Welding cooling suit

[Cir]

I work as a welder, which means I generally have to wear heaps of heavy leather gear that prevents air from moving around my body and sweat from evaporating. When the temperature hits 40C in summer (104F) and I'm blazing away on some big ugly hunk of metal that's over 300 degrees, it's rather uncomfortable.

I started looking up cooling suits, the ones that firefighters, bomb techs and racing drivers use. They seem pretty simple, so I was thinking of trying to build one.

http://www.coolshirt.net/index.html
Here's one of the larger distributors.

It seems fairly straightforward; take a long sleeve t-shirt, sew a bunch of surgical tubing to it, attach a little pump and a battery, and an insulated container to hold a block of ice. Since they seem to charge upwards of $400, I'm pretty sure I could pull it off for far cheaper.

I was thinking of even improving the design so that the water is pumped as a result of your bodily movement, thus eliminating the need for an electric pump and battery.

I figure the easiest way to implement this is to have two separate circulatory systems, and a larger flexible tube moving along the arms. The tube would have a one-way valve on either end, and so when you bend your arm at the elbow (as in touching your shoulder) you would compress the tube and reduce it's internal volume, and force the water out of the wrist valve. And then extending your arm, you would decompress the tube, and it would have negative pressure and a larger internal volume that would draw more cold water in through the one-way valve at the shoulder or neck.

This way, the more you move your arms, the more water is pumped through the suit, and the cooler you get.

As for the ice reservoir, I was thinking of using the same foam that is used in thermos cups, and making a small, thin, rectangular box, possibly lined with aluminum for durability, which would rest at the small of your back.

If I could get the arm-pumps working effectively, then that would cut weight and bulk by half, and allow more room for more ice. The coolshirt ones claim that 1.2 litres of ice will cool a person at 35C for about two hours. If I can get a four liter reservoir to last for four hours, I'd be pretty happy. And four liters of ice only weighs about four kilograms, and when located on your back, it would be hardly noticeable.

What y'all think?

[RDProgrammer]

I think the arm pumps don't have a chance of working as described. The change of a tube bending would be very little, and hardly enough to move a lot of chilled water. What would likely work better is a bilge pump type of setup on the inside of your arm that is attached at your wrist and around your bicep by the elbow. This way there will be a few inches of stroke when your arm is bent, moving more water.

Ultimately I'd just go witha small electrical pump as the reliability would be more important to me.

RDP

[Sentinel owl]

Yeah I'll second the electric pump. It'd be hard to rig up a mechanical version that would work well. Tubing is cheap, foam is cheap. Just the pump will be tough. What would be a good source of small, efficient electric pumps? Maybe some type of RC vehicle?

[RDProgrammer]

What would be a good source of small, efficient electric pumps? Maybe some type of RC vehicle?

The only small, readily available pumps I can think of are wind-shield wiper pumps (it'd have to be a pulsing pumping system as they'd burn out in constant use) or the pumps from a small desk sized water fountain, but IDK if they'd have the power to push water through 100 feet or so of tubing.

RDP

[bornkiller]

[/QUOTE]RDP said it, A 12v bilge pump would be a better alternative as it would have enough pressure to feed that much tubing & pulsing it would prolong it's life.
I could use one of these.....welding through summers a fuckin bitch.:(

[eesakiwi]

Most MIGs I have used have a water cooled torch.

I guess its possible to use it to cool down a water cooling jacket as well.

Though the cooling units I have seen are somewhere between 'usuable' & 'pretty shitty'.

First you would need a larger water tank on it & you might get away with just looping a thin tube thru your clothing.

NZ isn't that hot, temp wise, would be pushing it to get to 28Deg C.

[bornkiller]

Most MIGs I have used have a water cooled torch.

I guess its possible to use it to cool down a water cooling jacket as well.

Though the cooling units I have seen are somewhere between 'usuable' & 'pretty shitty'.

First you would need a larger water tank on it & you might get away with just looping a thin tube thru your clothing.

NZ isn't that hot, temp wise, would be pushing it to get to 28Deg C.

I'm in Northland not the South.
In summer we're shooting closer to the mid 30's close to 40s don't believe tv3s weather.
That shits taken from the top of the windy sky tower:rolleyes:
When your dressed in welding gear the effects are felt. (then again a cold beer taste better @ the end of the day:D)

[eesakiwi]

I'm in Northland not the South.
In summer we're shooting closer to the mid 30's close to 40s don't believe tv3s weather.
That shits taken from the top of the windy sky tower:rolleyes:
When your dressed in welding gear the effects are felt. (then again a cold beer taste better @ the end of the day:D)

Oh, I was replying to the OP.

But yeah, it gets hot up there, the humiditys a killer.
Heres no where as bad. Even when its hot, its mostly 'sun heat' which means that you get gusts of cold wind & its OK in the shadows.

