Future Innovations in Scuba Gear?!

[gangrel441]

I'll add one more thing to your list:

I dive mostly in "chilly" water. low 50's temps are common. This requires a 7mm wetsuit at least.. This exposure suits require the diver to add weights. It's the weights I'd like to loose but physics says you have to loos the suit if you want to loose the weights so....

How about a 1mm thin cold water exposure suit that goes on like a dive skin?

1mm will not provide much insulation so you'd need electric heating. Thin electric elements would be woven in tothe suit's interior. This can be done today but it would use a "tom" of battery power so the powered exposure suit will have to wait for advances in battery technology or for a diver willing to carry a battery pack as big as a set of double tanks.

To borrow an idea from the hybrid car makers, why not come up with a generator system which creates energy from the flow through our regulators to power the suit? Every time you breathe, you create energy which is stored in a cell and/or used directly by the heat elements in the suit.

 

[mello-yellow]

People have trouble getting a 3500 PSI tank filled to capacity imagine trying to get a 22,500PSI tank filled. To put 80 cu ft a package that normally hold 3 cu ft would be one major engineering task. The tank would probably be a no hydro, limited life tank.

Since we are wishing...

I want a tank with air compressed to degenerate matter density!

 

[Hoosier]

The material to generage a heat energy by itself has been already developed. Some developers made a prototype ski wear (most popular) with that material. They plan to apply it to the scuba market. But, I am not sure when it can be in the market becuase UW market is a relatively small to any other sports market.

 

[Bill51]

To borrow an idea from the hybrid car makers, why not come up with a generator system which creates energy from the flow through our regulators to power the suit? Every time you breathe, you create energy which is stored in a cell and/or used directly by the heat elements in the suit.

That would require the diver expend extra energy to inhale thereby making him colder due to greater energy expenditure in the core, or the regulator would need to breath for him causing greater air consumption. Unlike a car, the lungs don’t have any appreciable inertia to capture.

 

[divewriter]

tank never made it to the market, probably for some of the reasons mentioned. Getting DOT buy in would be quite a process. One thing I recal was that it was quite buoyant when empty, which would of course mean a huge buoyancy shift. Believe the tank was around 12L size, which would mean full-to-empty change of at least 20 lbs.

A few questions. What is the service life of that tank? Prices? Capacity of said tank? Buoyancy characteristics?

 

[Diver Dennis]

Here's one. Why not take the new downhill ski technology and put it into fins? I believe Head has a new ski that stiffens depending on the terrain. This could be used to stiffen fins depending on demand.

 

[pants!]

tank never made it to the market, probably for some of the reasons mentioned. Getting DOT buy in would be quite a process. One thing I recal was that it was quite buoyant when empty, which would of course mean a huge buoyancy shift. Believe the tank was around 12L size, which would mean full-to-empty change of at least 20 lbs.

Yeah... but scale it down so it has a capacity of like 3 or 4L, and you have a really tiny tank that holds as much as a current 12L tank... mmmmmmm

 

[sauga]

Since this is the future we are talking about, how about an electrolysis breather that separates H2O, recombinds the O into O2, stores the H in a compact fuel cell that can power an in-suit heater, scooter, etc. I just haven't engineered how to get past the PPO2 issue yet...

 

[Spoon]

Since this is the future we are talking about, how about an electrolysis breather that separates H2O, recombinds the O into O2, stores the H in a compact fuel cell that can power an in-suit heater, scooter, etc. I just haven't engineered how to get past the PPO2 issue yet...

they are currently doing this in mit in conjunction with shell exploration for their deep sea oli divers. i wouldnt be surprised if they had this out in the near future

 

[Goose75]

A the 1997 DEMA show in Orlando, there were a couple of Russians going around with a 12,000 psi titanium tank. Actually getting such a tank into hands of recreational divers would not only mean overcomming DOT hurdles, but also developing a new reg technology, possibly a three-stage design, and most important, building compressors that could pump to those pressures economically.

Still, it could happen.

Carbon fiber tanks are currently available at 4500 capapcity. At least you can find a fill at that pressure. http://www.airhog.com/ sells them at about $500.