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ENHANSING PERSONAL PERFORMANCE AND SAFETY IN ADVERSE CONDITIONS USING COOLZONE EXOTHERM CONSTANT TEMPERATURE TECHNOLOGY
Maintaining peak performance and stamina are major challenges for personnel operating in high temperatures and when wearing body armor, protective garments (like chemical protective suits) or in closed up vehicles.
As the body heats up and perspires attention and energy levels drop, fatigue and drowsiness are felt and reaction times are reduced. These symptoms can have serious adverse impacts on combat effectiveness and health and can be particularly critical for pilots and vehicle crews. Drinking offers only limited benefit in addressing this problem and generally is not able to keep up with the loss of body fluids that occurs with even moderate activity. Equally serious is the cumulative adverse effect on the body of over heating and dehydration over days and weeks.
 Chemical Protective Ensembles pose serious heat-stress problems for wears in any weather but are particularly severe in summer and hot climates
For personnel in full protective ensembles such as NBC or EOD suits overheating is a particularly severe problem and even dangerous. Suited working times can be reduced to 15-20 minutes or less. This drastically limits the ability to perform most tasks without jeopardizing the well bring or life of the wearer. High activity or working in direct sun exacerbates the problem. It can become virtually impossible for these units to accomplish their mission in a timely manner in hot weather.
CoolZone Vest acts as a heat sink maintaining normal body temperature. Wearers work effectively and can remain safely suited for 2-4 times longer
The best solution is to prevent the body from overheating despite the outside temperature or personal activity level. Ideally the approach should work with and enhance the body’s natural cooling system. CoolZone exotherm type technology was developed to do exactly this as a passive method of body thermal regulation for personnel executing duties in hot-dry and hot-humid conditions. It is simple, effective in cooling even with high heat loads during exercise, rugged and reusable, and capable of being charged in minutes with minimal or no support.
CoolZone from the 50-Degree Company is the “original phase-change” technology developed for personal body cooling in the early ‘90s. It was developed at the request of the US Armed Forces during Desert Storm. At that time, it became clear that cooling using evaporative products, ice/gel, water circulative and vortex cooling had limitations that made them either limited or unsuitable for many fielded environments and demands. Some were ineffective, others too complex, while others, though providing a sensation of cooling at the skin, did not affect core temperature. Problems of charging and recharging units in the field were issues for passive technologies, while active technologies required power sources, excessive maintenance, and were costly all of which limited their attractiveness.
 CoolZone Vest’s special UniPaks fit snug to the body to gain maximum cooling yet allow free movement
CoolZone’s anatomic exotherm type technology is like no other. It employs proprietary features such as a customized Heat Transfer Formula, with the ability for temperature blends to work at any range between 42F to 150F. It can, in fact, be used in cooling or warming humans, animals and/or inanimate objects/equipment. The cooling UniPaks uniquely feature high tensile strength, puncture resistance, mildew and bacteria resistance, and blunt force energy absorption. In addition they are specialty formed to deliver the maximum and most efficient cooling to the user for the longest period possible. Cool Zone is unique in key aspects that remain proprietary and unduplicated.
The CoolZone exotherm approach has been enhanced and adapted to address the requirements of a wide range of tasks and operational applications. Models include Cooling Vests, head/helmet cooling pads; cooling inserts for body armor and load bearing gear, cool seats for aircraft, boats, vehicles etc.; casualty evacuation cooling and heating, universal cool packs/pads for special missions, equipment and applications, and canine cooling vests and resting pads. Optional features include high-temperature resistant packs; special carrying strap sets paks, and a range of colors, including any camouflage pattern and high visibility marking.
The advanced nature of CoolZone allows for the configuration and temperature blend to be customized for each specific application. In addition they employ configuration and human factor aspects in the designs that optimize the effectiveness, comfort and duration of the cooling offered. These criteria to include:
- Optimizing the temperature of cooling medium vis-à-vis the area of the body it is placed on
- Maximizing thermal exchange with the body at the most efficient locations to abstract heat where maximum load is generated;
- Providing adequate duration for each mission/application
- Minimizing weight ratio to maximum operational output
- Unencumbered range of motion and freedom of movement by wearer
- Offering low UniPak recharging time and simplified recharging methods
- Providing maximum strength and durability cooling packs with proprietary medical grade tri-polymer polyurethane paks
- Safe, non-toxic, dielectric and approved HTF blends
- Compatibility with SCBA/breathing, load bearing and PPE equipment
CoolZone is specifically designed to be compatible with various PPE including Level A & B suits, fire bunker gear, NBC Suits like JS-LIST, body armor, bomb suits and other protective garments. The Cool Zone “UniPakÔ“ includes specific designs for various body armor styles to include the US “Interceptor”, PRU-60 and -60A aircrew armor and various other military and law enforcement designs. CoolZone is the only technology that has adequately addressed the challenges and performance required for body armor cooling. The benefits of personal cooling in body armor have been proven by military, national government and local law enforcement in field operations as early as the 1996 Olympics.
