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Unit 1A Howe Moss Drive Kirkhill Industrial Estate Dyce Aberdeen AB21 0GL Tel: +44 (0) 1224

723742 Fax: +44 (0) 1224 723759

Umbilical Supplied Rebreather Interface Specifications for Conventional Saturation Diving System
Introduction
The Umbilical Supplied Rebreather (USR) is a new development in Personal Diving Equipment (PDE) that utilised rebreather technology to enhance the safety, efficiency and reliability of saturation diving. The system also implements the latest advances in real time monitoring and control systems for monitoring of the divers breathing gas, and his own physical status. In addition to the significant safety enhancements, this latest development in PDE will increase operational efficiencies and provide considerable cost savings in gas requirements and topside equipment. The following details in this document outline the new equipment components and system changes that will need to be made, when installing the USR into an established conventional saturation diving system.

Helmet
At present most saturation diving systems utilise a modified KMB helmet that is fitted with a reclaim system to allow returning of the divers exhaled breath to the surface. The USR has been designed to work on this familiar platform and has been primarily designed to fit to a modified KM17C unit however most standard KMB helmets used for saturation diving operations can be adapted to work with the USR.

Company Registration No. SC 356252 - Anderson House, 24 Rose Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1UA

Unit 1A Howe Moss Drive Kirkhill Industrial Estate Dyce Aberdeen AB21 0GL Tel: +44 (0) 1224 723742 Fax: +44 (0) 1224 723759

Backpack Unit
The USRs backpack unit is designed to house two CO2 scrubbing units along with the electronic control and monitoring system. The system can operate as either a Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) using 100% oxygen or as a Semi Closed Circuit Rebreather (SCR) with as little as 2% oxygen content Heliox. This allows for optimised gas conservation efficiency in whatever mode the system is operated. The Underwater Terminator (UT) located on top of the rebreather provides the interface via the divers umbilical to the Bell and on to the support vessel. It provides digital multiplexed redundant data paths via electrical and optical elements for: System control and monitoring Digital voice communications Dual high resolution video Control of lighting Control of rebreather gas heating Power and power management Helmet closure and integrity alarm Diver alarm

Umbilical
The USR requires the replacement of the current standard divers bell excursion umbilical to allow for changes in the data, electrical and gas supplies. Item Component No Description 1 Main Gas Hose 2 Oxygen/Make up Gas Hose 3 Hot Water Hose 4 Power cable 5 Data Cable 6 Polyethylene knitted sheath Nominal Diameter 16.8mm 7mm 21mm 12.2mm 12.2mm Not more than 46mm Number Required 1 1 1 2 1 1

Company Registration No. SC 356252 - Anderson House, 24 Rose Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1UA

Unit 1A Howe Moss Drive Kirkhill Industrial Estate Dyce Aberdeen AB21 0GL Tel: +44 (0) 1224 723742 Fax: +44 (0) 1224 723759

Bell Junction Box


An oil filled junction box, for conversion and transmission of the data signal from each of the divers USR units to the topside units, needs to be mounted on the bell. This unit will transmit all signal data, video and audio to and from the USR units via fibre optic or copper wire through the main bell umbilical. Addition of optical fibre slip rings will also be necessary in the bell umbilical winch if fibre optic connections are to be used.

Topside Interface Units


Each diver will require a topside unit to run the data acquisition from the fibre optic or copper wire transmission from the bell. The unit will then split the signal into its various components and allow output of the video signal via coaxial (BNC) type video signal for recording. The audio will be transmitted into the any helium unscrambler communications unit without the need for replacing the current communications unit. Each topside unit is designed to fit into a 19 rack mounted enclosure taking up a 1U space for each diver unit.

Control & Display Unit


Once the data has been received from the topside unit it will then be transmitted to the control PC via USB or RS485 type connection where it will be displayed on the PC screen with an intuitive graphical interface. The information is then logged and recorded on a blackbox type server.

Company Registration No. SC 356252 - Anderson House, 24 Rose Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1UA

Unit 1A Howe Moss Drive Kirkhill Industrial Estate Dyce Aberdeen AB21 0GL Tel: +44 (0) 1224 723742 Fax: +44 (0) 1224 723759

The table below shows the measurement parameters of the data logging system:

Measurement Parameters CO2 in the breathing gas Oxygen in the breathing gas CO in the breathing gas Hydrocarbon in breathing gas Breathing gas temperature Work of Breathing Breathing Frequency Depth reading Scrubber temperature Gas humidity Bail out bottle pressure Gas supply pressure from the umbilical Umbilical voltage (volts) "Black Box" recording of sensor data Predive check of unit operation Battery voltage Direct notification of device failure Supervisor following the divers condition at all times Supervisor monitoring of unit's "health"

Details Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Measured and logged online Logged to server for storage Checked and logged online Measured and logged online Voice and light indicator at diver also appears on the topside display Continuously updated display of USR conditions and sensor data Continuously updated display of USR conditions and sensor data

Additional Requirements
Additional topside equipment requirements are: Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) for continual running of the topside units in the event of power failure. Helium unscrambler diver communications unit. Control PC for each diver c/w peripherals. These will need to be linked into UPS Data server for recording of data acquisition signals. This will also need to be linked into UPS Display screens for PCs and diver video Blackbox recorder for video & audio. This will also need to be linked into the UPS

Company Registration No. SC 356252 - Anderson House, 24 Rose Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1UA

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