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Neutrally Buoyant Ergonomic Segmented Glass-Ceramic Composite Chocobar K4 Diving Suit with Superior Thermal Protection

Garrett Sabesky, Codi Clark, Andrew Waldron, Jeffrey Catterlin, Emil P. Kartalov*

Hypothermia is a serious health hazard for divers, as it can lead to unconsciousness, organ damage, and eventually death. To lessen the heat loss in water, divers typically wear bubbled neoprene wetsuits. However, this thermal protection worsens with depth as the air bubbles in the neoprene shrink under the elevated pressure. Thicker neoprene provides more thermal protection but is less flexible and thus fatigues the wearer more quickly. To solve this problem, we developed the K1 suit, which featured composite plates fitted to the inflexible areas of the body. The plates contained hollow glass microspheres embedded in silicone cured in 3D-printed molds designed from 3D body scans. The K1 combined the ergonomics of a 3 mm suit with thermal protection superior to a 7 mm suit. Next, adding a further outer layer of ceramic composite produced the K2 suit. The K2 increased thermal protection and improved ergonomics and handling by offering constant neutral buoyancy. However, both K1 and K2 used diver-specific molds, which made fabrication difficult and expensive. Hence, we developed the Chocobar – universal flexible composite plates that can be custom-trimmed to fit any diver. Our first Chocobar suit, the K3, was faster and easier to make, featured two layers of Chocobar glass composite, and demonstrated the best thermal protection so far (~4.5°C better than a 7/6 mm suit at depth). However, K3 suffered from excessive buoyancy, which necessitated extra ballast and worsened handling. Hence, we developed the K4 presented herein. K4 features two composite layers (outer ceramic and inner glass), constant neutral buoyancy, improved handling, minimized ballast, and high thermal protection (+3°C better than a 7/5 mm suit at depth). Hence, K4 is overall the best suit in this series. Hence, the K4 should be of great interest to diver suit technology developers and to commercial, recreational, and military divers.