Breathing Air Piping Materials of Construction

[CFB]

What materials of construction are recommended for breathing air piping? We are considering copper and stainless steel but are there any plastic materials which we should consider that may be more economical to install? PVC is not appropriate and I have seen an ABS product called Chem-Aire which they now do not reccomend for breathing air service. Thanks for any assistance.

 

[unclesyd]

We used S/S for a very large breathing air distribution system and like not to have got it clean enough for the environmental people. The construction people were not careful with the pipe and fabrication. After cleaning several times we were able to pass all tests.

If you are in the US I would consider nothing but S/S if at all possible. We looked at Al but dismissed it due to mechanical problems. Galvanize will not work as you can still find fittings and pipe with lead in the matrix.

Make sure you don’t skimp on sizing of the system as part of our system had to be reworked due to new rulings that increased demand at certain points. Make sure you connectors are for breathing air and breathing air alone. Remember that most masks are free flowing and not the demand type

 

[1969grad]

If you are in the US, have you checked the OSHA requirements?