The most elaborate travel-wear in Norway keeps the body cool in hot helicopter cabins, but will turn into a heat-retaining suit if the helicopter should fall into the sea.
Tests in SINTEF’s laboratory basin show that the smart helicopter survival suits offers good protection against loss of heat when the wearer is in the sea.
The new suit has been jointly developed by SINTEF, which is a Norwegian research institute, and Helly Hansen, a Norwegian producer of textiles and special gear for sports and work on the ocean and in the mountains.
Thanks to a cooperative project between these two partners offshore platform personnel on the Norwegian continental shelf have been issued with – literally – smart helicopter survival suits.
These offshore workers are among the first people in the world who can go to work in clothes with built-in intelligence.
The new suit has already aroused the interest of design experts.The partnership is one of the recipients of the 2008 Good Design Mark, an award given by the Norwegian Design Council.
Ever since the “Oil Age” came to Norway, platform workers have been easily recognisable in the heliports at Norwegian airports as they troop out to waiting helicopters in bright orange suits that will keep them from either drowning or freezing to death in the event of an emergency landing or a helicopter crash-landing at sea.
Now this group of workers is in the process of putting on a new generation of colourful suits. Thanks to their special qualities, the garments can be used both during helicopter transport and as survival suits out on the platform.
The smart suits were developed in response to new demands made on behalf of the Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF).
In 2000, OLF appointed a working group to define the properties that helicopter suits should have in the future to be approved for use during transport to and from Norwegian offshore oil-fields.
This initiative was enthusiastically received by the trade unions involved. The working group documented that users were dissatisfied with several aspects of the suits then in use.
The offshore workers felt that they were being “boiled alive” in the helicopters on warm summer days. At the same time, they feared that the original suits did not offer complete protection against heat loss during long periods in cold seawater.
The working group gained acceptance of their viewpoint that the helicopter suits must solve both of these problems in order to be approved.
Norwegian scientists and industry people have now demonstrated that what seemed to be conflicting requirements for cooling and heat insulation can be met.
