Luxfer Assist's Dive to the Bottom of the World
25 March 2012
LUXFER CYLINDERS USED IN FLOTATION BAGS FOR JAMES CAMERON'S DIVE TO BOTTOM OF THE SEAS
RIVERSIDE, CA.
March 30 2012
Enclosed in a pressurised pilot's sphere only 43 inches (109 centimetres) wide, James Cameron began his dive early Sunday morning, March 25 2012 at a point about 300 miles east of Guam, the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands. In less than two minutes, he found himself in cold, total darkness as he plunged towards the bottom of the "Challenger Deep" fissure, the deepest rift in the Earth's crust.
When he touched down at 7:52 am local time he had travelled 6.8 miles (10.9 kilometres) or 35,756 feet (10,898 metres). As a comparison, the peak of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth, is 29,035 feet (8,850 metres) above sea level.
In an unusual inflation application for Luxfer cylinders, Luxfer's customer Subsalve USA provided specialised marine flotation bags used to stabilise and deploy James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger mini-submarine for the famous filmmaker's unprecendented solo plunge to the deepest place on Earth: the bottom of the Mariana Trench nearly seven miles below the surface of the western Pacific Ocean.
Four Subsalve enclosed flotation bags were used to buoy up and correctly position the 26-foot-long (7.9-metre), 12-ton submarine for the historic dive. Subsalve is a world leader in underwater flotation for ship and boat salvage, aircraft recovery, marine construction and offshore oilfield diving. The company uses Luxfer S80 and L87M cylinders to inflate its bags; S80s were used with the Cameron submarine.
NB: The National Geographic illustration shows the Deepsea Challenger submarine being readied for a dive. Flotation bags attached to the submarine to facilitate deployment and recovery were manufactured by Luxfer's customer Subsalve USA and inflated by Luxfer cylinders. This image is attributed to National Geographic and is copyrighted and comes from issued press materials.
Luxfer Gas Cylinders is a division of Luxfer Group, the global materials technology company.
