BCAS (British Compressed Air Society) is heavily involved
with Standards work in relation to compressed air.Here,
Greg Bordiak, technical officer, details some of the recent
developments

Standards can be codes of practice and
industry codes of practice can become
standards. BCAS and its members
have been involved in both areas since 1930.

Compressed air system safety
One standard that was an industry code of
practice and then became an International
Standard with the intention that it remained
a code of practice is ISO 5388 ‘Code of
practice for stationary air compressors’. This
was formulated from codes of practice
published by BCAS and a number of other
international trade associations and
compressor manufacturers’ experiences
during the 1960s and ’70s.

The standard was published in 1981 and
under the normal course of events would
have been subject to regular ISO review and
revision. However the EU demanded
harmonised standards for legislative
compliance from 1988 onwards and so this
standard did not fit that requirement and
was quietly left to stagnate.

After many years of looking inward
manufacturers realised that they were not
benefitting as much as they could be in that
ISO 5388 had stagnated and the CEN
standard, EN 1012-1 ‘Compressors and
vacuum pumps. Safety requirements. Air
compressors’, although fulfilling EU
requirements had no acceptance elsewhere; a
situation needing a fix.

The fix has now been started by the
revision of ISO 5388 which would now be
metamorphosed into a 2-part standard. One
part is exclusively based on EN 1012-1 as a
design safety standard allowing compliance
with EU law and providing the manufacturer
with application throughout the world and
the other part becoming a ‘good practice’
guide based on US, Russian, Chinese and
other standards. Initially this part is based
on a US standard which identifies issues
beyond the scope of the first part.

The work began with an ISO working
group meeting in November 2011 and once
permission has been granted by CEN to use
EN 1012-1 for this work to become an EN
ISO standard, then a standard can be
expected in 2014/15.

System assessment
Another area of standard development
which is now coming to a conclusion is the
production of an ISO standard, eventually to
become a duel EN ISO, covering compressed
air system assessment (commonly called
auditing). The standard ISO 11011 has now
reached the Draft International Standard
(DIS) stage and is being circulated for
comment. The standard sets requirements
for, conducting a compressed air system
assessment, analysing the data from the
assessment, reporting and documentation of
assessment findings and identification of an
estimate of energy saving resulting from the
assessment process. The standard also
identifies the roles and responsibilities of
those involved in the assessment activity.

The standard has been produced as a
result of activities both in the EU in the form
of a directive that promotes the use of
auditing and at the EN and ISO level the
production of standards addressing ‘Energy
Management Systems’.

The new standard, which will be the first
in any industry sector, should be available
early in 2013 for adoption by those offering
such services.

Food grade compressed air
BCAS itself has embarked on the revision of
a key code of practice relating to food grade
compressed air. This code, which was first
published in 2006, requires revision to
update the air purity requirements due to the
revision of ISO 8573-1 ‘Compressed air.

Contaminants and purity classes’, and the
light of experience that the use of the code
brings. That experience will be in the form of
feedback from food producers and the
compressed air industry as suppliers of
compressed air services. The revision should
be completed by the end of 2012 and during
that process a closer cooperation with the
food industry representatives such as British
Retail Consortium and the enforcement
agencies such as the Food Standard Agency
will be sought to help promote the use and
acceptance of the code.