New Transport
Chamber for
New Zealand Navy
The Royal New Zealand Navy has accepted into service a new Type TC 1150 Transport Chamber which is to be used for supporting detached diving operations. The chamber will provide emergency on-site recompression treatments and allow the transportation of injured divers under pressure to the RNZN’s main treatment chamber in Auckland.
The RNZN’s TC 1150 is fully transportable by helicopter, fixed
wing aircraft or pickup truck and is equipped with a NATO/STANAG bayonet flange, by which
it locks-on to a treatment chamber for transferring the divers under pressure. A
NATO/STANAG bayonet is the type of mating flange used by various NATO navies and the US
Navy for transfer-under-pressure operations in air diving chambers. The chamber can be
manoeuvred by one person and has an integral stainless steel handling system with
steerable tow-bar and height adjustment system, which allows it to bayonet to other
treatment chambers of varying diameters and centre-line heights.
The chamber will accommodate two divers or a patient and attendant. A removable rail-mounted stretcher and attendant seat arrangement allows the attendant unobstructed access to the patient for administering CPR and basic life support procedures during transport. Medical equipment includes a low voltage penetrator and connectors for patient ECG monitoring a medical lock and a drip-hook arrangement. The stretcher is fitted with restraint strans and has a detachable loading device which allows the chamber attendants to load or unload a patient with a weight of up to 100 kg without incurring back injury during the transfer under pressure process.
All the chamber’s primary controls are housed in a weatherproof glass-fibre control panel, a novel feature of which, is its ability to be quickly detached from the chamber for maintenance. Life support for the occupants is provided by onboard air, oxygen and power supplies. Additionally, connection points for external auxiliary supplies are provided for extended therapeutic treatments and transport applications.
Among the many features of the RNZN’s new TC 1150 are mixed gas and oxygen BIBS, a BIBS back-pressure regulator and exhaust gas ejector system which reduces exhalation resistance when chamber depth nears the surface, 02 and CO2 chamber atmosphere monitoring system, CO2 scrubber, hyperbaric fire extinguisher, intercom and tape recorder, digital panel-mounted stopwatch, caisson depth gauge, variable intensity external acrylic light-pipe illumination, main and fine control pressurisation and exhaust Systems and a nylon lifting sling-set.
The TC 1150 is part of Southern Oceanics’ TC Series of military transport chambers, each of which is designed for specific user applications ranging from a one-man hyperbaric stretcher to a four-man transfer chamber for submarine escape and rescue. Included in the Series are the TC 650 one-man hyperbaric stretcher and the TC 665 two-man transport chamber. Also available in a non-magnetic version, the TC 1150 two-man transport chamber and the larger TC 1 150-R four-man transfer chamber, which is designed for the transfer-under-pressure of submariners from a rescue submersible to a deck decompression chamber. The TC chambers are available in aluminium alloy or stainless steel and share the common criteria of lightweight, transportability and a transfer-under-pressure capability while being able to provide basic medical care to divers under pressure.
The chamber was designed and built by Southern Oceanics of Cape Town, South Africa and user acceptance testing, training and hand-over were completed in mid-July. The scope of the contract included two years spares provisioning and the supply of a rotating female NATO! STANAG bayonet TUP adaptor for the RNZN treatment chamber.
Further information from:
David Park-Ross, Southern Oceanics,
Tel: +2721 551 2233, Fax: +27 21 551 2275, e-mail: david.parkross@soceanics.co.za
