The clear statement was that it is only one part of the risk analysis used. I dive a JJ, and cannot use the ALBOV as-is, so what can I do? If it's the choice between not knowing the WOB figures but having a tested and as-manufactured unit, or knowing them for one part (the ALBOV) but hacking away at the rest and doing who knows what to the flow, then it's a no-brainer.
How can you use something, you do not know, in any risk analysis?
If Low WOB of your BOV is a criteria you can demand this information off the manufacturers who make L-R BOVs. Oh I agree, they will tell you to piss off because a) they have not tested their BOV in the first place or b) they have tested it and want to conceal how bad it really is. Enough folk start questioning their failure to supply and I am sure you will be noted.
You can buy an Apoc and run it mCCR, or buy an rEvo, fit an ALVBOV and run it however you like. But in both cases you either have as low a WOB as has been identified is possible for a rebreather or as near low as in the rEvos case; with the lowest bail-out OC WOB in both cases.
You say "doing who knows what to the flow" but you do not
know what the flow is doing anyway (as far as what you are breathing at the mouth verses what is displayed on your gauges); so what changes?
and this is not me recommending that folk change the loop flow of their unit: it is me pointing out that they do not have sufficient information in the first place to make a valid decision,
either way. For all we know changing the loop flow of a particular unidentifiable unit could actually be safer for the user.
You ask why users do not demand figures from their manufacturers, I would counter that the users are not in a position to demand anything. The only way to really make anyone pay attention in the retail market is by not buying their products. If OSEL sold a L-R BOV with published WOB figures then market forces would soon see other manufacturers publishing data to compete before they lost all their market share. At the moment that pressure does not exist.
Most BOV WOB in both CC and OC mode, is a factor of a multiple of the ALVBOVs, bar the Hollis and likely Poseidon BOVs in OC mode which is comparable. and for both of them you do not know how high the CC mode WOB is.
OSEL supplying a L-R flow BOV would not see other manufacturers publishing testing; why tell your customers how bad your BOV is in comparison? Just outspend OSEL on marketing showing "experts" who do not know its WOB, using your BOV and recommending it to others. See DLs tongue in cheek piss take on this exact issue
http://www.deeplife.co.uk/or_files/Rebreather_Marketing_vs_Engineering.pdf
Similarly, as a manufacturer, you can't expect the customer base to come to you ("get another 999+ divers interested and submit a proposal") for something that is unproven.
How proven do you want it?
If no-one with a L-R unit can use an ALBOV, then I can't see how you can conclude that there is no demand for them.
Mark, it is not that there is no demand for a BOV. It is that customers are not conducting sufficient risk analysis to determine that WOB is a significant contributory factor to their diving. If "experts" like Simon do not bother recommending it occur because they do not know the WOB of their own kit, what hope does the average diver have?
Brad let me run you through it
Mark, I know you did not know the WOB of the BOVs that you bought. Open Circuit divers have been able to know the WOB of their regulators since 1996. So why are you accepting the status quo of buying untested kit for your rebreather?
I fail to see how the O2 Apoc meets this definition of "functionally safe".
Simon, probably an attribute of you failing to understand EN61508.
I find it "an oddity" that you moralise about rebreather manufacturing companies who don't fully report on the WOB of their BOV, when you sell rebreathers with no requirement for training.
Who other than Simon, says there is no requirement for training?
The higher numbers derive their relevance from being plausible maxima that could apply in rare situations - no one is denying that. My point, on the other hand, was that I was exercising at a level that is likely the highest that can be sustained underwater, and that the vast majority of diving situations will not therefore involve the higher minute ventilation figures.
Excellent Simon, I then look forward to the figures you are using being incorporated in the applicable USN and CE standards. When is this occurring?
When there is a need to in order to answer the question we are asking. You asked similar questions when we performed the study about end tidal measurement at the end of an exhale hose, yet the world's leading diving medicine journal had the work peer reviewed and published it as a perfectly valid demonstration of the debated principle - no "wet bell" involved.
No worries Simon. But why bother publishing studies demonstrating already known information?
Because the work rate we have chosen is the correct one for addressing the proposed hypothesis. This is a study investigating CO2 canister storage, temp stick performance, CO2 breakthrough.
So Simon why an earth not use 40L/min, which is the default scrubber duration test flow rate and means the data is benchmark able with every other bit of scrubber test information?
Let me guess you are not using constant 1.3L/min CO2 (USN) or 1.6L/min CO2 (CE) injection flow rates either?
