NL2020594B1 - A garment for diving - Google Patents

Abstract

A diver who will typically wear a garment for diving can be readily detected in the Infra—Red. This goes even more if the garment 5 comprises a heating element against the cold. To reduce the risk of a diver, such as a military diver, to be detected, the garment for diving comprises a layer of silica material. The silica material may be in the form of a pad comprising a heating element.

Description

Patent center

Θ 2020594

(2?) Application number: 2020594 (22) Application submitted: 15 March 2018

Int. Cl .:

B63C 11/28 (2019.01) B63C 11/04 (2019.01)

0 Application registered: 0 Patent holder (s): September 26, 2019 Hendrik Gijsbertus van Kampen in Bad Bentheim, Federal Republic of Germany, DE. 0 Request published: 0 Inventor (s): 0 Patent granted: Hendrik Gijsbertus van Kampen September 26, 2019 in Bad Bentheim (DE). 0 Patent issued: September 27, 2019 0 Authorized representative: ir. W.J.J.M. Kempes in Hilversum.

Θ A garment for diving

57) A diver who will typically wear a garment for diving can be readily detected in the Infra-Red. This goes even more if the garment comprises a heating element against the cold. To reduce the risk of a diver, such as a military diver, to be detected, the garment for diving comprises a layer of silica material. The silica material may be in the form of a pad including a heating element.

NL B1 2020594

This patent has been granted regardless of the attached result of the research into the state of the art and written opinion. The patent corresponds to the documents originally submitted.

A garment for diving

The present invention relates to a garment for diving.

A garment for diving is known in the art. For operations where the diver has to remain hidden, such as military operations, it is a problem that the diver can be detected using heat-sensing equipment such as an Infra-Red camera.

The object of the present invention is to reduce this problem.

To this end, a garment for diving according to the preamble is characterized in that the piece of garment comprises a layer of silica material chosen from aerogel and pyrogenic silica.

It has been found that this helps to render the diver harder to detect in the Infra-Red.

Within the scope of the present invention, the term garment for diving may form

- a piece of garment worn beneath a diving suit, i.e. a vest, or a piece of garment that will be in contact with the water while diving. The piece of garment may be a piece of garment to cover the feet (e.g. diving shoes), the legs, the torso, the hands (e.g. hand shoes) and / or the head.

Advantageously, the piece of clothing is a diving suit. Within the scope of the present invention, the term diving suit comprises a diving jacket (which has an opening at the front connecting the collar with the bottom side and typically provided with a means for closing the jacket, eg a zipper), a diving jumper without an opening at the front (as such or as a part of a two-piece garment called a Long-John), and a diving overall (a full-body suit, ie a one-piece including pant legs). A diving suit may be a wet suit or a dry suit.

The silica material is typically in the form of a powder, helping the garment to be flexible so as conforming to the body of the diver and accommodating the diver's movements. The silica material is preferably aerogel.

According to a favorite embodiment, the garment is a heating garment for diving, said heating garment being a piece of garment including a front section for the front of a chest of a diver and a back section for the back of the chest of the diver, the piece of garment including an electrical heating element;

if the piece of garment has an inner first side facing the body of the diver and an outer second side facing away from the body, the piece of garment is provided with a pad including the layer of silica material provided in an enclosure made of plastic, with the heating element provided between the pad and the inner first side.

A heating garment for diving is known in the art. This may be a piece of garment worn below a diving suit or the diving suit itself. The heating element is typically an electric heating element. In contact with water, the human body cools down more rapidly than in air or the same temperature. Typically, a diving suit is made from thermally insulating material such as neoprene to counter this. However, in case of extended dives or relatively cold water, this is not enough. Thus it is known to provide a heating element, which is for example battery-powered heating element.

For operations where the diver has to remain hidden, such as military operations, the heating element exacerbates the problem that the diver can be detected using heat-sensing equipment such as an Infra-Red camera.

The plastic will typically be flexible plastic. It will be water impermeable. The silica material will be sealed within the plastic, preventing contact with water.

According to a favorite embodiment, the heating element is provided between a 3D-textured fabric and the pad.

Thus direct contact between the body of the diver and the heating element can be avoided. Typically the 3D-textured fabric will provide the inner face of the garment.

A 3D-textured fabric is a fabric with an open structure or interconnected spaces allowing air to pass through the fabric both in a direction transverse to the surface or well as through the fabric in a direction parallel to the surface. Obviously, in a wetsuit these spaces will be at least partially filled with water instead of air.

According to a favorite embodiment, the 3D-textured fabric provides a pouch for retaining the pad and the heating element.

This is a very simple and efficient construction. The pouch will typically be made by stitching, such as stitching the 3D-textured fabric to a conventional piece of diving garment, mor specifically at the inside. The pouch may be fully closed (stitched around) or partially open, e.g. with a slot, allowing easy replacement or any of the pad and the heating element, should this be desired. It is for example possible to exchange pads or different thicknesses (and hence insulation) depending on the circumstances.

According to a favorite embodiment, the piece of garment comprises an elastomeric layer with the pad between the elastomeric layer and the first side and the piece of garment is a diving suit.

Thus the pad and the heating element are integrally part of the diving suit, saving time to get ready diving.

