Until we as human divers grow gills, we can’t breathe underwater without the assistance of air, and to this end, dive tanks were created.
French naval officer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Air Liquide engineer Emile Gagnan (Canadian, originally from France) developed an autonomous diving system with a demand regulator called the “scaphandre autonome”. It would soon be called the “Aqua-Lung,” after Cousteau coined the word for English-speaking countries.
So now lets get to the situation about dive tanks and the Ministry of Transportation in Canada. High pressure steel (PST) tanks are manufactured under a special permit or certificate and are regulated.
Fun facts about dive tanks:::they are basically designed for 10,000 hydro tests. So, if they are kept in good shape and checked every 5 years they are built to last 50,000 years. The oldest cylinder at Dan’s Dive Shop is a (3AA-1800psi) from 1927.
High Pressure tanks (PST tanks) made with the TC-SU4349 markings and TC-SU9294 have no expiry date, however, just like any other dive tank they are subjected to a hydro test every 5 years and they can be used for another 5 years if they pass inspection. This being said, certificates can turn out to expire. They need to be updated every four years. The TC-SU4349 is protected by the TC-SU9294 programme.
The certificate TC-SU9294 was last issued on Feb 6th 2015 and expired on June 30th 2019. Christopher Foisey and one other employee at Dan’s Dive Shop are now certified to do hydrotests and they are registered from Transport Canada as a qualification center to do this certification. Transport Canada can now keep track of what dive tanks are actively being used.
Transport Canada thanked Christopher for having done the ground work about certification of dive tanks and in 4 years he will make sure that PST remembers renewing it or he will register it under the Dans Dive Shop facility so that these cylinders can be used for many years too.
Thanks to Christopher Foisey of Dan’s Dive Shop.
Learn more about Dan’s Dive Shop at: https://dansdiveshop.ca/