This month we talk to Duncan Price who discusses Cave Diving, Thai cave rescue, and more... as a Cave Explorer, Chemical Engineer, Author and all round interesting person - this is a must read!.... 

Let's talk about your expertise. What interests you and drives you to master fluid applications?

"I’m a cave diver in my spare time. I’ve been involved with caving and diving for nearly 30 years though caving is my primary hobby. The diving aspect is purely a means to explore caves both in the UK and overseas, just like having a car is essential to get to places not served by public transport."

What piqued your personal interest in this field?

"In 2000 my friends and I became interested in making longer and deeper cave dives. The means to do this was to use a rebreather – a device which removes carbon dioxide from your exhaled breath and recycles it. It is much more efficient than simply breathing air from a cylinder and blowing out bubbles. It’s old technology and the Cave Diving Group to which I belong has been using them on and off since 1946 when it was formed. It is the longest-lived diving organisation in the world."

Tell me how you ensured the safety of the rebreather...

"Of course you can’t simply scrub out CO2 from your exhaled breath and inhale it again as you’d simply run out of oxygen. A closed-circuit rebreather must add a trickle of oxygen to make up that used up by the diver’s metabolism. We needed a means to do this and turned to Swagelok needle valves to meter a feed of pure oxygen into the device. There are commercially available rebreathers which are available to sports divers these days, but they are bulky units designed for use in the sea not the confines of an underwater cave. We built rebreathers that could fit on your chest or wear on your side so that you could squeeze through small gaps or even take them off and push them ahead of you. It’s the sort of stuff that gives most people nightmares!"

Where have your rebreathers been used?…

"An early success was using a slimline rebreather to establish a new UK cave diving depth record at Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset of 90 metres. I’ve taken my “toys” to France and the USA and helped others build similar devices for underwater cave exploration."

What are you currently working on?

"There are always opportunities for improvements in our gear. The cave environment is quite harsh and making more rugged devices is a challenge. One design criterion is that you can kick your breathing apparatus around a car park and then take it diving."

Where/when was your last field trip/site visit?

"I’ve used my rebreathers to enable me to stay underwater for longer and map caves using hand-held SONAR wands and waterproof laser range finders. Over several dives lasting up to 2 hours I mapped nearly a kilometre of submerged cave passage taking measurements every 5 metres - it’s both cutting edge and laborious."

Tell me more about your involvement in the Thai cave rescue...

"As well as flow control valves we also employ quick-disconnects to be able to change gas supplies over, underwater. The rescue of a group of boys trapped in a Thai cave in 2018 used quick-disconnects to be able to swap cylinders over without interrupting their breathing supply and keep the casualties alive."

Do you prefer focusing on small sections of a fluid system or is a whole overview generally more productive?

"I generally try to keep the component count as low as possible – the cheapest and most reliable component is the one you don’t have…"

What are your favourite Swagelok products and why?

"Braided steel hoses feature in many of my designs – they take a lot of abuse. I use both standard female disconnects and the low profile instrumentation type so that I can feel which one is which with gloves on. It is critical not to connect the wrong gas mixture and although I like to colour code things, a tactile indication helps."

What are the 3 most essential systems or tools you use to complete your project?

"It might seem odd, but I like to browse a hard copy product manual for ideas. As I alluded to earlier a 'Keep It Simple Stupid' approach works best. As I’m doing all of this out of my own pocket I give very careful thought to every order."

What are the benefits of using Swagelok in your opinion?

"It is the brand leader. I’ve had a personal account with Swagelok since 2002 and I’ve been quite loyal although I’m not averse to using other suppliers if I can’t find the right fitting – I have got friends to buy components in the US or even Australia and ship them to me."

How does Swagelok Bristol support your design/fabrication?

"I often order by telephone and the staff are very patient and helpful when I don’t quite have the right part numbers. They are happy to give advice on what I need to achieve what I want to do."

How do customers start conversations with you?

"Perhaps because of my encyclopaedic knowledge of the Swagelok range for such a niche application my friends often message me on social media for advice."

Thanks so much Duncan! 

Use the links below for more insight into Duncan's expertise, cave diving experience and publications... http://www.sump4.com/about.html

This interview series is with Richard Walsh, Engineering and Maintenance Manager at A-Gas. From a Chemical background Richard talks about the culture in the refrigeration industry and the necessity for reliable global supply. 

Lets talk about your industries, who do you serve?

A-Gas has over 25 years’ experience in the   supply and life-cycle management of refrigerants and associated products. We are a leading supplier to the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration industries, and our product portfolio extends to serve the automotive and fire protection industry.

Personally, I have been working at A-Gas for the last 13 months now and these are new sectors for me to work within. It has been a great opportunity where I have been able to demonstrate I can learn a new industry and bring my previous experiences with me to help move the business forward. A-Gas is in a great sphere at present within the Refrigeration industry changing as a result of the F-Gas regulation.

What piqued your personal interest in this field?

