“I don’t understand. I attended the Compressed Air Challenge® Fundamentals and Advanced courses. I read every article and book I could find on improving the efficiency of compressed air systems. I developed great ideas about how to reduce my compressed air consumption. We fixed leaks, “right-sized” filters to reduce pressure drop, changed piping, moved some processes to shifts that used less compressed air, bought low consumption nozzles and educated our entire workforce. We did all of this work and I still have six out of six compressors running. Reducing my air consumption does not appear to have reduced my air production!”
If you have ever looked at the small print of a compressor brochure or a CAGI Data Sheet or a compressor technical information page, you have probably seen some reference to one of the above standards. At one time or another, US compressor manufacturers have used these standards to test and report compressor performance. These are referred to as “Acceptance Test” codes.
Most readers of this magazine are familiar with the ISO 9000 and 14000 families of standards. The 9000 family pertains to quality management systems and the 14000 family deals with environmental management.
Compressors in today’s market must meet a variety of standards written by a wide range of organizations throughout the world. Until recently, most standards were written to deal with safety, both mechanical and electrical, and performance of the individual components of a compressed air system.
