oxyhacker
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This is one more example of how the scuba tank is the bastard cousin of the industrial cylinder, and just doesn't fit quite right in the system. Maybe if the DOT had called them "Experimental" instead of SP or exemption, people might get the point, that the SP system is intended to let manufacturers make special purpose tanks that don't meet the usual standards and hence are given only provisional approval.
It's too bad the vendors don't make this clear, but not really the fault of the tank manufacturers or the DOT since the limitations of the SP system are well known and understood in the industry, and the DOT has even considerately provided a loophole in case a manufacturer does abandon an SP, in the form of the "use" permit.
It's questionable now whether we will ever see the HP steels rolled into a new DOT spec, the way the aluminum tanks were. The new HM-220E "UN" tank standards allow tanks very similar to the HP steels, and should eventually obsolete them, which means the DOT doesn't have much impetus to create yet another standard just to grandfather the HP steels. It may just be that the HP steels could be grandfathered into the UN spec, but while they are pretty similar, they are probably just enough different that this is not likely to happen. On the other hand, maybe the spectacle of 20,000 tank owners each applying for a use exemption will spur the DOT into finding an easier alternative!
That said, I think we should all stop worrying about it. As several people have pointed out, most shops will not even notice should the exemption expire, and only a few "gotcha" shops bother to do anything about it if they do. PST will probably be around long enough to renew the exemption at least one more time, and if they don't someone will get a use exemption and enough of us become party to it that there will be no trouble in getting the tanks filled and hydroed.
It's too bad the vendors don't make this clear, but not really the fault of the tank manufacturers or the DOT since the limitations of the SP system are well known and understood in the industry, and the DOT has even considerately provided a loophole in case a manufacturer does abandon an SP, in the form of the "use" permit.
It's questionable now whether we will ever see the HP steels rolled into a new DOT spec, the way the aluminum tanks were. The new HM-220E "UN" tank standards allow tanks very similar to the HP steels, and should eventually obsolete them, which means the DOT doesn't have much impetus to create yet another standard just to grandfather the HP steels. It may just be that the HP steels could be grandfathered into the UN spec, but while they are pretty similar, they are probably just enough different that this is not likely to happen. On the other hand, maybe the spectacle of 20,000 tank owners each applying for a use exemption will spur the DOT into finding an easier alternative!
That said, I think we should all stop worrying about it. As several people have pointed out, most shops will not even notice should the exemption expire, and only a few "gotcha" shops bother to do anything about it if they do. PST will probably be around long enough to renew the exemption at least one more time, and if they don't someone will get a use exemption and enough of us become party to it that there will be no trouble in getting the tanks filled and hydroed.
