• Marine

COBRA breathing system fully operational

JFD’s sophisticated new diver breathing system completes its first commercial project.

After conducting rigorous trials on its sophisticated new diver breathing system, JFD has now completed its first deep-water commercial dive project with COBRA (the Compact Bailout Rebreathing Apparatus).

This marks a significant enhancement in subsea safety by increasing the standard supply of emergency breathing gas available to the diver, and as such, meets what has become an urgent industry requirement.

COBRA was designed and developed by JFD in response to a crucial need for more advanced ‘bailout’ technology to provide a diver with an emergency supply of breathing gas in the event of a primary gas failure. It is designed to work at the greater depths and protracted dive periods typical of new generation diving operations.

The sophisticated new system provides 20 minutes of air at 270 metres (or 45 minutes of emergency life support at a depth of 120 metres). Alternative systems can only provide three minutes of air at 270m and seven minutes at 120m.

The extended operation time means divers can work further from the bell confident that they have sufficient breathing gas to make it back, which significantly improves the likelihood of a successful rescue in the event of an emergency.

COBRA’s first operational dives occurred recently in Australia at a depth of 270 metres. Pre-dive checks included two divers breathing five times on COBRA mode, before switching back to umbilical mode, and then starting their work.

Giovanni Corbetta, managing director at JFD, says:

"Our entire focus and commitment as a company is founded upon improving diver safety and setting new benchmarks within the industry."