We had some issues with the first uprighting bag prototype.
The fabric itself could not be approved for further development (so far..). What happened was that air apparently seemed to be oozing through the fabric at a flow rate close to the inlet flow rate when packed. As the bag inflates in its dedicated chamber it pushes off the aluminum cover plate but this did not happen because the bag lost too much air in the inflation process.
I simply had to try a make a new bag fast with a different material. I went to the local hobby fish shop and bought 0.5 mm thick PVC foil. To save time and ease the process I decided to create the bag based on a tennis ball template (two equal pieces).
The actual PVC gluing process took about 10 hours and inflation of the bag was tested the next day. The bag volume is app. 210 liters which will result in about 1.09 bars when inflating with a 425 gram CO2 sodastream bottle.
I was hoping to get a more spherical shape but surprisingly it came out looking like an over stuffed traveling suit case. But its really cool looking and the buoyancy effect will remain the same if hold in its correct position.
So far, I will continue with this design but is lacking the inflation part which is a discarded mouth piece from a life jacket (see image below). Dear reader… do you know where to get hold of these? Or do you have some you would like to donate for this?
36 days to go..
So much to do!!
Ad Astra
Kristian von Bengtson
