What product(s) do you want to see being sold or made?

[Eric Sedletzky]

Maybe we should both dream bigger... would a flexible force-field with selectable thermal conductivity be too much?

A wetsuit material filled with a gel instead of a gas that heats up as pressure is applied. It wouldn't require weight to offset and wouldn't compress at depth.

 

[Akimbo]

A wetsuit material filled with a gel instead of a gas that heats up as pressure is applied. It wouldn't require weight to offset and wouldn't compress at depth.

A material that converts pressure to thermal energy is an interesting concept, but wouldn’t that make it consumable? I think we do OK now with simple insulation (rather than active heating) if we could make it incompressible. On the surface, the new materials do perform and fit better than Rubatex. I think the analogy of a house works here. The first place to fix is infiltration or water circulation in a wetsuit. Second is increasing insulation values. Since solar gain doesn’t apply, third is improving efficiency of the active heating system — currently that is the diver in a wetsuit, waste heat off the generators for most hot water suits today.

I still have a sample of this material from the early 1970s — a blue gel-like material that was incompressible to thousands of feet. It is still very flexible but really heavy, like about 35 Lbs/Ft³. I don’t believe its thermal properties were as good as Rubatex. I can’t say why it never found a market but Dick Long of DUI might remember.

When it comes right down to it, most innovations in this industry are dependent on break-throughs in materials science and electronics. It just isn’t a big enough economic engine to drive innovation at that level.

 

[tbone1004]

we have fibers now that give off heat as they get cold and get cold as they ar eheated up but it is a one time deal

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I want to see new compressors for under $1000. I'd have one here tomorrow.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

A material that converts pressure to thermal energy is an interesting concept, but wouldn’t that make it consumable? I think we do OK now with simple insulation (rather than active heating) if we could make it incompressible. On the surface, the new materials do perform and fit better than Rubatex. I think the analogy of a house works here. The first place to fix is infiltration or water circulation in a wetsuit. Second is increasing insulation values. Since solar gain doesn’t apply, third is improving efficiency of the active heating system — currently that is the diver in a wetsuit, waste heat off the generators for most hot water suits today.

I still have a sample of this material from the early 1970s — a blue gel-like material that was incompressible to thousands of feet. It is still very flexible but really heavy, like about 35 Lbs/Ft³. I don’t believe its thermal properties were as good as Rubatex. I can’t say why it never found a market but Dick Long of DUI might remember.

When it comes right down to it, most innovations in this industry are dependent on break-throughs in materials science and electronics. It just isn’t a big enough economic engine to drive innovation at that level.

A few of the innovations in scuba came from products that were developed for a different purpose other than diving products. The drysuit zipper is an example, it was developed for the space program, and neoprene was developed for insulation in automotive body panels.

 

[Akimbo]

A few of the innovations in scuba came from products that were developed for a different purpose other than diving products...

I’m hard pressed to think of any equipment/product innovations that weren’t borrowed from other industries… except for the Freedom Plate of course.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I’m hard pressed to think of any equipment/product innovations that weren’t borrowed from other industries… except for the Freedom Plate of course.

Yeah, but the Freedom Plate was based on great old design that I just brought back because of it's simplicity and effectiveness.


"Design by subtraction" - Steve Jobs

 

[Pedro Burrito]

I apologize but when I read the title of this thread, I thought of Lloyd Dobler:

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that. "