How serious do you take safety precautions when leaving the dock? Be honest: Do you really always wear a life jacket when going out? Let alone, connecting a tether to the boat when it gets dark or seas become rougher? To be honest, I kind of decide in situ, when to put on the jacket and when not. And I often catched myself being completely unprotected when sailing, making for some serious reassessments after berthing my boat, realizing how stupid I was. Well, it´s the old discussion, I guess.
Anyway, apart from the question when it´s advised to put on the life jacket and when not (about which I could easily write a whole book for sure), there´s one fact that in my opinion is unquestionable and should not be prone to any discussion at all: The very life jacket you are wearing should be made of high quality by a high-grade and trusted brand. And of course, it should be working, absolutely fail safe!
Why I only have Secumar life jackets
As a reader of my website you may have come across my various sailing stories and cruising reports. When sailing on my own boats, I solely and exclusively invest in just one brand: Secumar. Yes, this is going to be a praise for this particular manufacturer. Not because I have to do it nor do I feel obliged because it´s a German manufacturer. I do it because I am really convinced – and have proof – that Secumar is world leading in floatation devices and emergency products. Their life jackets are not only top notch: These are real high quality, real “Made in Germany”! By the way, they have invented it …
Albeit boatless now for over a year (with a silver stripe at the horizon since my new yacht will be in the water spring next year) I don´t have all too many new sailing stories for you by now. But no worries, these will start to pour in once my boat is in the water. And when this happens, for sure, the safety equipment life jacket-wise will consist of Secumar-products only. That goes for the adult-jackets as well as for the life jackets for my kids. Because, I want just the best for my offspring, no brainer!
Testing a life jacket … but how does it really work?
I´ve posted some articles in the past about my idea of how to train my kids in terms of onboard safety. Wearing life jackets is a no-discussion issue aboard my boat for them and I´ve always tried not to work with instilling fear or panic but with fascination and fun. By the way, if you have missed these articles and never want to skip any more of my content, just quickly subscribe to my monthly newsletter! Now, back to the life jackets: Part of training my kids is to explain how a life jacket operates, what triggers it to inflate and why it is so safe. Did you test the inflation of your life jacket already in real life?
I´ve done it multiple times and it is really revealing. For example, many people have the strange idea of a life jacket somehow “exploding” or rapidly expanding the buoyancy-device when triggered. Just like an air bag does in your car. Well, that´s of course nonsense, as the floatation device will inflate surprisingly “slow”, at least compared to an air bag. Much more misconceptions and myths are entwined around the very device that triggers the inflation process. “Explosion”, “shooting bolts” and, my favorite, “salt tablets” are among these. A wide range of colorful – but often flat wrong – stories and misbeliefs are still circulating.
So I took a chance to meet my friend Olivier, a Frenchman working for Secumar near Hamburg, who happens to be the Sales Director for the company´s leisure product division, at the Secumar production facility. And since I already have had the pleasure to receive a full tour through the fascinating production process (which you may read here), I asked him: “Could you take some minutes of your precious time and really explain, deeply explain, how the inflation trigger device works?” And I was happy that he was happy to once and for all get the chance to clean up with all the erroneous beliefs around these “inflators”.
XXXXBILD 05 daheim: Automat
So, let´s start at home. In the picture above you can see one of my life jackets (sadly stored at home, not on my boat). By opening the side zipper, the nicely and neatly folded buoyancy float is clearly visible. Next to it, the inflation device, called “inflator”. I kind of know which part is what and what it does, but let´s ask the professional to give a full explanation tour of this fascinating piece of engineering.
Life jacket inflation device: Parts and functions
Back in the conference room at Secumar, Olivier lays out a couple of devices. He emphasizes to start with their inflator 3001, the back device, which is the basic or standard inflator for most life-jackets sold by the company. With this specimen, the basic parts and functions can be explained best.
First of all there´s the CO2-container. It´s a little pressurized tank containing the gas that will later inflate the jacket´s floatation device. Why CO2? Because this is the only gaseous material that works in all temperature ranges and that can be compressed to fit those small cylinders. CO2 is also easy to manufacture and thus cheap in comparison to other gases, making it the perfect choice for all sorts of appliances: It´s used in life rafts as well as in your car´s airbag. Secumar has their gas cylinders made by a German supplier exclusively – each and every single canister is quality checked multiple times before attached to the device.
