Brent, Nice research job! It you look carefully at the links to the images that you provided, the exterior units are custom built. I don’t think they will fall into the economical budget that you speak of from time to time. The $1.5M submersible Deep Flight Aviator whose owner can afford to have a team of technicians to maintain his sub. The other with twin domes is probably not cheap either (haven’t seen a price). While economical gas struts can be used for internal hatches, it appears that they have been mounted generally on rather large diameter units (I am sure that most of us can’t afford to run out and purchase a DeepWorker 2000 either). If we speak of the K-350 and look at the diameter of the hatch and the other items already mounted within the conning tower, adding struts internally will just make things worse. The K-350’s stability and freeboard will not support a larger diameter conning tower and hatch. You keep referencing the S101 but I wonder really how successful this submersible is. If I remember correctly, it has had to be lengthened and it seems like they are having a hard time finding a buyer. I believe one of your recent emails cited that it was not built to ABS specs so it is going to have a hard time finding insurance if used for commercial work. There are some neat features in this sub but are they worth the money? R/Jay Resepectfully, Jay K. Jeffries Andros Is., Bahamas Save the whales, collect the whole set. From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Brent Hartwig I like the gas struts mostly because I think they are simple and clean, low weight, quiet, easy to obtain, not really expensive, and they give you a nice smooth motion. Here are the images I was looking for, showing the gas struts on the exterior free flooding area, under the Subeo, Gemini hatch fairings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Deepworker 2000 has a really clean and simple internal mounting means using gas struts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here is a image of the S101 with two gas struts mounted internally. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These two pictures show the Deep Flight Aviator hatch assist means, that look like there might be large gas struts mounted externally. " Modern Art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea." ~ John Ciardi Regards, Brent |
