Shelf life of unused rebreather:

ira

hello every one
please can some one explain this:

Shelf life of unused rebreather:
When stored in accordance with BS3574 the shelf life is 7 years.
(derived from the hoses and seals)

from AP web site
thanks
ira

David Pye

The rubber hoses and o-rings may perish beyond 7 years. Is that what you meant?

pockets

Hi Ira,
well, it's pretty straight forward. all of the soft parts of a rebreather, I.e. the rubber bits will lose their more volatile components and degrade over time due to environmental conditions. this will be pretty slow in a nice dark cool environment and faster in hot, sunlit conditions.
whatever the conditions, this degradation is inevitable and so the manufacturers date stamp these products and quote a conservative life span for these parts that is usually some combination of shelf life and operational life.
this hopefully forces those responsible for the equipment to service it before there is any risk of component failure due to perishing. This isn't popular, as this can mean throwing away what appears to be perfectly good and always very expensive components.
I once went nose to nose with a major when I refused to use out of date spares to service a bunch of LAR Vs. His comment was that "he had plenty of spare soldiers" no kidding! I only got my way, after presenting him with a waiver that basically said I as a civilian tech would not refuse to obay his orders so long as he acknowledged in writing that I had fully informed him of the possible fatal consequences. This was in a country where blood money plays an important part in any dispute over injury or death, so I appealed to his wallet rather than his duty to his men.
life is much simpler now I just look after robots.

cheers
pockets

__________________
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ira

thanks guys for the help
i think as u said its about orings and stuff. anyway any ideas how to take
off the orings in the hoses with out this tiny device that hold i. any other
ideas or tricks.
thanks again

York

ira,
if you need someone to dispose of your out-of-date rebreather apropriately, send it my way - I'll even reimburse you for the shipping

Joerg
(crawling back under my rock ...)

ira

give me yr full address joerg and i shall send it to u, even if it was new.
anyway u have a Meg don't be greedy, ahahahaha
but who said that i want to dispose my ccr, i was just asking what this
means , as i was reading the manual , so i was wondering.
take care dude
;0)