The other rebreather manufacturers you mention (or at least two of them) did test these devices and anecdotally found them inferior (I have seen no data). I am prepared to accept the argument that their unpublished, non-peer reviewed testing may not have been perfect. However, What is self apparent is that the USN tested these canisters and appear to have declined to adopt them or "design a rebreather around them" even though their modular nature would be a significant advantage in the military setting. In the absence of further information I am left to draw my own conclusions.
As you are deliberately blinkering yourself, in the face of evidence to the contrary, that is to your detriment then Simon.
There are direct parallels to your career field as well where the same technology has been found to be as equally high performing as in rebreathers.
http://spiralith.com/micropore-inc/
Brad, I don't need to "phish" because I know the situation. I have my own NDA issues so can only discuss what is self apparent to any real world observer: the iCCR is nowhere to be seen despite being months away from shipping 7 years ago (before you were told there was a flaw in the end tidal CO2 monitoring methodology); the "commie unit" was designed and prototypes built, but no one appears to be producing it; the military units do not appear to have been purchased by any military.
Simon, Your problem is you do not "know the situation"! and because of this about all you can do is twist the little information you have. Iain/HSM knows more and he has nothing to do with it at all - think about that!
Just ask yourself which manufacturer is (and has always been) solely capable of producing the "commie unit" based on their ownership of the IP, code and tooling; then read who wrote your NDA?
Simon, Again, what "flaw in end tidal CO2 methodology"?
You don't need to be a subject matter expert in rebreather training to know that training enhances safety (which is what OSEL is supposed to be about isn't it... Open Safety etc...). Since you have raised the matter of my subject matter expertise, I would be curious to see Alex Deas publication record in the field of safety systems and safety in complex systems (and I don't mean your own pdfs). I can't find anything using the scientific literature search engines I have available.
Simon, Does that training enhance safety sufficiently enough to prevent currently occurring fatalities or near-misses?
http://www.deeplife.co.uk/or_files/RB_Fatal_Accident_Database_100725.xls
Guess your just looking in the wrong place, try
http://www.61508.org/cass/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/CASS30-Rev-0C_CASS-Scheme-Certificates.pdf
Conference presentation to experts on safety in complex systems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL9vVs5vHuQ
Patents for safety related systems
http://patents.justia.com/inventor/alexander-roger-deas
However, I guess Alex has just not bothered writing academic scientific literature.
My opinions on BOVs and work of breathing in rebreathers etc are widely published and available to all manufacturers. What they do with that information is effectively up to them. Unlike you, I enjoy an excellent relationship with virtually all rebreather manufacturers (except your outfit) and this facilitates collegial dialogue on such matters, and change may evolve from this.
Simon, yet you do not know the WOB of your own BOV? I guess it is not such an excellent relationship after all if they are deliberately keeping you in the dark on something you know is a critical safety point.
As was pointed out in Steady's earlier post, the thing that will drive such change fastest is if a particular unit has a distinct sales advantage because of specific characteristics. Mark is trying to tell you the same thing.
Simon, I, Alex and the rest of OSEL are fully aware that if OSEL simply had produced a me2 L-R CE marked eCCR unit - as competitively priced as the Apoc is - that did what folk think they wanted, it would sell like hotcakes. See the safety related points earlier though as there is zero chance of any such unit being CE certified to EN61508 at any SIL, let alone the SIL3 that DL have achieved for all their units. OSEL is not supplying a L-R ALVBOV as the default because of safety reasons related to the entire rebreather system across the commie-mil-recreational divide, the flow direction function of the BOV is but a subset of this.
Note that no one has yet identified why they really need a L-R flow BOV and why this is any different at the mouth for the gas they are breathing, to having a R-L flow one. Noting the only thing in every rebreather stopping the flow is the flapper valves within the BOV itself.
The Apoc inherently has those distinct sales advantages based on the very high and documented breathing performance in all regards of the rebreather but the focus is on user safety, which is at odds with other options available from others.
From a pure marketing and sales POV, it is also not available off the shelf as an eCCR (yet); however, that does not negate the key elects of the loop that are of interest to you from an academic safety viewpoint. That you are blinkering yourself to these based on your relationship to other manufacturers is not something I can assist you with. They are there, they exist and for those that honestly want them, they are available.
For those running R-L loops the ALVBOV is a drop in best in class (by a significant margin) solution that at worst just needs an adapter be made to fit the CL end fittings or in the case of the shockingly narrow bore ones on the rEvo, replace them. The ALVBOV has set the standard for the WOB that users should be expecting from their BOVs in both OC and CC modes.