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Product caution notice relating to commercial diving equipment: gas conditioner charges

What happened?

JFD has issued a Product Caution Notice to inform you of a potential safety issue with commercial diving equipment manufactured/supplied by JFD.  JFD are aware of a potential safety issue and are advising our customers and end users that all stock of this item requires inspection before use.

This product caution notice applies to the following equipment supplied by JFD:

  • B1562A DISPOSABLE CARTRIDGE SET, GASMIZER
  • B1591A DISPOSABLE CARTRIDGE SET, GASPURE
  • B1563 DISPOSABLE CARTRIDGE SET, AIR FILTER SYS, 2 SETS BO
  • B1592A GASPURE CO CATALYST CARTRIDGE

What went wrong?

A manufacturing defect has been identified with a batch of the components used for the bottom nozzle of the cartridge.  Some of these nozzles are misshapen and will not correctly seal the disposable cartridge into the stainless-steel pressure housing.  This will lead to a certain amount of the non-treated gas bypassing the cartridge and not being subject to the treatment provided by the chemicals within the cartridge.

JFD recommends that all Disposable Cartridges are subjected to the following inspection before use:

Pre-use inspection:

  1. Visually inspect the nozzle on each cartridge to check for damage similar to that shown in Figure 1.
  2. Grip the nozzle between the thumb and forefinger and rotate the cartridge to check for flat spots, out of roundness and any other damage missed during the visual inspection.
  3. Using suitable digital callipers, check the OD of the nozzle is 20.7mm/20.6mm as shown in Figure 2. A number of different diameter measurements should be taken to confirm the roundness of the nozzle.

Possible indication of damage during use (B1562A only) is a higher than expected CO2 level in the post scrubber gas sample immediately after cartridge change.  This may indicate gas bypassing the cartridge.

Figure 1: example of damage
Figure 2: dimensions of nozzle

Damaged Cartridge

Any unit which is found or suspected to be defective should not be used and should be returned to JFD for replacement.  Any item of which the user is unsure of its suitability can be returned to JFD for assessment.

If you have any queries or need any additional information, please contact JFD at [email protected]

Members may wish to refer to:

Safety Event

Published: 27 February 2019
Download: IMCA SF 03/19

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