Paragon Dive System
The Paragon Dive System™ isolates a diver in a “space-suit like environment”, completely protecting divers from contaminants and hazardous materials present in their surrounding environment. The US Navy funded Paragon to redesign their existing surface supplied diving system because of the health risks posed to divers operating in contaminated water environments such as the USS Cole incident and Hurricane Katrina. This new diving system was selected as one of Popular Science’s Inventions of the Year in 2008 and is now in field test production and certification with the US Navy. The Paragon Dive System™ can also be used in many commercial contaminated water diving applications.
The core value of the Paragon Dive System™ comes from its Return Surface Exhaust design and upgraded materials that are more compatible with harsh chemical environments. The Return Surface Exhaust is designed to eliminate the contamination pathway of the original Navy system by capturing the exhaust of the diver and returning it to the surface through the umbilical. This is important as any open pathway with an air to water interface can lead to contamination entering the suit through aerosols, leakage, or both. The capturing of the exhaust isolates the diver in a “space-suit like environment” and protects him from water-borne chemical hazards in the surrounding environment.
The system minimizes the hardware required to be carried by the diver and eliminates any adverse performance impacts through the inclusion of a unique Demand Exhaust Regulator (DER). This fail-safe valve automatically regulates the exhaust pressure so that the diver breathes normally. The complete system is designed to have the same “Work of Breathing” as the existing, non-hardened system.
Paragon’s Dive System was also designed to save the US Navy costs by modifying, rather than replacing, their existing baseline system, a MK-37 helmet by Kirby Morgan and Viking dry suit.
The info here above was obtained from:
1-800-to-orbit (1-800-866-7248)
Tucson AZ • Houston TX • Denver CO • Washington DC :: www.ParagonSDC.com
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