USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Kenneth Price

Marshall L Nuckols

Robert J Hughes

Joseph Rudolph

Billy Courson

Jody Wood-Putnam

W Scott Finlayson

Dennis McCrory

Kirk Van Zandt

The invention is a submersible hand warmer apparatus for warming a diver's gloved hands. The apparatus includes a sleeve having a center portion with an elongate chamber with a right access port and a left access port; and right and left sleeve portions with elastic cuffs. The cuffs can be stretched allowing the diver's gloved hands access to the chamber, and then retract, forming a seal against the diver's arms. The chamber is sized for enough heat transfer fluid, such as water, so that the temperature of the diver's hands is raised to at least 54&#xb0; F. upon immersion of his hands in the water. The apparatus also includes a heating component; an energy source, such as a battery; a housing which provides structural support; an insulation that slows the loss of heat to the cold ambient water; and a controller that controls the rate that energy is consumed.

Submersible hand warmer

A catalytic heater supplies heated water that circulates to heat a diver's suit. An insulating housing closed at opposite ends by cap members defines a chamber containing a catalyst inside of a multi-tube heat exchanger. Fittings in the cap members pass water through the multi-tube heat exchanger to and from the suit, and a gas circuit flows mixed hydrogen and oxygen to the catalyst that reacts with the mixed hydrogen and oxygen to produce heat that heats the water in the multi-tube heat exchanger for the diving suit. Optionally, hydrogen may be mixed with oxygen from a breathing gas mixture so that after heating the water, the gases remaining may be breathed by the diver. The catalytic heater provides a safe, reliable source of warm water for active thermal protection of divers over a wide range of diving applications. The heater can be used in an open, closed or semi-closed configuration to support surface tethered diving applications or autonomous, self-contained missions with free-swimming divers or within wet or dry underwater vehicles. Water temperatures can be easily adjusted when using this heater by regulating the percentage of hydrogen injected into the bed of catalyst. The catalytic heater can be used either as the primary active heating source or as a backup heating system in the event failure occurs to the primary heat source.

Hot water heater for diver using hydrogen catalytic reactions

An electrical power supply arrangement incorporates a turbine-generator ambly providing a self-contained non-battery electrical power source for supplying power to a breathing apparatus. The turbine-generator assembly is interposed in an air hose extending between first and second stage pressure regulators respectively connected to a pressurized air cylinder and to a cooling device of the breathing apparatus. The assembly includes an air turbine and an electrical generator disposed and coupled in tandem relationship to one another and enclosed in an elongated hollow housing. Pressurized air introduced into the turbine end of the housing expands across turbine blades and rotatably drives a central shaft of the turbine which, in turn, rotates a central rotor of the generator causing generation of electrical power in a stationary stator of the generator which surrounds the rotor. The electrical power can be accessed at a terminal block attached to the generator end of the housing for supplying power to operate the cooling device of the breathing apparatus.

Breathing apparatus having electrical power supply arrangement with

A device is provided for modifying the temperature of a breathing or other as supplied through a conduit. A heat exchanger is mounted in-line with the conduit. A thermoelectric device has first and second thermally conductive plates separated by at least one thermoelectric couple. The first thermally conductive plate is in thermal contact with the heat exchanger. A phase change material is in thermal contact with the second thermally conductive plate. A voltage is applied to the thermoelectric couple(s) to maintain the first and second thermally conductive plates at different temperatures. The phase change material changes from a first phase to a second phase at a phase change temperature that is selected to be between the different temperatures of the first and second thermally conductive plates.

Growing community of inventors

Panama City, FL, United States of America

Kenneth Price