The British Standards Institution (BSI) has installed an AIRnet ventilation system by Atlas CopCo as part of the company’s £4million upgrade of its facilities.
The old galvinised steel piping was replaced by Atlas CopCo’s aluminium system, which reportedly takes 70% less time to install than other conventional systems thanks to installation being carried out by one engineer and doesn’t require any large equipment.
Commenting on the decision to update the pipework, Chris Morris, BSI’s facilities and engineering manager, explained: “Our first inclination was to replace the old air network with galvanised pipe and fittings as before and invited several suppliers to quote, but when Kettering-based Compressor Engineering, a company within the Atlas Copco Group, suggested Atlas Copco’s AIRnet system, our research confirmed that it was the ideal solution.”
The pipework is connected to the installation’s three Atlas Copco compressors – two fixed speed and one with a variable speed drive (VSD) – which serve the test laboratories and facilities. Discussions are now under way between Compressor Engineering and BSI about a further extension of the AIRnet system.
The system is designed for low-cost, simple installation thanks to the large selection of polymer fittings.
In order to minimise pressure drop the AIRnet system is designed with seamless connections and is complimented by a low friction, corrosion-free design. This means that the system is cheaper to install and run compared to other similar systems and also comes with a 10-year guarantee.
Since 1959 the BSI has upgraded its Hemel Hempstead facility four times. BSI offers a range of testing and certification services that include pre-assessment, gap analysis, batch testing and full compliance testing, the institute has some of the most authoritative certification capabilities in the world and one of the widest reaching testing portfolios. Its clients occupy over 90,000 sites in 150 countries and was awarded a Royal Charter in 1929.
