In January
2001 an Australian designed and built Hyperbaric Chamber was
constructed
in Coffs Harbor NSW by Fink
Engineering Pty Ltd.
And
moved by road to its present location
in Townsville
North Queensland.
HOME
Chamber specifications
Total
Length ..................... 13 meters
Width
.............................. 3.56 meters
Max
Height ................... 2.30 meters
Weight
............................... 48 tons
Weight
of main door ............. 900kg
Max
Pressure Main Lock .... 220kpa or 22msw
Max
pressure Inner Lock .. 500kpa or 50msw
Patient
numbers .......... 12 main Lock/6 Inner Lock
To date
this new chamber is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and is now
providing
valuable service to both the diving community and medical patients.
PC CONTROL
This
new chamber is unique in that all primary operations are computer controlled,
with full manual backup if required.
Depth,
temperature, humidity, and surveillance are computer monitored and controlled.
MONITORING
THE PATIENTS
To allow
observation of all areas within the chamber, full color closed circuit
television
including audio is in operation as can be seen
by
the picture below.
The main oxygen supply comes from the hospital o2 generators.
YES THERE
IS EVEN A "LOO"
Inside
the entrance lock a fully functional flushable toilet is
provided
for the comfort of both patients and nursing staff.
IN HOUSE
ENTERTAINMENT
During
a typical treatment of 1.5 hours, Patients will breathe 100% Oxygen and
during treatment can be entertained by either reading, watching TV, video/DVD,
or listening to music of their choice.
In this
next picture (left) you can just see the nurses head sitting in a chair
while the patient being treated is on the left and TV screen is in the
foreground.
THE TEAM
The
medical team running this facility consists of the following staff
The above shot shows the opposite wall of the chamber without its covering and gas valves for the forward two Locks.
GAS MONITORING
This
picture show gas monitoring of each Lock.
Consisting
of two oxygen monitors and one Co2
monitor.
Flow meters are also used to ensure
correct
gas is being fed to the Lock.
There
is one of these panels for each Lock.
THE TABLES
This
picture shows a close up of the computer
screen
displaying an actual profile being run
on a
bent diver while I was present.
GAS OUT
The
computer also controls the gas mixtures
and
flush through of the chamber.
This
is done by air dumps controlled by
compressed
air which is linked to the computer.
All
exhaust gases are vented to the outside via
a collection
manifold below the valves.
GAS IN
Gas
in is also computer controlled here you
can
see the three sensor panels and solenoid operated addition valves used
to inject the right quantity of air, helium, or oxygen.
MANUAL CONTROL
This
shot shows the manual over-ride system
with
basic gas in gas out controls and gas
mixture
monitoring. To the right hand side
you
can also see one of the small air locks used
to ferry
food, medication, and liquids plus anything
else
that may need to be passed in and out of the
chamber
during a treatment.
This concludes
the tour of the largest Decompression Chamber in the Southern Hemisphere
Special thanks
to the team at the Hyperbaric unit in Townsville Hospital
for their patience
with my questions and photography and
also Fink Engineering
Pty Ltd.
Copyright©2001,2002 Tubbies Rebreather Pages