Corrosion Maintenance of Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy (PVHO)

For years accepted regulations and codes have ensured the quality of construction for diving systems; pressure vessels in particular. This includes the areas of material requirements, design, fabrication, examination, inspection and the approval stamping. Then why does it take only 18 months in the field to deteriorate into a "rust bucket" when all that prior planning and quality control was applied in the design and manufacturing stages? Design paramenters of PVHO class vessels try to provide for a useful life of approximately 20+ years, providing it receives proper maintenance. Emphasis of this paper is directed at after-the-sale care that should be accomplished by the owner/operator to maintain PVHO quality built systems, effectively and economically.