AirUser: How have you been spending your first few weeks with BCAS?

Cliff Warne: I have been really enjoying getting out to meet our members, visiting their businesses to understand their individual needs and how their organisations work. And what has really struck me is the wealth of experience and expertise they have to share with our industry and, their role as compressed air specialists in delivering the best possible advice to end users.

It has been refreshing to see how positive members are about their own experience with BCAS and to hear about how they have engaged with Vanda Jones and the team over the years and seen real benefits both as individuals and within their organisations. 

This has ranged from equipping their teams with the latest best practice guidance, to updates on legislation, to business support services.  For those that have engaged with the Society at committee and board level, it has been a pleasure to hear about their own personal growth and development and the impact this has had in their own businesses. 

Everyone I have visited has clearly seen the real-world benefits of being part of BCAS and I am keen that the Society is always evolving and delivering new and innovative benefits. Our members continue to demonstrate their willingness to invest in their businesses; remaining abreast of legislation, staying well informed and ensuring they have the resources needed to stay at the forefront of information – and I’ll be working with the team to ensure this develops further.

AU: BCAS has a wide-ranging membership base.  How will you be ensuring you meet the needs of all your members?

CW: Everything we do at BCAS is focused on improving the efficiency, compliance and safety of compressed air installations throughout the UK – and helping our members to deliver these benefits means we need to understand their differing needs.

This is especially useful for our manufacturer members, who will be developing new technologies that can help customers lower their cost of ownership.  On one hand they are tasked with developing products that can meet the latest regulatory requirements, while on the other, must ensure deliver best-in-class efficiency levels.

However, navigating through the plethora of relevant standards, directives and legislation to ensure that new equipment solutions are compliant can be a complex task.

This is an area where we are often called on to help advise on best practice – or indeed – to lobby government and standards bodies for change that will ultimately deliver a better end product to the customer. 

Our distributor members are often the key interface between the Society and its end users, particularly during specification.  BCAS has a key role to play here in providing sound, technical advice – such as our extensive range of factsheets and industry best-practice guides.

Elsewhere our smaller distributor members often rely on us for more practical business support, such as our HR or health and safety assistance programmes, so I will be exploring if there are other value-added services the Society could be offering in this area of advice.

AU: What would you say to our readers about the benefits of working with a BCAS member?

CW: By engaging with a BCAS member, customers are making an intelligent and strategic choice – a conscious decision to make their compressed air system as efficient, safe and compliant as it can possibly be.

The Society acts as a trusted and importantly, an independent source of advice to our members and the industry as a whole; advice that can then be passed on to end-users through our members’ activities. For example, we recently launched a new compressed air installation best practice guide (BPG 101-6).

As one of the only truly impartial guides in the UK, the guide covers ‘installation’ in terms of the collection of equipment and processes within the compressed air system.

Compressed air accounts for a considerable amount of electricity consumed by industry and compressed air systems are used extensively in virtually all industrial applications. The guide therefore provides essential information that can help customers reduce their energy consumption and ensure maximum uptime, while meeting legislative requirements to ensure health and safety is prioritised.

Providing step-by-step information for the correct specification, installation and maintenance of compressed air equipment as well as its end-of-life removal, the 272-page guide is essential reading for compressed air industry employees, plant engineers, maintenance technicians and end users.

The reliability of compressed air systems is a major consideration for operators, as any issues with supply can result in potential downtime.  In addition, selecting the right equipment can be a complex task. It can affect everything from maintenance schedules and costs to ongoing air purity (quality), as well as the annual electrical energy cost of air production, which can be several times the cost of the original equipment.

The best practice guide is divided into a series of easy-to-read chapters to make specification as straightforward as possible.  These cover compressed air system assessment, equipment selection and system design, including pipework.  Detailed information is also provided around installation, commissioning, maintenance, system management, and finally, legislation and standards.

A downloadable PDF or a hard copy of the guide can be downloaded at the BCAS shop at: elearning.bcas.org.uk/publications/

Elsewhere, we continue to work with our members to help plug the engineering skill shortage through our dedicated apprenticeship programme.

This was first launched in 2021 in response to demand from BCAS members for a dedicated, industry-approved course to help develop the skills required for the compressed air and vacuum service sector.  Compressed air is used extensively across multiple sectors, and while there were many general engineering and technical opportunities available, there was no dedicated course designed for the specific needs of the industry.

Working with its members and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Education (IfATE), the BCAS Training and Development Committee was instrumental in the development of the new apprenticeship.  It recognises the vital importance of developing the specific engineering skills required in the compressed air and vacuum industry, helping to release funding to develop the engineers of the future.

AU: What would you like our AirUser readers to take away with them about the value that BCAS delivers?

CW: Alongside offering an independent source of technical advice to ensure that compressor equipment is energy efficient, compliant and safe, we act as a reliable and reassuring voice in the wake of changing market requirements.

In recent months, we have also lobbied on behalf of our members to help overcome some of the challenges posed by the post Brexit landscape – and worked with our European Trade partners, supported by both Pneurop and Orgalim to help influence the legislative process.  

This has helped legislators to understand the effect on industry and has included tracking any changes in standards and legislation and advising business of the impact.

I believe it takes a dual approach to ensure the Society continues to represent the interests of the industry as a whole. We work with our members to support their businesses and ensure they are equipped with the latest legislative, technical and industry knowledge to advise customers. And we act as a source of sound, impartial advice to compressed air end-users in a constantly changing industrial landscape.

Cliff Warne is executive director at the British Compressed Air Society

www.bcas.org.uk

Tel: 0207 935 2464