Taiwan has developed the first electro-thermal diving suit for deep, cold underwater environments, the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) said yesterday.
The product’s market potential is estimated at NT$100 million (US$3.1 million), TTRI said.
The new electro-thermal diving suit is made from a special fiber that is heated by batteries and can sustain water pressure up to 50m below the surface, which is a first, the institutes’s product department deputy director Lee Chen-liang (李振良) said.
“At 30m, a diver experiences 4 atmospheres of pressure, so his diving suit should be able to withstand that pressure and also keep his body warm,” Lee said, adding the suit’s rechargeable batteries can last for three hours underwater.
He said that other thermal diving suits made in Europe are mostly designed for surface sports, not deep-sea diving.
TTRI has been in discussions with diving suit manufacturers on technology transfer. Mass production of the new diving suits is expected to begin by the middle of next year, he said.
Taiwan is the world’s largest manufacturer of diving suit, with an 80 percent global market share, TTRI said.
TTRI has also introduced a new anti-allergy fiber made from a skullcap herb and chitin, which is a natural polymer.
Another new product is a fiber-like health monitoring system that can record the heart rate of patients with sleep apnea, a disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep.
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