I have previously worked within the Chemical Industry from a Product Delivery perspective, supporting all the Oil Majors across the Globe. A-Gas has given me the opportunity to delve into the Processing side of the Chemical Industries and understand the intricacies involved to ensure customer demand is met on a daily basis. A-Gas has a fantastic culture where people are empowered and encouraged to better themselves and contribute to the success of our business. I feel privileged to be able to work with a team that are forward thinking, focused on improving site performance, and aspired to grow our operations.

What are and how did you end up solving your customers problems? 

When our customers grow, A-Gas must grow. We must continue to meet demand in an ever-changing industry. We must ensure our customers have the right products, in the right quantity and in the right place. We must ensure we can continue with Business As Usual every day of every week.

Early last year it was becoming evident that we were outgrowing our existing site. We were stocking more products, expanding our cylinder fleet, improving our in house capabilities and growing our team. We made the decision to source a bigger facility to house our distribution activities and better meet the needs of our customers.

Bringing our new facility on site was a challenge for the entire A-Gas team. The whole organisation pulled together to ensure the facility was ready to operate as a logistics base, with infrastructure programmes implemented, operational processes relocated and the upheaval of moving the staff to make it all happen.

The project involved many talented individuals to pull off the move and deliver an excellent facility that will position A-Gas well moving forward.

Critical vendors and components such as those manufactured and supplied by Swagelok have helped to support us, giving us piece of mind that the equipment supplied for such a project is the best available and fit for the applications we need them for.

Tell me about the location of some of your installations…

The equipment that Swagelok components go into are based all over the world, from South Africa, Australia, USA, to here in our European Territory within the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. The A-Gas group continues to look at its strategic growth and ensure its facilities are fully utilised, whilst sharing best practice and learning from each other. The ability to adapt and deliver the services and products where the customer needs them is key to our success. The business and installations around the world work and evolve to ensure that we provide the best service that we can. The global business needs to have confidence in the equipment it is using, to know that it will work first time, every time. We also need to have confidence in the after sales support provided by our suppliers so that if we do have any issues that these can be resolved quickly. Having dependable, reliable, global suppliers are critical to this goal.

Where/when was your last field trip/site visit?

Today. Based in Portbury, near Bristol, our fantastic site is my office. I have the fortunate position where everyday I get to work with a team of people who are key to the success of A-Gas. We ensure that the equipment our production team depend upon works efficiently and effectively to deliver the product required by the customers on time and in the right place.

What are you currently working on?

Currently we are working on upgrading parts of our UK facilities to improve capacity, and efficiency, whilst implementing the best available solutions for our processing plants across Europe. This ranges from upgrades to our industrial gas facilities, improvements to our reclamation capability and implementing state of the art business system solutions.

Tell me a success story...

Obtaining a new site, stripping out the old infrastructure and installing a custom-built facility to meet the needs of our ever-expanding business is one of our great success stories. Improving operational efficiencies, implementing lean processing principles and ensuring our normal operations continued Business As Usual with no disruption to our customers was of paramount importance. And I am pleased to stand here today and say we did it.

The A-Gas ‘Together We Can’ spirit is inspiring to see every day. Individuals from all backgrounds and levels of experiences come together to resolve the issues we face, whether project related or part of our day to day tasks, and look to implement solutions to stop it happening again. We really are one team.

Do you prefer focusing on small sections of a fluid system or is a whole overview generally more productive in terms of ROI?

Whole overview is critical. In this type of industry a small change or deviation could have a profound impact on another part of the process. This can range from reduced up time of equipment with early equipment failures, operational processes being impacted with inefficiency in throughput, to the inability to meet the needs of our customers. An eye for detail is crucial to success, but if this is taken out of context or implemented without consideration of the overall system it could have catastrophic results. Therefore always referring back to the bigger picture and understanding the wider implications a small change, improvement can has is key to the success of the UK operations.

What are your favorite Swagelok products and why?

An integral part of the A-Gas facilities are the valves, fittings and tubing which form parts of the process equipment. These items are critical to our ability to be able to meet the demands of our customers as any downtime will have a significant impact on supply. Therefore having a reliable supplier like Swagelok who can meet our requirements for new equipment, spares and replacement parts is a very valuable differentiator for A-Gas. The Swagelok components supplied are of a high standard and very reliable in the applications we use them within. The equipment is also easy to service allowing the maintenance team at A-Gas to keep on top of their schedules for these items and focus on other critical aspects of the plant.

What are the benefits of using Swagelok in your opinion?

With continued availability, excellent quality, ease of installation and great support services, A-Gas have been using the Swagelok product offering for over 20 years and it continues to form part of our engineering solutions today.

How does Swagelok Bristol support your design/fabrication?

We see Swagelok as an extension of our capabilities to help deliver the required solutions we need to meet our everyday customer demands. The Swagelok team continuously offer support to find solutions, whilst providing training for our team and sharing their ever growing knowledge base with us.

How do customers start conversations with you?

We love talking to our customers and prospects whether via phone, email or face to face. Social media is playing a big part in our daily communications with people contacting us via linked in, Instagram and Facebook. Why not take a look at our website for more information on A-Gas: We do a lot more than you think!