Innovative offshore safety system to protect the body from cold shock in extreme conditions

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Every year 360,000 people die worldwide as a result of drowning, making it the third leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. Globally, Immersion in cold water is the second most common cause of accidental death, at present 98 % of drowning deaths are caused by cold-water immersion., 3000 deaths. People working offshore who uses helicopters as their daily transportation faces the 80% risk of drowning when helicopter crashes or accidents occurs. As a matter of fact, air transportation is reported to be the leading cause of fatalities and accidents wherein 73 incidents were alone reported in UK wherein cold-water drowning being the primary cause of death. This garment should allow buoyancy in water and protect from fire. Nevertheless, it currently has very little or no thermal property. For workers in cold waters, the law requires to wear 3 layers of clothing beneath the suit during winter and 2 layers during summer. Such under-suit clothing is inadequate for safety in case of contact with water (e.g. flight crash or simply a fall in the water). Iron Ocean proposes Centurion 3, the next-generation 3-layer upper body garment with integrated self-heating thermal gel system, specifically engineered to protect the upper body from cold shock. It can be comfortably worn under a safety suit to guarantee comfort and thermal protection in case of extreme environmental conditions. The clothing thermal properties are given by Iron Ocean’s engineered advanced thermo-chemical gel which actively produces heat upon contact with water. During the phase 1 feasibility study, Iron Ocean will establish a sound go-to-market strategy and supply chain, and will outline further development plans. In the second phase of the innovation project, Iron Ocean will improve the ergonomic and flexibility properties of the material, establish an in-house production line for gel and validate the solution with offshore workers.