Air Compressor company Artic Driers International has moved to larger pre- mises at Apex, south of Benoni, on the East Rand, to accommodate the expansion of its stockholding and the growth of its air-dryer hiring fleet.

“We settled on this location, which we bought last year, as most of our staff live in the vicinity and it is near three major high- ways, which assists us in travelling to our customers quickly,” says Artic Driers CEO Allen Cockfield.

The new location is equipped with the latest communications equipment, such as Wireless Fidelity and voice-over Internet Protocol telecommunication, with Telkom backup systems, which provides clients with additional ways of contacting the company and ensures that Artic Driers is never unreachable.

“The incorporation of Apple iPad tablet devices is used for a variety of tasks, such as detecting leaks, conducting compressed air surveys, compiling service reports and sales and commissioning reports,” says Cockfield, adding that these technological advancements will allow qualified clients to log into the Artic Driers service system and book service calls using the Internet.

Meanwhile, the company signed a distribution agreement at the end of last year with room and system dehumidification company Bry-Air, which “gives further credence to our status as a comprehensive service provider of compressed air and ambient air treatment solutions,” he says.

Cockfield concedes, however, that Artic Driers still faces challenges in terms of import- ing and distributing its pneumatic systems.

Any import company faces the challenge of developing and maintaining efficient supply chains, he says, noting that without equal trust between parties they cannot mutually exist and building trust is difficult. It takes years of good conduct and prompt payments from suppliers, he adds.

“Other challenges include the ‘tidal wave’ of imports, by newly established traders, from Asia – namely China – and the lack of local technical support to deal with system failures or breakdowns and, in some instances, the issue of substandard product quality still exists,” laments Cockfield.

Although reticent to disclose whether a most popular pneumatic system exists, he says that all pneumatic systems are important, as Artic Driers’ clients need all types of pneumatic systems for various applications.

One such system is Artic Driers’ Sepura, a green product manufactured using recycled materials, which removes air-compressor oils from the water condensates generated by filters and dryers.

The system has a patented Sterling-adsorption media, which can accommodate up to 50% of higher flow rates and easily handle short contact times. The new Sterling media is also highly effective at removing polyglycol, synthetics and stable emulsions from wastewater, says Artic Driers.

“This media is 70% lighter, making change-outs less physically demanding. The stability of the sterling media makes selection easier, as it is compatible with a wide temperature range,” notes Cockfield, who also highlights that i

n late 2012, Artic Driers introduced a new NGF-filter range, which, unlike its predecessor, has a substantially lower pressure drop across the filter element, resulting in less power being required to operate the system.

The design of the filter elements’ neck promotes a turbulent-free transition from the pipeline to the element, which reduces pressure drops and compressed-air costs.

The pleated high-performance filter media increases the filtration surface area, reducing pressure drops by up to 50% and the 96% void volume-ratio increases the dirt-loading capacity. Therefore, the filter life cycle and change times are extended, says Cockfield, who adds that this will save the customer money and downtime.

The filters’ filtration grades range from 3 µm to 0.01 µm and oil removal is down to 0.004 mg/m3.