Spine Plate
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| Configuration of components on
spine plate excluding BCD for clarity |
The spine plate is a unique feature in the design of the ABEL
Mark 5 SCR. It enables almost any hard back stab jacket and
cylinder combination to be used in the configuration of an
SCR. The only modification necessary to your existing OC
SCUBA equipment is to have your cylinder and demand valve
serviced for Nitrox use.
Incorporated into the spine plate design are the mounting
points for counter lungs, gas metering valve train, main
cylinder mounting rails, scrubber mounting saddle, stab
jacket attachment and ditchable ballast system. All the
major components are attached to the spine plate by simple
clips or cambuckle bands and snap connectors, hence all that
is required to attach the individual components to the spine
plate are your fingers.
The ditchable ballast system is a unique safety feature of
the spine plate, and one that we feel is an important issue.
Should the breathing loop become flooded for whatever reason
the set could become negatively buoyant by up to as much as
+8kg in the case of the largest counter lungs. Having a
ditchable ballast system would help in overcoming this
unlikely eventuality by reducing the amount of negative
buoyancy.
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Construction of the spine plate is
from heavy duty materials. This coupled with the
load spreading design helps it to withstand the
high stress loading that can be placed on it
when large cylinders etc. are used in the system
configuration. When correctly set up with the
additional cambands used to secure the cylinder,
counter lungs and spine plate together and
correctly tensioned, cylinders sliding out of
stab jackets will become a thing of the past! |
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