According to a favorite embodiment, the back section of the piece of garment comprises the electrical heating element and the pad.

This allows the piece of garment to be worn more comfortably with the heating silica material pad and the heating element at the diver's back while supplying heat efficiently. The present invention allows the backside to be heated while reducing the detectability in the Infra-Red compared to conventional heating.

According to a favorite embodiment, the garment is a coated garment, the coating comprising the silica material.

The coating will preferably have a thickness or at least 0.5 µm. It goes without saying that forums including an insulating pad, it is preferred that at least those areas of the garment that do not include the pad are coated, but typically the whole of the garment will be coated. Coating can be done using any suitable glue, such as WB acrylic, which is commercially available.

The coating may be applied on the outside of the garment, on the inside of the garment and both.

According to a favorite embodiment, the silica material is a hydrophobic silica material.

This helps to retain the desirable properties in moist environment better. The hydrophobic silica material is, for example, an alkylated silica material. By way of example, the alkyl group R will be methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl or tert, butyl or a mixture thereof.

The present invention will now be illustrated with reference to the drawing where

FIG. 1 shows a diving suit according to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view through a part of the diving suit or Fig. 1; and

FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C show the characteristics at various wavelengths or a coated piece or dry suit cloth.

FIG. 1 shows a diving suit 100 according to the invention connected to a system including

- an electric, power supply unit including two batteries 170,

- an optional connection box 175 for the batteries, and

- a control unit 180 for controlling heating or the diving suit 100.

In the embodiment discussed here, these components are connected via connectors 190 for the sake of convenience, allowing one component to be replaced by another similar component (e.g. in case of an empty battery).

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view through a part of the diving suit or Fig. 1. The diving suit 100 comprises

- an inner face 201 facing a diver wearing the diving suit 100 when in use, and an outer face 202 facing away from the diver;

- an outer elastomeric layer 210, typically or a rubber material such as neoprene.

- a pad 220 (thickness 0.5 mm) including an enclosure of watertight flexible plastic 221 filled with silicon aerogel 222. A suitable pad 220 can be obtained from Aerogel Technologies Corporation (Gyeonggi-do, KR).

- a flexible heating fabric 230 (thickness 0.3 mm) including heating elements 231, here heating wires 231. A suitable heating fabric is available from Sefar AG (Rüschlikon, CH).

- an 3D-textured fabric. 240 (thickness 0.5 mm) made of polyester preventing direct contact of the heating fabric 230 with the skin of a diver wearing the diving suit 100. A suitable fabric is Spacetec® which is available from Heathcoat Fabrics (Tiverton, UK). The fabric's structure allows for built-in airflow, compression, moisture wicking and breathability, and holds advantages about foam.

The 3D fabric. is stitched at its outer circumference to the outer elastomeric layer 210, more specifically at the inside of the diving suit, forming a pouch retaining the pad 220 and the flexible heating fabric 230. A single 3D fabric may retain more than one pad 220, in which case there will be stitching between the pads 220 so as to retain each one in place.

FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C show the characteristics at various wavelengths or a coated piece or dry suit cloth. More in particular FIG. 3Ά shows the reflective properties, Fig. 3B the absorption properties and Figs. 3C the transmission properties of a silica aerogel coating. Coating was performed by applying WB acrylic., An adhesive, by spraying to a piece of Cordura Delinova, a material used for preparing diving dry suits. The thickness of the airgel coating was 10 um. From FIG. 3C it can be seen that the transmission is very low in the Infra-Red, as a result of which the body heat and heat from a heating pad is relatively hard to detect.

The results of two coatings are shown (Fig. 3A and Fig. 3C), coating 2 containing twice as much airgel compared to the coating 1. As the results are quite similar, this demonstrates the effectiveness of the airgel.

Claims (8)

Conclusions An item of clothing for diving, characterized in that the item of clothing (100) comprises a layer of silica material selected from airgel and pyrogenic silica. The diving item of clothing (100) according to claim 1, wherein the item of clothing is a warming item of clothing (100), said heating item of clothing (100) being an item of clothing that has a front section for the front of a diver's chest and a rear section for the rear of the diver's chest, the garment piece comprising an electric heating element; wherein the garment piece (100) has an inner first side (201) to face the body of the diver and an outer second side (202) facing the body, the garment (100) being provided with a pad (220) comprising the layer of silica material (222) provided in an enclosure made of plastic (221), the heating element (230) being provided between the pad (220) and the inner first side (201). The diving item of clothing (100) according to claim 2, wherein the heating element (230) is provided between a fabric with a 3D structure (240) and the cushion (220). The diving item of clothing (100) according to claim 3, wherein the fabric with 3D structure (240) provides a pocket for holding the pad (220) and the heating element (230). The diving item of clothing (100) according to any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the item of clothing (100) comprises an elastomeric layer (210) with the cushion (220) between the elastomeric layer (210) and the first side (201) ) and the garment (100) is a diving suit (100). The diving clothing (100) according to any of claims 2 to 5, -7 wherein the rear section of the article of clothing (100) comprises the electric heating element (230) and the cushion (220). A clothing item (100) for diving according to any one of the preceding claims, Wherein the garment (100) is a coated garment (100), the coating comprising the silica material. The diving item of clothing (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the silica material is a hydrophobic silica material. 1/5