Paragon Space Development Corporation

Paragon has used its experience in providing life support in extreme environments to develop a diving system for use in heavily contaminated water. The Paragon Dive System converts a commercially available helmet into a fully encapsulated protection system to isolate the diver from the hazardous surroundings.

The first step to protecting the diver is to remove any pathway in which contaminants could enter the helmet or suit. Typical commercial helmets vent the diver’s exhaust air into the surrounding water. This pathway can allow liquid to compromise the helmet interior if water works a path back to the diver. This can happen through direct water ingress through the exhaust valve system, or through the action of the vent valves creating aerosols at the air-water interface that can travel upstream to the diver’s breathing pathway.

The Paragon Dive System captures the breathing exhaust from the diver and regulates it through a demand valve to an umbilical and back to the surface. The surface panel vents the exhaust to the air, eliminating any direct pathway for the contaminated water to get into the helmet. An integrated suit vent valve connects to the exhaust demand valve, closing the pathway from the suit, completely protecting the diver. No exhaust to the surrounding water eliminates a direct pathway for contaminated water to enter the suit.

The second step to protecting the diver is to ensure that the helmet materials will not deteriorate when exposed to these hazardous environments. The two primary considerations are resistance to chemical attack and resistance to permeability. The ability to resist attack is dependent on the chemical contaminant in the water. A broad resistance to many types of chemical challenges is desirable, especially to those that might be found in a waterway spill. Resistance to fuels and oils, industrial chemicals, biological agents, and acids and bases are examples of chemicals which could degrade the helmet materials and cause leaks or changes in the helmet and its components. The other pathway for chemicals to enter a material is through permeation. A material can be resistance to a chemical, but still allow it to pass through, allowing a pathway to compromise the diver’s safety. The Paragon Dive System uses materials tested and shown to resist chemical changes of the materials as well as prevent permeation of these chemicals for many hundreds of hours, compared to minutes for traditional materials.

The Paragon Dive System combines these design considerations into a complete system which allows for increased diver safety in extremely hazardous environments. This system requires minimal additional training since it uses commonly available commercial helmets for the base of the system. The additional exhaust system is designed to feel invisible to the diver in nominal operating mode and has simple off-nominal modes to maximize safety. As in any contaminated diving environment, the supervisors and divers must be trained to understand the potential hazards and assess the ability of any equipment or diver to function properly before entering hazardous environments.

Do you Need More Information:
Call 1-800-866-7248, Ext 55
or email your request to rgjestvang@paragonsdc.com

Why was it developed?: This system was developed in conjunction with the Navy to address the need to dive in extreme contamination environments, which exceed the capabilities of existing dive equipment.
Why is this system better than existing equipment?: Traditional equipment is designed with the idea that the diving environment is benign. This is a good assumption for the vast majority of diving conditions. However, there are occasions when contaminants become trapped in low flow or confined spaces leading to concentrated chemical environments. The materials used in traditional equipment can’t stand up to the chemical attack and degrades very quickly, sometimes failing in as little as 20 minutes. The Paragon Dive System captures the diver’s breathing exhaust and returns it to the surface, and is designed with materials that can withstand hundreds of hours of immersion in heavily fuel contaminated waters, allowing the diver to remain isolated from the environment long enough to complete the mission.
Have there been any documented health issues from diving with the existing systems?: It has been difficult to document health issues for divers, primarily due to a lack of data and record keeping. Studies of Israeli divers have shown an increased risk of cancer when diving in moderately polluted shipping harbors. Because of high pressure and chemical concentrations, the diving environment is more complex than that of typical exposure studies, which are usually done in laboratories with one atmosphere and ambient levels of pollutants. This makes it difficult to extrapolate and utilize results from typical exposure studied to estimate the increased risk posed to contaminated water divers.
For what type of contaminants and at what concentrations is the system designed?: The Paragon Dive System can handle a wide range of chemicals for durations appropriate for search, rescue, and clean-up of contaminated water environments. The nominal test agent used for design has been JP-5 jet fuel at 100% concentration. Using jet fuel gives a broad range of solvent type resistance capability. The Dive Supervisor must be familiar with expected exposure agent and the ability of the system to handle the chemicals. Chemical compatibility tables will be provided and Paragon can make recommendations for chemicals that are not on the tables.
Is this for military use only?: The system will undergo testing and certification by the Navy prior to release to the fleet. Following the certification by the Navy, the system will be available for commercial purchase and use.
How do I order one and what is the typical lead time?: Paragon is now accepting pre-orders through this link. Expected availability of the system is 3Q 2009.
How deep can you dive the system?: The system is designed to be used with compressed air to 198 FSW (7 ATM). Future certification with mixed air supply would extend this depth.
What special equipment is required to use the Paragon Dive System?: The Paragon Dive System includes the hardened KM-37 Helmet modified with Return System Exhaust (RSE), Surface Return umbilical, and surface panel. A surface supply panel and air supply umbilical is required, or can be purchased with the system. The Return Surface Panel uses a pneumophathom tube for depth reference. The system should be used with bail out air supply equipment.
How much training is required to use the Paragon Dive System?: The system functions nominally like traditional KM-37 diving equipment. The off-nominal system modes require some training time for the diver to become familiar with the system and to be able to use it efficiently. The surface tender needs to be trained to use the RSE panel when supporting a diver on the Paragon Dive System. Dive Supervisors need to be trained in contaminated water diving procedures and best practices.