HSE is required under the Regulations on Accredited Market Surveillance (GB RAMS) to undertake periodic market research to assess the levels of compliance of work equipment with product supply legislation.
This compliance assessment reports on the findings of sixteen air compressors subjected to documentary and physical checks against the requirements of the Simple Pressure Vessels Safety Regulations 2016.
The catastrophic failure of compressors such as these has the potential for significant injury and substantial property damage, so ensuring they are safe is a key requirement.
These types of compressors are commonly found in a wide range of workplaces and are used as an energy source for powering pneumatic machinery, tools, inflating tyres, cleaning, painting, medical applications and for many more purposes.
For the purposes of this work, smaller, cheaper compressors were purposefully chosen to test. All compressors were identified via open-search methods and purchased from online retailers.
Every compressor tested was found to have a failure of some description, ranging from the absence, or non-compliance of accompanying documentation, to physical defects such as poorly placed drain valves, non-functional inspection ports and defects in the welding quality.
The results of the testing and the findings of the report will be passed to HSE’s product safety and market surveillance unit to contact the manufacturers, importers and suppliers of the equipment.
This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy.
The Research Report Series are produced in Adobe Acrobat. The use of the latest version of the software is recommended which is available at the Adobe website via the link on this page.
Assistance in the use of Adobe Acrobat PDF files is available on our FAQs page.