Olivier shows an already used cylinder, specifically points to the puncture at the nozzle. It´s not a simple puncture, it´s a perfectly round hole. That´s important, because the size of the opening determines the speed and power with which the gas will flow into the floating device, hence, how fast it will inflate. Making sure that this opening hole is stamped out in a perfect circle at exactly the desired size is key to a good inflator. With Secumar, therefore the “bolts” are no bolts, but really sharp, specially formed “needle”-like die-cutters, punching out these holes.
Sadly, this die-cutting punch-needle was too small and too “hidden” within the inflator to take a good picture from, but I guess you can imagine how important this little detail alone is to the overall function of the life jacket. Another important thing is this little white tablet you see on the picture above. In the Secumar 3001 it is inserted into the trigger-device at the side, protected against unwanted outside influences by a plastic cap. Olivier smiles: Most of the myths connected to inflators are evolving around this white thingy … so let´s have a thorough look.
Salt or not? Myths around the inflator´s tablet
Many, almost all, people call it a “salt-tablet”. That is wrong. This tablet has nothing to do with salt. Asking where this myth may have its origins, Olivier isn´t so sure, but it may have evolved from some French companies starting this salt-thing many years ago. From then on, still today, also in my circle of friends and even amongst keen sailors, the idea of a “salt-tablet” still resonates persistently.
Olivier hands me one of the tablets. In fact, these aren´t made of salt (which would be far too coarse-grained and thus too slow to dissolve) but of cellulose. This cellulose is highly compressed to form the solid shape of the tablet, but consists of the very same fibers as your newspapers or toilet tissue. The only difference is, that the fibers are cut and sheared extremely extensively. This milling process is repeated many times over to achieve a very fine “mist” of fibers. Again, a German producer us making these tablets for Secumar.
This producer is a pharmaceutical company. As it turned out, many production steps for making medicine, pills and tablets, do exactly what is needed to make the cellulose-pill exactly how they need it here at Secumar. And it´s not just the shredding and pressing of the raw material: Here it´s all about weight. A precise weight! Because there are pretty strict laws and guidelines for life jackets. One of these is after which amount of time, meaning when and how fast, a life jackets must be triggered and start to inflate. Hence, the time it needs to dissolve the pill to trigger the punching of the CO2-cartridge is paramount.
Each pill therefore must not be deviate from those specifics. Meaning size and form but foremost the weight has to be absolutely on spot: And we are talking fractions of a milligram here! This demands manufacturing precision only the pharmaceutical industry can provide. At least for Secumar, as they have the highest possible standards here, not only for their own manufacturing process, but for all of their suppliers. In this, these little white pills are comparable in manufacturing quality to the most expensive cancer treatment medicine. Amazing, isn´t it?
At home, I take one of the pills in my hand, having a glass of water ready. Olivier suggests to just very, very briefly dip the pill into the water and see how much time it takes to dissolve it. So I do it, as you can see at the pictures above. And I can tell you, these once rock-solid hard tablets turn to a fine, fluid mass in no time! It´s not seconds, it´s even one single second – the dissolving process is immediately. At once. What is left is a fine white slime or milky substance at the bottom of my little testing glass: It shows how fine cut the fibers are as there are no “fibers” visible. So: Once and for all, it´s not a “salt-tablet”, it´s a pill of highly compressed fine cut cellulose.
How the inflator works
But what is it for? Olivier puts a trigger device on the table. For showing the internal mechanism, this inflator is cut open, revealing its inner workings. On the left side from above you can clearly see the CO2-cartridge inserted. If screwed onto the flange, it´s counter-sealed by a special device that – to my knowledge – no other brand or manufacturer has: This device prohibits the cylinder to unscrew over time, which often happens in reality. Making sure the connection remains firm and air-tight and later not wasting the CO2 in an emergency because it is unscrewed and compromised. Below sits the “bolt”, or puncturing die-cutter. When triggered, it will shoot upwards and stamp out the whole you´ve already seen, giving way to the gas inflating the floatation device.
