PCL Inflating Its Market Presence in 2008

Sheffield based PCL Air Technology brought a wide range of its products to Reifen 2008, including its latest nitrogen inflation unit, the Accura Mobile. “It was introduced into the US last year,” commented company director and divisional general manager Simon Shorter. “Nitrogen inflation has become a big market there and the Accura Mobile is proving successful. Now it is also available in the UK.”

The Accura Mobile is a compact and robustly designed nitrogen inflation cart that can be operated either with a standard bottle or direct from a nitrogen generator. It permits operators to present the pressure for a standard inflation top up, or an N2 function for a purge and fill cycle. The unit can inflate up to six tyres simultaneously, and four hoses are supplied as standard. Power for the Accura Mobile comes via a rechargeable NiMH battery, and the unit can also operate directly from mains power.

Also on display were PCL tyre inflators such as digital Accura 1 and the mechanical AirForce units. The Accura 1, said Mr. Shorter, is the leading handheld unit of its kind to have passed the strict German PTB approvals, and is becoming widely accepted as the best product available for measuring and checking digital Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS).

Talk of tyre inflation led to the mention of recent TyreSafe statistics, which prompted Mr. Shorter to share his thoughts on why, despite the ready availability of precision products such as those mentioned above, we live in a country where up to 60 per cent of all forecourt tyre inflation equipment is either unreliable or inoperative. “The concern is that the UK has no real standards,” he said. “Germany, for example, requires equipment to be checked and calibrated every few months. Not so in the UK, and the TyreSafe statistics speak volumes. It doesn’t matter how good tyre inflation equipment is when new, it must be properly maintained on a regular basis in order for it to remain reliable.”

This year has been an exciting one for PCL, Simon Shorter concluded. Not only is the company expanding its European distributor base and network, PCL is also making inroads with its products into China and India. The company began importing product kits into these countries in May 2007, and the units sold there are localised with parts sourced in the region in order to make them more market specific.