 Standards benefit compressed air users
July 01st 2010
Compressed air systems in the UK are generally considered to be a safe and reliable source of power due, primarily, to the generation of technical standards and codes of practice that have been developed over the last 80 years by the members of the British Compressed Air Society. Many of these have gone on to become BS and ISO standards to the benefit of all compressed air users. Chris Dee, executive director of BCAS, comments
As far as any serious/fatal accidents, had there been any in the UK in the last 10 years the entire industry would already have heard about it. Of the reported incidents in compressed air systems, where BCAS is invited to attend as an independent witness some 8 years ago in Scotland, was the cutting open of a desiccant dryer tower (air receiver type).
The dryer had suffered an internal fire 2 weeks after a service. The dryer obviously had a fierce fire inside since the wall was distorted and bent outwards but fortunately did not explode as it was about 8ft high and nearly 4ft diameter. To this day no satisfactory reason has been found for the cause of the fire. Happily know one was hurt.
A recent incident which lead to a ruptured ball valve, but no injuries, occurred during January of this year in the very cold weather. Since then, we have heard of two similar incidents. The rupture occurred in a bypass line for a dryer which was mounted outside the factory wall and so open to the weather. The cause, although not officially identified, is most likely the extreme cold this winter and that the installation practice will need to be amended to take into account the increasing change in winter temperatures in the UK.
The HSE has general health & safety videos for free download on its website which may have some use to readers although none has any compressed air related content. HSE has a publication HSG 39 ‘Compressed air safety’ which may have some information readers could use although we would point out that as you will find it is heavily biased, due to its age, towards reciprocating compressors and then in the later pages to machine guarding systems.
The thing about compressed air related accidents is that although there is a legal requirement to report accidents few people do so probably due to the fear of a prohibition order being put onto a site until the issue is resolved. BCAS is aware of many compressed air related accidents over the years which were never reported to any authority for fear of factory closure during the investigation. The most spectacular happened about 30 years ago where the side of a factory building was blown out and two workers outside were hit by flying bricks. That did not get reported and the wall was re-built the following day. When the two workers went to hospital for treatment and they were asked for the cause, they stopped at saying it was falling masonry. The accident was recorded as construction industry related!
BCAS runs a number of courses for compressed air users including the on-line course ‘Working Safely with Compressed Air’. To find out more on this and other courses, click onto the Education & Training button on the BCAS website home page.
BCAS receive regular updates from HSE on accident statistics and there are none for compressed air related issues. One small aid which BCAS had converted into an A6 size info sheet is available free of charge by sending an email to: technical@bcas.org.uk with the subject Working Safely with compressed air.
BCAS has for 80 years been working with its members to keep compressed air a safe and reliable form of power and will continue to do so. Other BCAS information sheets are availableand can be found on the bcas website: www.bcas.org.uk More articles from British Compressed Air Society (BCAS): | 
