VIKING® HAZTECH dry suit excels in cold water diving tests

TRELLEBORG – 18 March 2013 -- Ansell, a global leader in protection solutions, today announces that the Viking HAZTECH™ has passed the EN ISO 7854 flex test method for flex cracking at low temperatures with very good margins and shows no visible changes or pressure failures at all for cold weather conditions. Ansell is now moving forward in supplying customers who live, work and dive in areas of the globe where extreme cold water conditions exist.

The Viking HAZTECH dry suit was launched onto the diving market in April 2012. Since that time, sales have grown steadily in the sectors for which it was originally intended, namely light contaminated water use, in normal to warm water areas. As a result of the success of this suit, customers have requested that suits be supplied into areas of cold water diving. It was necessary that some form of flex testing be carried out to ensure that the HAZTECH would perform equally well in more extreme cold conditions.

“This represents another example of Ansell working together with our customers to fulfill their specialized needs” says Thomas Draskovics, President and General Manager Ansell Specialty Markets. “These results reflect Ansell’s commitment to testing and validating the performance of its products to ensure they meet the necessary safety requirements of its customers”.

Under the European dry diving suit standard EN14225-2:2005, a cold donning and doffing exercise is completed at temperatures of -20°C. As such, this test is not only for the suit, but the diver is tested as well. Viking HAZTECH has previously passed this test and does possess the above EN 14225-2 certification.

Ansell employed an external testing facility to test the Viking HAZTECH material for flex cracking at low temperatures according to the EN ISO 7854 flex test method. The material was flexed for more than 200 cycles at temperatures of -20°C, -30°C and -40°C with results showing no visible changes or pressure failures at all. More information on the Viking HAZTECH suit can be found at http://protective.ansell.com/Products/Viking/PU-Dry-Suits/.