Safety and maintenance are the themes for an article by Chris Dee, executive director of
BCAS (British Compressed Air Society.However, he warns that if you have a sensitive
disposition, it might be better not to read any further

Have the blowguns that are on your
site got safety features built in? Are
the correct types of personal
protective equipment (PPE) specified and
worn? Have you had a colleague blow your
clothing down? Perhaps you were lucky and
the air jet did not go through your clothing
and enter your body through the navel where
it could inflate and possibly rupture your
intestines.

It is possible that there is a need to use
blowguns at general factory air pressure so
that there is enough energy for the job to be
done. There are a large number of safety type
blow guns on the market as well as the old
style non-safety blow gun. Have the safety
type been inspected and serviced to ensure
that they still function correctly and that
none of the safety features have been overridden,
for example holes that have been
blocked. Someone having a wound or cut on
the hand or arm could sustain severe injury
if a blow gun operating at 6 bar or below
strikes that part of the body when the
compressed air could enter a blood vessel
and inflate the arm.

Have the staff using non-safety pattern
type been instructed in their use? The
pressure on these should be limited to 2 bar
and the user should be wearing PPE. Eye
balls can be ‘popped’ out at a pressure of
about 1 bar.

Consider the member of staff who may end
up in hospital during a bout of ‘horse-play’
when compressed air enters the bowel, with
or without safety features; remember that it
only takes 0.25 bar to cause a rupture of that
organ. The same pressure can rupture the
lungs and intestines and a pressure of about 3
bar from a blow gun that is about 10cm from
an ear drum can cause a brain haemorrhage.

If you are lucky you may not die.

The use of blow guns should be
considered carefully, training in their use is
essential, their continued correct use should
be monitored and most importantly they
should be maintained regularly in
accordance with the manufacturer’s
instructions to ensure that the safety features
still function.

It should be remembered that blowguns
and their hoses would not normally be
included within the written scheme of
examination under the Pressure Systems
Safety Regulations.What shall be included
are any relevant pressure vessel and safety
devices as well as any pipework which is
considered to have defects that may give rise
to danger. What must be considered when
the written scheme is drawn up is the
meaning of ‘pipework’, otherwise the
examination could involve a vast array of
compressed air equipment which may not
require such intense investigation.

It could also be that the company that
draws up and certifies the written scheme
has a wider field of knowledge than the
company that may be selected to perform the
examination. The examiner may therefore
have a narrow field of expertise.

The Pressure Systems Safety Regulations
does have a useful regulation which not only
benefits the owner/user but also the written
scheme and the examination. That provision
is the cornerstone of the regulations and is
maintenance.

Maintenance can be the key to elements
of the written scheme where a watching
brief can be implemented without placing a
burden on the examiner. The written
scheme could make reference to records of
maintenance which would be reviewed by
the examiner of key pieces of equipment
such as dryers. In this respect the records of
maintenance could be called up where the
dryer is placed before an air receiver which
is then run ‘dry’ and so the inspection
period for the air receiver could be 48
months or even longer depending on other
operating characteristics. If the
maintenance is not shown to be consistent
then the period between examinations for
the air receiver can justifiably be reduced.

Maintenance has long been included in
various legislative provisions and it would
be all too easy to keep hammering home
the benefits.We all know that taking a
positive view on maintenance has many
business and safety benefits. Downtime
costs money in lost production but how
often is the quick fix that’s applied at the
time of breakdown the long term solution?
Personnel who are injured due to poorly
maintained equipment can also cost far
more in claims than planned maintenance.

So are you still maintaining safety and
continued productivity?
If you would like to discuss any of the
points covered in this article please contact
Greg Bordiak, technical officer, British
Compressed Air Society www.bcas.org.uk