About 3 Dinstruments SCBA Industry
Update Time: 2019-12-20 00:00:00
When an SCBA user straps on their system, they face some extreme conditions. They may be on their stomachs crawling through tight spaces in a fire, or facing a lot of bumps and knocks with high G-forces in flight, so their SCBA gauges need to be able to handle frequent shock. In any application, the gauges also face regular spikes and cycles due to simply refilling the tanks.
Repeated shock and cycling results in a loss of accuracy over time with traditional gauges that use C-type Bourdon tubes. These gauges start to lose a few points of accuracy after extreme spikes and even after prolonged use, especially due to their gear system and movement mechanism.
For SCBA users, any loss of accuracy can mislead the user as to their remaining air supply. If a pressure gauge moves beyond the 5% accuracy required by NFPA by just 2-4%, the SCBA user loses 48 to 96 seconds of air—which could spell the difference between life and death. Since air management is the only means of preventing fire smoke exposure, the gauge reading has to be right.
That’s why 3 Dinstruments's gauges for the SCBA industry only use the best of their Accu-Drive® direct drive technology. Tested to withstand years and years of Life cycles their coils made either out of Inconel X-750 or Copper bourdon tube don't lose accuracy over its lifetime.3 Dinstruments direct drive gauge can pass such rigorous testing because its single sensing element forms a simple, yet reliable foundation of durability. The helically wound Bourdon tube eliminates the “moving part” weaknesses of traditional pressure gauges because there is only one moving part. The absence of complex, wear-prone gears eliminates the need for recalibration and accurate linearity even after years of rigorous use—no span adjustment is necessary—ever.