The 185-cfm Size Air Compressor Is a Popular Workhorse on California Jobsites
For manufacturers, deciding what geographic market to test a new product can sometimes be a process of random chance, such as drawing straws or flipping a coin. But when it was time for Doosan Portable Power to roll out its newly enhanced Ingersoll Rand P185 air compressor, the decision was obvious — California.
“California is unique in that it has its own specific rules governing emissions,” said Darrin Martin, district manager of California for Doosan Portable Power. “CARB requirements and the market conditions in California drove us to provide an air compressor with a 49-hp engine that is Tier 4 compliant and delivers 185 cfm of air.”
The California Air Resource Board (CARB) is the clean air agency for the state. It was established prior to the federal Clean Air Act and serves as the state’s enforcement arm for state and EPA regulations regarding pollution. Since the 1990s, the state has required owners of portable equipment with 50-hp and higher engines to obtain a $620 permit to operate them. The state itself is in dire straits financially and construction spending went from $80 billion before the recession to $22 billion in 2009. 2010 is forecast to gain slightly from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and possibly reach $24 billion. This directly correlates to how much money contractors are going to have available for capital investment.
“This presents certain problems for contractors in California,” said Alfonso Fernandez, vice president of sales, California, for Volvo Construction Equipment & Services. “There is very little municipal and state work out here; however, federal work is slightly better. Still, contractors need to do more with less.”
Volvo Construction Equipment & Services of California supplies construction equipment for construction, industrial and oil and gas, as well as municipalities and county agencies. Although a majority of its business is supplying heavy equipment, such as earthmovers, pipe layers, demolition and road machinery, approximately 35 percent of its revenue comes from the sale and rental of Doosan Portable Power air compressors, both large and small.
“Air compressors are used in the construction segment for several applications like demolition, sandblasting and drilling,” Fernandez explains. “For industrial segments, compressors are used as backup air for stationary compressors, and the oil and gas segment uses large, high-pressure units for drilling applications.”
The most common and versatile air compressors found on construction jobsites are 185-cfm units. According to Fernandez, small air compressors like the Ingersoll Rand P185 are used by municipalities as either a truck-mounted unit or tow-behind unit to power hand-held tools for road maintenance, infrastructure repair and so forth. — Dawn Buzynski is a public relations representative for Two Rivers Marketing, based in Des Moines, Iowa.
