New Australian Standard for small air compressors
THE Australian Commercial Air Compressor Association (ACACA), a division of the Air and Mine Equipment Institute of Australia (AMEI), has started the process of formulating a new Australian Standard for small air compressors.
AMEI Chairman, John Cleeve, said the ACACA has nominated Max Wrench, executive director of AEMI, to represent the trade association to establish a standard method of measuring output rating of small air compressors. “This was in reply to Australian Standards’ invitation to nominate a project leader,” he said.
Cleeve said he expected the standard development process, which began in late April, to take between three and four months to complete. “If there are no objections or competing standards then it will be a fairly short process,” he told Manufacturers’ Monthly.
The standard will be based on ACACA’s Protocol 2000, which is currently used by members of the Association to guarantee performance figures stated on air compressors.
According to Cleeve, AMEI has contacted CAGIPNEUROP, the body responsible for performance rating larger industrial compressors, to request ACACA Protocol 2000 also be adopted as an international standard for compressors with capacity under 15HP. CAGIPNEUROP is a combination of two trade associations, the North America-based Compressed Air and Gas Institute (CAGI), and the European compressed air industry representative organisation, PNEUROP.
“We didn’t want to start anything in Australia that would be in conflict with the global standard and they (CAGIPNEUROP) have raised no objections to us working with Australian Standards to formalise Protocol 2000 and have it adopted. I think in the future there is a good chance that it would be adopted by CAGIPNEUROP even as a global standard,” Cleeve said.
International standards already exist for large industrial compressors, however Cleeve claims the complexity and cost of testing for compliance has prevented manufacturers and assemblers of smaller air compressors from using the standard.
“The CAGIPNEUROP test code requires compressed air to be flowed through an orifice with pressures taken before and after the orifice plate and then correction tables are used to produce a free air delivery flow rate. The test rig to establish this is expensive and complicated,” he said.
“With Protocol 2000, the only equipment that is necessary is an electronic measuring device which measures the pressure and time that it takes to pump up a pressure vessel of known capacity, the pressure vessel being an integral part of the product that the manufacturers are selling. So for a couple of thousand dollars, an assembler of small air compressors can buy the electronic box and can assure compliance with Protocol 2000.”
Air compressors that comply with Protocol 2000 have a sticker fitted to the air receiver. The sticker includes the Association’s logo, pump displacement details and free air delivery figures, in either L/min or cfm.
“The objective is so that when a person goes to buy an air compressor and he sees maybe three or four different brands with the Protocol sticker applied to the air receiver and then a couple of brands without the sticker, he should ask what the difference is. Then the sales assistant should be in a position to explain simply that the figures shown on the ACACA Protocol 2000 labelled air compressor are a precise guarantee of that air compressor’s performance,” Cleeve explained.
Cleeve said the Association became involved in performance rating small compressors in response to “excessively ambitious” claims about air compressor performance that were appearing on compressors for sale in Australia.
ACACA also aims to expand the use of compressed air throughout Australia. It works with equipment manufacturers to ensure safety and promote equipment efficiency in addition to its work promoting Protocol 2000.
The ACACA estimates around 70-80% of small air compressors sold in Australia are sold through its members.
26-May-2004