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Wetsuits, Drysuits & Undersuits: Discuss Drysuit Zips: a simple question for the intelligent... in the Dive Kit and Equipment forums: We take them for granted. We cover them in bee's wax and strange gloopy stuff. We curse them when ...

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Old 23-01-05, 06:11 PM
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Richie Richie is offline
Dunno really........ thinking about it
  

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Question Drysuit Zips: a simple question for the intelligent...
We take them for granted.
We cover them in bee's wax and strange gloopy stuff.
We curse them when they leak.
We cry when we replace them.

But do we UNDERSTAND them?


How on earth do dry suit zips actually work??
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Old 23-01-05, 06:51 PM
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They're not too complaicated. The metal teeth on the inside of the zip and the rubber inbetween them seal against an exact reverse of themselves on the other side. The big brass teeth on the outside are to make it all hold together as far as I understand it. Quite hard to explain really.

Surely you can see by looking at it closely, and seeing what happens when you open and close it?

OK, so who invented the drysuit zip? When did we go from rolling the top and bottom together to suddenly the miracle zips which seem to easy for everyone else to break, and yet mine's just about to go in after 10 years of loyal service. And it's only going in because it weeps a little bit, and I want an overzip to protect it.
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Old 23-01-05, 08:03 PM
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Try http://science.howstuffworks.com/zipper.htm/printable

Thats for a normal zip which is the basic principle - just add a bit of rubber on one side to make it watertight, make it out of some tougher material, and you've got a drysuit zip!

David
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Old 23-01-05, 09:14 PM
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Duh...
  

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The thing that always gets me is that the huge brass bits on the outside are just for the slider to run on. The teeth are those imperceptible little dots buried in the rubber up the inside.

nigelH
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Old 24-01-05, 08:26 AM
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Dunno really........ thinking about it
  

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Thanks guys -
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Old 10-07-05, 08:52 PM
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Apparently the initial basis was from NASA as they needed an airtight zip for the space suits.

You can see some of the old NASA suit pics with a front entry diagonal style zip which is cool.

I'm presuming that most manufacturers don't use the same zips as NASA would though...
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Old 10-07-05, 11:43 PM
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Originally Posted by Little Pete
Apparently the initial basis was from NASA as they needed an airtight zip for the space suits.

You can see some of the old NASA suit pics with a front entry diagonal style zip which is cool.

I'm presuming that most manufacturers don't use the same zips as NASA would though...
I dunno. About 95% of the worlds metal zips are made by two Japanese companies - BDM and YKK. Cjeck your flies now and I bet it has one of those two sets of initials on them.

Janos
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Old 11-07-05, 07:56 AM
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There are also 2 types of Diving Zips, Cheapy nasty lightweight Zips and the heavy weight Zips. You'll find that normally the cheaper Suits have the lightweight Zips. No problem with that other than they don't generally last so long and are more prone to breaking. As I now know the price difference between a new cheapy Zip and a Heavy weight Zip is only about £30. Guess which one I just bought? They are also piggign expensive to replace and mines currently costing me £150!
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Old 11-07-05, 12:53 PM
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dlegros dlegros is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janos
I dunno. About 95% of the worlds metal zips are made by two Japanese companies - BDM and YKK. Cjeck your flies now and I bet it has one of those two sets of initials on them.

Janos
Actually, BDM is owned by YKK and make half of their zips in Slough

Quote:
When did YKK come in to the picture ?

The YKK group purchased the NZCo in 1983, and completely re-engineered the factory at the time of moving to the present address in 1989. YKK's experience in conventional zipper manufacture has assisted the NZCo in upgrading the product in several areas in recent years. NZCo's experience in dry zippers has assisted YKK in other semi-dry projects.. The New Zipper factory is considered to be the hub of the sealed zipper world. We were first to make a sealed both ends zipper suitable for divers, first into space with a NASA project, first to achieve ISO9000, first on the Web, first into PE development, first into PU development... All this from a small company (30 staff) in Slough ! We now have 50% of the total World Market serviced from Slough.


See http://www.bdmzip.co.uk


Dom
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Last edited by dlegros : 11-07-05 at 12:57 PM.
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Old 11-07-05, 01:34 PM
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John N John N is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janos
I dunno. About 95% of the worlds metal zips are made by two Japanese companies - BDM and YKK. Cjeck your flies now and I bet it has one of those two sets of initials on them.

Janos
My flies have buttons marked 'Hackett London'
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