Alexander Pavlov, the General Manager of Atlas Copco Compressors UK & Ireland gives his thoughts on how the pandemic has altered the manufacturing industry from the point of view of compressed air.

“I was asked recently whether I think the current pandemic has altered the technology-demand landscape of the compressed air industry. In my opinion it has, especially when it comes to connectivity and energy efficiency.

Firstly, I believe the Covid restrictions have highlighted the importance of remote connectivity solutions. There are more than 3000 Atlas Copco compressors connected in the UK currently by our SMARTLINK data monitoring programme and they provide us with an enormous amount of data intelligence on how the compressors are running.

For a start, the insights gathered from the data can trigger alerts which can prevent technical problems before they occur, without the user even needing to be on site, which has been especially useful whilst complying with the new restrictions in work places. We also see from this data that compressor utilisation is at almost the same level as pre-covid. Since most manufacturers use compressed air, we recognise this as a positive sign for the manufacturing industry and we are happy to be supporting manufacturers in their recovery.

I have also seen even more of a shift towards the green aspects of energy efficiency rather than only the financial benefits. Therefore I was pleased to see from some research commissioned by the Carbon Trust that sustainability is going to become more important to large companies as a result of Covid-19. Over 70% of companies interviewed for the research said that environmental management and/or sustainability priorities are likely to become ‘somewhat more important’ or ‘significantly more important’ for them as a result of Covid-19.

Atlas Copco has numerous products and solutions which have been designed to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, we have engineers who are trained in energy audits, we publish best practice guides and webinars, and we are ready to help our customers on their path to achieve green production.

Finally, I am happy to say that Atlas Copco Compressors has kept all of our employees on board and we are there to support all our customers, as always. Whether you need advice on your installation’s changing circumstances, technical support, product information, service and parts or anything else, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.”