Now, here´s the trick: The puncture-cutter receives his energy to shoot through the CO2-cyclindr´s sealed nozzle from a very strong spring. That´s the coil you can see on the cut-open right side of the 3001-inflator. This spring is pre-set with a lot, lot of tension. Olivier lets me open and release the spring – it really takes quite some effort to put load back on it. That´s surprisingly lots of kinetic power. So, as the spring is under tension, this is where our little white friends come into play: The hardened pills are put between the spring and the puncture-cutter. As long as the tablet is solid and remains in its hard form, it will take on the loads of the spring and prevent it from going off. Once I contact with water – remember of fast it dissolved? – it will go away and release the spring´s power. The spring triggers the die-cutter, a whole is punched, gas will flow and the life jacket finally inflates. Sounds easy? Well, it took Secumar decades to develop and refine this mechanism. That is why their engraved patent on the inflator makes them so proud: It´s an awful lot of engineering and countless repetitions in testing.
What if the inflation doesn´t happen automatically?
So that´s how it works. Beautifully simple but absolutely stunning and complicated when looking at the details. I very vividly remember my first ever inflation test during a boat show presentation many years ago – it was indeed a Secumar life jacket. I dramatically simulated an MOB, fell into the pool, sank down … and nothing happened! Te dived wasn´t triggered. The life jacket did not inflate automatically. This can happen at times, Olivier tells me, the reason is often that maybe after a servicing the floatation device is packed in a way that the layers block water from entering the inflator. Sometimes, due to circumstances, the life jackets remain out of the water (too much air in the jackets for example). Well, don´t panic …
This is why automatic life jackets always have a manual trigger as well. A little lanyard with a knob. A short strong pull and it will inflate. For sure. But what exactly happens inside the inflator when pulled? Olivier shows me: The pulling of the lanyard will rip apart a safety pin (green in the picture) and bridge the blocking mechanism of the cellulose pill. The spring is then immediately released and thus the CO2-cylinder punctured. Let´s look closely at the picture below: Do you recognize the “A”, “B” and “C” markings on it? Well, this is important:
Looking closely onto the markings, you will notice the three letter letters of our alphabet. Now, Olivier´s finger shows the broken pin from manually triggering the system: Right next to it, position “A” turned red now. That´s an indication that the device has already been triggered and may be compromised. You may check life jackets (especially when you rent a boat or – heaven forbid! – buy a cheap second hand jacket. So, there´s apparently a way to determine if your life jacket is still “valid”, working and ready to save your life, right?
A life jacket is fail safe – if checked and maintained
Indeed, it is fail safe and will make you float on the surface of the oceans in case something really bad happens. But you have to take care of your life jacket and check it regularly. For starters, there´s a sign stating when the next official and professional service is due. You should adhere to this and have your life jackets serviced every 2 years by an officially licensed service provider, or, as in the case of Secumar, by the manufacturer itself. The second things you should check (apart from obvious damage inside and outside, cuts, holes and discolorizations), are the said three markings and their respective “green” status.
As you can see in the picture above, Secumar´s most sold 3001 inflator has three spots to take care of: Position “A” is the said safety pin directly in front of the punching die-cutter. This should be green, indicating, that the device hasn´t been triggered already. Position “B” is related to the cellulose pill and also indicates that the water-dissolving-mechanism is ready to go. The last, “C”-position is a green marking directly on the CO2-cartridge. If it is not screwed onto the flange exactly, it will show red. If red is apparent, this will mean the CO2 will be lost, not inflating the life jacket. So, as for the 3001, three positions. Apart from this inflator, which has been sold and successfully triggered, savings hundreds of lives in many million copies, Secumar did take a bold step to re-define safety and maintenance for its products: This is the 4001 new generation inflator:
The 4001 series trigger device is built in all the “pro”-models in their range. Secumar offers seven different models for life jackets specially made for the use on sailing yachts alone, not to mention many dozens more for professional and even military use. In terms of leisure products, the 4001-trigger is the one I went for in my own life jackets too. Why? It comes with some pretty neat features. First of all, there is only one single label to check, one indicator showing that either the device is ready to go, or not.