 CoolZone inserts in body armor keep the wearer from overheating, improves hydration, and maintains personal energy levels
In the mid ‘90’s, the CoolZone team worked with the a number of US military labs, U.S. Army OPTEC, AFOTEC, United States Sports Academy Sports Medicine Lab, and Alabama Sports Medicine and HealthSouth to determine the optimum temperature needed for effective body regulation. The results established 53-55F temperature range in anatomic vessels as the only torso vest solution possessing adequate cooling energy for personnel in “worst-case” environments - hot-humid conditions with heavy activity burdened by chemical protective suits.
This was confirmed in independent Navy/Marine trials with NBC MOPP4 suits at Camp Lejeune in 1996. This evaluation used two teams – one with the CoolZone vest and one team without, both teams performed the same tasks. Team One could not perform beyond 35 minutes, while all of Team Two continued for 2 hours and 50 minutes before the exercise was halted. The Air Force Operations Test & Evaluation Center and Alamo Research Laboratory conducted a full-blown instrumented test in 1997. Using firefighters in full gear performing a variety of tasks over several days they compared individual body vitals with and without the cooling vest. The favorable result in preventing measured increase in body core temperature resulted in their recommendation for worldwide Air Force use.
USAF evaluation of CoolZone confirmed its benefits for operations in any personal protective equipment, including full encapsulated suits
Further testing by AFCESA explored specific use with JS-List Protective Overgarments and MOPP2 / MOPP4. Their results with the 147 EOD Flight plus later evaluation of fluorescent orange CoolZone vests completed by Air Force Civil Engineers at field sites in the US Southwest in 2003 further confirmed the positive benefits for firefighters, HAZMAT, security, and military engineers. Additional tests conducted saw its adoption for Marine and Army EOD teams, US Army chemical depots and explosive/chemical response units, Mine Search teams, US government WMD response teams, combat and rescue pilots and military and civil police.
Tests, field evaluations and user experiences confirm that CoolZone precludes body core temperature extremes and effectively acts to maintain normal body temperatures despite stress, physical activity, ambient temperatures or restricted natural body evaporative cooling due to heavy or impermeable outer garments or humid conditions.
Plus, its availability in a number of configurations allows it to be adapted to a number of applications and tasks.
Charging or “energizing” of the CoolZone Unipaks can be done in a number of ways. Placing the paks in a standard refrigerator or in a portable insulated “ice-chest” filled with ice and water is simple and fast. UniPaks recharge in 15-30 minutes (depending on the pak volume and working temperature). Generally this has been has been acceptable for most users for local and domestic situations. However, feedback units deployed in Iraq identified a need for a charging capability that was portable yet not requiring ice.
The portable T-E UniPak Charger allows rapid energizing CoolZone units at remote sites or in deployments using vehicle or line power
To address this need 50-Degree introduced the Thermo-Electric Charger/Coolers. These fully portable units are ideal for military and other users in remote and mobile situations. Rugged and high efficiency they operate from vehicle, battery, generator or household power. Offered in three sizes the smallest for individual use is only 26 lbs with 2-3 Pak sets. The largest is 65 lbs, a 2-man carry, holding 10-12 pak sets. The T-E Coolers can be carried in tactical vehicles, aircraft, or used in stationary sites.
In addition, capitalizing on the unique temperature adaptability of the CoolZone formula, 50-Degree developed cooling units that can be self-charging. These “extended operation” units will recharge themselves when placed in “cooler” surroundings. This can be an air-conditioned area or simply in lower nighttime temperatures as occur in many deserts. The T-E Charger and Extended-Ops units allow CZ personal cooling to be available to user or military units in even the most remote environments with maximum flexibility and minimal support.
CoolZone offers significant enhancement in the effectiveness and operational capability of personnel performing a wide range of tasks in hot-dry or hot-humid conditions, or those required working in heavy protective gear or body armor. It eliminates adverse physiological effects on the body and reduces dehydration, thus, assuring a users performance levels. They are able to operate longer without feeling fatigued or reducing alertness and reaction times. They, thus, are more capable, can execute more tasks, and retain energy and stamina over personnel without the cooling units.
CoolZone have been adopted by US military and law enforcement EOD and bomb disposal teams
CoolZone has proved effective and essential for tasks like NBC decontamination, bomb disposal, and HAZMAT response. They allow the users to safety and effectively work for hours rather than minutes – and do so in any season. Cool Zone’s technology has also demonstrated that it provides both an increase in personal effectiveness and in unit mission capability offering a force multiplier in a wide range of other applications. These include use by air and vehicle crews, security and reaction forces, sentries and checkpoints, first responders, and selected combat units. The technology is also uniquely able to provide an affordable, effective approach to assuring stable casualty body temperature during evacuation from the front line to rear treatment areas.
In fact, due to its adaptability the CoolZone exotherm constant temperature regulation is continually finding new applications. It is currently being explored as a solution to assuring the viability of sensitive medical supplies in storage and transport in remote areas. Whatever the use, CoolZone is assured to prove an effective and field friendly solution to the challenges of effectively operating and gaining and edge in hot environments worldwide.
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