Azimuth Rebreather Scrubber

The scrubber on the Azimuth is an industrial-quality component made of TIG welded stainless steel. At first, I thought that it was inordinately heavy, but then I realized that the manufacturer killed two birds with one stone with this design: First, it will NOT distort and leak, unlike any of a number of other designs that have been prone to problems (see any Draeger Diver and ask them about this). Second, it ballasts the rig up in the counterlung area, which is a requirement for any system. This is one heavy-duty piece of work, let me tell you.

 

 

 

The scrubber is located at the bottom of the hinged lid, just above the cylinders, and below the counterlungs. It's retained by two web loops, each with a delrin buckle. It removes without tools in seconds.

Once removed, the scrubber is visible for inspection. Clearly visible are the aerospace quality TIG welds that are used in it's construction. As noted before, red is the left (exhaust) side.

Upon being opened, we find that the scrubber is a radial design, even though it looks like an axial design from the exterior. Gas flows from the central tube towards the outer wall, not from end to end. This allows low work of breathing and effective use of the scrubber agent.

Trust me: You are not going to break this scrubber. Check out the welding.

Here is the lid, with the spring-loaded platform to keep the scrubber bed from developing voids. This component weighs about 5 pounds and is the real counterbalance for the counterlungs. It's machined from solid stainless steel of about 1 inch (2.5 cm) thickness.

Just another view of the end-cap. 

Did I mention that the scrubber is heavy-duty, and essentially bulletproof? This is one hard-core piece of equipment. None of that flexible fiberglass that's plagued the CCR-2000 and Dolphin, or other plastics that caused some early Prism's to fail. This baby will last forever.

 

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