On 2 Feb 2001, at 20:35, David Strike wrote:


>
> A little later I came upon the Mares brochure that talks about their new
> 'Ti-Planet' - a regulator with titanium first and second stage parts.  I was
> particularly interested in the little box at the bottom of the page that
> read:  "Warning.  Titanium is incompatible with oxygen-rich environments,
> therefore the Ti-Planet should not be used with nitrox breathing mixtures."
>
> I've never before given much thought to those materials used in the
> construction of regulators - but perhaps it's time to do so!  :-)

As Lee mentioned there was an incident last year out in California
with an instructor that was badly burned by an O2 fire that has
been  suggested was caused by O2 interaction with the Ti in the
reg. It was an atomic reg used on a  deco bottle with somewhere
between 80 and 100% O2 in it. Fire started when rig was turned
on. Diver was sitting on back of truck suited up and getting ready
to go back into water. He turned on gas and reg "exploded" setting
his wet suit on fire. He was burned pretty badly but survived the
incident. There were pics on the net at one time showing the
damage to the tank but I can't seem to locate them now. The rig
was  supposedly O2 cleaned but I saw a post the other day that
indicated that there might have oil or grease in the back of the
truck that could have gotten on the 1st stage.


>
> Have a great week-end all of you.  I'm heading north for a couple of days -
> by which time my list server will, hopefully, have sorted out the problems.
> :-)
>
> Strike


~~~~~~~~~
Mike
North Alabama Association of Technical Divers
members.home.net/mwallace61/main.htm
www.tech-diver.com
~~~~~~~~~