Dave Macfee writes:
I've mentioned before that we use a Martech Supplied Air Respirator (SAR)
in the Stripping room. The system I bought is built to handle supply to
2 masks, which has allowed me to run a line into my finish room
and power a mask in there at the same time.
So recently, I finally bought another mask and connected it in the finish room.
This time I bought the full face hood. The air supply is actually pretty cool air,
so besides the eye, face and lung protection, the hood also serves the purpose
of cooling your head to tolerable limits.
A second gadget I bought from Martech is called a cooling vest.
This can connect to any compressed air source. For ease of connection,
I ran a T off of my Mask line so I need only drag the one hose behind me.
When I'm not using the mask, I'll just connect the vest to any air line.
The vest keeps me fairly comfortable on its own --
not like being in AC by anymeans,
but at least I am not sweating buckets.
I know a lot of you will think what a hassle it must be to put all this stuff on
and work with a hose dragging around behind you. It takes me less than
1 minute to fully suit up, and the hose behind me is really no big matter either.
I am really surprised what an easy adjustment it has been, and this comes from
someone who spent most of his career being too lazy to even put on a half mask.
The cooling effect of the air IS a nice bonus,
perhaps even a necessity to work in very hot/humid conditions.
You can check out all the Martech stuff on their website.
http://www.breathingsystems.com/index.html
Dave Macfee
KS