Rescue Operations: Why Quality and Reliability are the Backbone of High-Pressure Equipment

Rescue Operations

Most often high-pressure gas boosters and pumps are known for their role in aerospace, fluid power, oil and gas, and more recently, hydrogen applications. However, high-pressure products play an important and often overlooked role in emergency, rescue and safety applications, which is important to the engineers at Haskel. Whether deploying emergency aircraft escape shoots or refilling SCBA or SCUBA air cylinders on the fire scene or dive site, Haskel engineers know these mission-critical operations, be it by land, air or sea, require the best quality and most reliable equipment.

Built to Last: Haskel Boosters Stand the Test of Time

The world's attention recently focused on Thailand where a soccer team and their coach were trapped in a flooded cave. As officials planned out the rescue operation, the level of difficulty surrounding this task was clear to everyone watching. The rescue required divers, including Navy SEALS and members of the Royal Thai Navy, to dive 1.7 kilometers through dark, narrow, rocky passages to reach the stranded team.

thai cave rescue infographic

The historic rescue mission was an incredible success with all 13 trapped individuals being brought out from the cave safely and in good health. More than 1,000 people took part in the operation in some way, including members of the Thai army and many volunteers. One individual who contributed to the mission was the owner of Easytek, a small business in Thailand, who freely supplied the rescue team with diving gear and oxygen cylinders. That act of generosity turned out to be significant to the diving mission.

The equipment supplied by Easytek included the only gas booster that didn't fail in service during the rescue mission. This one oxygen booster operated full-time to support the necessary dive operations, sustaining the continual refilling of oxygen cylinders used by the rescuers who were wearing rebreathers – approximately 600 cylinders were used throughout the operation.

That specific oxygen gas booster was a decades-old, secondhand Haskel product. The booster had been rebuilt in 2017 and supplied to Easytek by our distributor American Airworks, an expert in high-pressure breathing air and oxygen products and scuba diving applications.

Knowing that our dedication to high quality and reliable engineering contributed to such a critical mission is humbling, these are the stories that remind us why our organization was built on the foundation of safety and quality. We know the importance of giving our users confidence and peace of mind that their equipment won't fail them as they jump in to action to help others.

In 2010 when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, Haskel's line of BuTech subsea valves was used in the operation that successfully sealed the cap and ended the spill. Our team, wanting to help in any way possible, went to countless measures to produce the valves that were needed to help ensure the crisis was ended as soon as possible. With the agreement of our customers, we suspended standard BuTech production to create capacity. Haskel's General Manager personally flew to a supplier to pick up components necessary to manufacture the valves.

At Haskel, quality and reliability are at the heart of our product development. We're proud to support incredible teams that put themselves at risk to help others with these foundational values.


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