Filtered air
September 1st 2003

A containerised breathing-air system from Factair provides filtered breathing air for BAe Systems engineers at the RAF Kinloss Nimrod aircraft base in Scotland. It features modern safety back-up and remote diagnostics features. For those working inside the confined space of an aircraft wing, where the atmosphere is too hazardous to breathe, long duration breathing apparatus was required. Factair worked with BAe Systems to develop a containerised system that could supply air to up to eight people simultaneously. The container has two rotary screw compressors in a duty/standby arrangement. Air supply from the compressors passes through a filtration and drying system that purifies air to breathing standards. Air is then supplied via a pipework system to each aircraft hangar. The unit has a reserve of breathing air stored in cylinders at high pressure. A separate compressor ensures the reserve supply is maintained, and alarms in the containers and hangars detect any faults and warn users to leave the hazardous area. A gas detection system is fitted to the compressor air intake, that is interlinked with the high pressure reserve and alarm systems. The status of the system can be monitored remotely by BAe Systems or Factair.