Gets dry real quick & the suns just so damn bright everything fades away.
6 month old paint looks like it was last painted 3 yrs ago.

I get used to the cold a lot faster than the heat.

Haha, Sky tower! The temp there would be nothing like the actual temp.

I worked in a workshop with twenty other guys welding 1.4mm wire & I went thru 3 litres of frozen softdrink every day.

[bornkiller]

Oh, I was replying to the OP.

But yeah, it gets hot up there, the humiditys a killer.
Heres no where as bad. Even when its hot, its mostly 'sun heat' which means that you get gusts of cold wind & its OK in the shadows.

Gets dry real quick & the suns just so damn bright everything fades away.
6 month old paint looks like it was last painted 3 yrs ago.

I get used to the cold a lot faster than the heat.

Haha, Sky tower! The temp there would be nothing like the actual temp.

I worked in a workshop with twenty other guys welding 1.4mm wire & I went thru 3 litres of frozen softdrink every day.
The heat here is Humid frustrating when welding outdoors.
Soft drinks, thank fuck for that shit:thumbsup:

[nooner]

A small aquarium pump would probably serve your purpose well. Even the smaller ones can get upwards of 100 gallons an hour. They usually take wall current, though, so you'd have to futz with a converter for your battery power.

[Metafire]

That 'suit' looks kind of like this.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Too-Hot-Remove-heat-from-your-body-with-the-Back-/

[The Cheshire Cat]

I feel your pain. :(

I do all my welding in an enclosed room here in the shop, and in the summer it's unbearable. :mad: I've even said fuck it a few times because of the heat and welded in my my t-shirt... I know, it's stupid but sometimes I can't take the heat!

Also,

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/O__RLY/010509_130600.jpg

And

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/O__RLY/042709_161700.jpg

[Sentinel owl]

A thought: Why bother with moving water? Why not just put a large, thin layer of ice (a chest-sized ice pack, if you will) over some metal mesh or mail and use heat conduction directly?

[bornkiller]

I feel your pain. :(

I do all my welding in an enclosed room here in the shop, and in the summer it's unbearable. :mad: I've even said fuck it a few times because of the heat and welded in my my t-shirt... I know, it's stupid but sometimes I can't take the heat!

Also,

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/O__RLY/010509_130600.jpg

And

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/O__RLY/042709_161700.jpg

That's a good idea ^ welders in these forums should do a zoklet weld on a piece of metal! :D
I'll do mine this weekend sometime.

Did your arms suffer from weld burn? (sunburn hard)
mine did....It hurt.:(

[RDProgrammer]

A thought: Why bother with moving water? Why not just put a large, thin layer of ice (a chest-sized ice pack, if you will) over some metal mesh or mail and use heat conduction directly?

There would be no chance in hell of this conduction heat all the way to your arms or even shoulders. You'd end up with an exceptionally (uncomfortably) cold chest and hot arms, inducing chills.

RDP

[mrparks]

^Be much better to just focus the cooling on the femoral, brachial and carotid arteries instead of the entire body, plus the natural heat vents such as the groin, armpit and head.

Essentially supercharging the existing evaporation system by directly cooling the heat exchangers.

Like a bikini version of a stillsuit. :D

[yawanur]

Practically it seems the best way to construct your type of suit would involve some sort of slim backpack/hip pack rig to hold the electric pump, battery, and a copper/aluminum heat sink to keep the liquid cool.

What about a suit made with thin metallic hemispheres oriented with the round side against some sort of long-sleeve under armor-type shirt? Maybe each one would be 1/2" across, interlock in a hex pattern. IIRC most metals conduct heat better than air, so you would cool off like a giant heat sink.

I'm not sure the hemispheres would work the best, but basically some sort of chain mail made up of aluminum units designed to maximize surface area against the body and strength/weight ratio, while minimizing maximum thickness of the part.

Plus you'd look like a robot

[Cir]

Plus you'd look like a robot

This alone is reason enough to do it.

[BoilingLeadBath]

Why do you need to do it with water?

Indeed, why do you need to apply the cold to the external limbs?

I say apply the cold to the inside of the lungs. Given typical mild exertion breathing rates (assumed 0.8 cf/m) and 0*C air, you could get 20 watts or so of cooling. (compared to the 4 W you'll get with 30*C outside air)

I'm thinking an air-to-water heat exchanger and a supply of cold water. You can probably avoid the complexity of making a one-way-valve arrangement and just do that manually. (ie; in through the cold-air-hose, out through the nose)

[The Cheshire Cat]

That's a good idea ^ welders in these forums should do a zoklet weld on a piece of metal! :D
I'll do mine this weekend sometime.


http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/O__RLY/040609_143800.jpg

It looks like shit, but I guess that's what I get for using 5/16 6011 rod... :(


Did your arms suffer from weld burn? (sunburn hard)
mine did....It hurt.:(

Not really. Then again, if I'm not wearing anything protective I try not to weld for very long just for that reason.