literature for the product and if there is still a doubt ask for a test report of the product.

If you would like additional expert and impartial advice on the air purity levels for your compressed air system, please email technical@bcas.org.uk

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