It all starts with the CO2-cylinder. It´s basically the same cartridge as used for all the other life jackets, but this one receives an upper part extension, a cap. It is securely glued to the cylinder with a strong, time- and water resistant 2K-composite. The cap either indicates “red” for “something is wrong” or “green” for “all is good”. To make sure it cannot move once screwed in place, Secumar substituted the ordinary screw top with a modern, easy-to-use bayonet-coupling. This makes sure that the CO2-nozzle will always be close enough to be punched and tightly sealed to the inflation-pipe to pump up the float.
Also, the whole trigger-mechanism has been downsized a bit, making it more compact and less prone to outside influences. They´ve even thought of the cellulose-pill. It´s the same pill as ever, but put into a small plastic cartridge. That way, it can be replaced or taken out to be checked by everyone. Even with moist fingers underway (remember how incredibly fast the pill dissolves?) it is now protected because the little pill-cage makes it impossible to touch the pill.
That way, if everything is set, CO2 is connected and the pill-cartridge installed, the indicator will turn “green”. Again, the 4001 can also be triggered manually, for sure. Another nice thing is that the life jackets equipped with the 4001-inflator have a little control window (check the beginning of this article, it is visible on the picture) which enables you to check the vest´s status and not having to open it, messing around with the folded float-layers (which in turn can make you re-pack it the wrong way, blocking water from entering the vest …) I quite like how they still put so much brain effort and ideas into refining and developing their products here.
A last detail: I now also understand that the colors of the manual lanyard-triggering of the life jackets has a meaning too. Red knob means this is an automatic life jacket, yellow likewise means that this particular life jacket hasn´t got any automatic inflator. Because you can have the life jackets with manual-only inflation. Being a guest on a yacht or chartering a boat, take a closer look at the colors of these knobs. I didn´t knew this up until now.
A huge responsibility
So, of course this all has its price. I know many sailing friends who don´t consider life jackets a special item worth a certain (small as possible) budget. And you can really save quite a nice sum when equipping your yacht. You can get a 150 N life jacket bought from a cheap brand for less than 50 Euros! SECUMAR´s entry level life jacket clocks in at some 190 to 200 Euros. Imagine a 4-person boat: 600 Euros saved! But here´s the thing: There is no other manufacturer in the world with a production depth as SECUMAR. All parts are either purpose made exclusively for them by selected German companies or … they make it themselves. Most of the other brands buy their components from different suppliers, though.
Apart from this real “Made in Germany”-approach, there is another reason to go for the gold standard. The rigorous testing. Each and every part, like the CO2-cylinder, the pill, the spring or the garments used to make the floating device, are checked by hand. Every. Single. Part. By hand! No joke! Plus, they do it at different stages of the production: Upon delivery, before assembly, after assembly. For example, the 3001 and 4001 inflators are assembled and double-checked by specially trained people: Near and around the Hamburg factory, Secumar has a long standing tradition to work together with workshops which employ autistic people. Thorough, 100% human checked. No other brand does it this uncompromisingly.
No wonder that the German Navy and Luftwaffe trust the lives of their crewmen and pilots to the products made (and serviced) by Secumar! Many airlines, many of which are not German carriers, exclusively order their life-vests from these people, not to mention a lot of professional shipping companies and offshore operators. And it´s so logical too: Would you really dare to save money on the one thing that will save your life or the lives of your children and loved ones? Well, me neither.
So, I hope you´ve enjoyed this little excursion into the world of live jacket inflators. If you happen to be in Hamburg, give Olivier a call: They have a very, very interesting museum showing the development of their products from the days of the Battleship BISMARCK up until now and a “glass factory” approach. It´s really worth it!
You may check all articles related to the Secumar brand and products by clicking on this hashtag #secumar
You might find these connect articles interesting to check as well:
Safety for sailing kids: Life jacket lessons and life jacket drills
Offshore sailing safety – testing a survival suit
Training the MOB: Live test of a life jacket and MOB sailing maneuver