Carbon Fiber Tanks

[a22shady]

I was wondering if anyone has personally Dove with these types of tanks. I know Interspiro has one that is approved and avilable and according to them the Tank Remains Neutrally boyant. And they are alot Lighter and still come in different Sizes. Here is the link to there site with the info i have read about.

Interspiro Divatorlite

 

[Hallmac]

So far they have yet to be approved for underwater use in the USA. I am sure it is only a matter of time before we wil see a composite cylinder that is approved here.

 

[fppf]

Luxfer made/makes a fiber wrap tank.
Its service pressure is up in the 4300 PSI range. I actually saw one come in the shop the other day.

The biggest problem I see with fiber wrapped tanks is abuse. Divers and just being on a boat can be rough on a tank. How many scratch's and gouges do you see in most aluminum tanks. While metal tanks can be damaged by this, fiber wrapped have much less tolerance for damage.

 

[rjack321]

So far they have yet to be approved for underwater use in the USA. I am sure it is only a matter of time before we wil see a composite cylinder that is approved here.

Luxfer had a provisionally approved CF wrapped tank awhile back (2-3yrs ago) limited life tho and not worth the money. I'm not sure what problem the 300 bar inspiros are trying to solve. Most LDS's in the USA don't want to deal with working fills at 3442psi nevermind 4350psi.

 

[WD8CDH]

I was wondering if anyone has personally Dove with these types of tanks. I know Interspiro has one that is approved and avilable and according to them the Tank Remains Neutrally boyant. And they are alot Lighter and still come in different Sizes. Here is the link to there site with the info i have read about.

Interspiro Divatorlite

I have dived with composite tanks (and other light weight very high pressure tanks) and am fairly experienced in their characteristics. I also have owned several sets of the Interspiro 300 bar steel tank sets so I am familiar with their design concept. The Carbon Fiber tanks are rather buoyant by them selves but the Divatorlite gets around that problem by having a easily removable "V weight" as part of the tank set that makes the whole tank set neutral. The advantage of these tanks is, even with the V weight, they are lighter than other systems of the same air capacity. An added advantage of the Interspito design is with the quick release V weight, only one weight is needed per DIVER rather than a weight for each TANK SET. For a crew with multiple tank sets per diver, this is a major weight savings.

Diving these tanks with the tank set weighted neutral is very comfortable due to less bulk and better trim than conventional systems.

 

[fppf]

Any tank with a higher service pressure has the ability to be lighter than a lower service pressure tank, excluding what is required for the tank to stay mechanically sound.

Any time you increase the service pressure you decrease the volume of the package. This displaces less water, so in theory you can make the tank lighter and still have it neutral. It all comes back to the weight of water and how much you displace.

 

[a22shady]

Thanks for the info. Very interested in these i actually saw inerspiro's stand at beneath the Sea they had a set of the doubles together and i have to say the set felt as heavy as a single alumium maybe it was heavier but when i lifted it was easy to notice a weight difference

 

[knotical]

From their website:

The cylinders have a neutral buoyancy in water.

Full or nearly empty? Fresh or salt water? It can't be all of these. When marketeers make statements like this, it triggers my avoidance response.

 

[scubafanatic]

...guess I'm still trying to figure out the point of carbon-wrapped or composite scuba tanks rated to whatever bazillion psi when we live in a world of shops/boats only providing 3000 - 3500 psi-ish fills ? ...just do the math, if these super-duper futuristic tanks are only filled to 3000-3500 psi, compare their 'real' cubic feet capacity with boring/old conventional AL/steel tanks and see if one can call that "progress". ...plus, these 'futuristic' materials tanks are more 'floaty' than AL/steel tanks, requiring you to ballast them with more lead anyway.

 

[fdog]

I've dove a couple of designs of composite-wrapped, and pure composite cylinders.

Buy steel.


All the best, James