EBS
Cold days continue. How are you doing lately? I’m Hisahito, 
a member of Quality Management Section. We have been so busy due to multiple training deliveries every week. However, not this week and it rarely happen nowadays. A week like this is also busy week due to other thigs need to be taken care of. For example, maintenance on training facilities, trials of new techniques and demonstration experiments.
Anyway, let me start on what’s on tittle of this article. You may be wondering what EBS is. It is not name of training course which is usually series of alphabet like BOSIET, FOET, ADC etc. I would like to introduce EBS jacket, one of the essential training equipment.
At first, EBS is short for Emergency Breathing System. EBS (actual name of product is LAP jacket) is the equipment used for Helicopter Underwater Escape Training, which delegates put on top of aviation suits. Simply, it is combination of emergency breathing system and life jacket. In the emergency breathing system, you simply fill a bag called counterlung though mouthpiece and hose with your own breath and rebreathe it for few times. As most of you may know, your breath still contains sufficient oxygen left in it. It can be rebreathe for few times until you escape out of helicopter underwater. However, note that this EBS is for training use, and actual EBS has additional air supply from a little cylinder. For more detailed information, please ask the instructor when you take the training course. Structure of the jacket is much easier describe with photos than words, so here are some photos.
This is EBS before use. Mouth piece and hose assembly is stored in bulky part in center and the cover and main body has matching 4 loops and they are tied together with red thread. These red threads are also proof of EBS inspected and ready for use,
and they are only broken when user pull the cover open.
Open up all the places closed together with Velcro, spread out on table and this is what it look like.
Counterlung, mouthpiece and hose assembly are clean and sanitized in accordance with procedure set by the manufacture, and maintenance performed for next use. And randomly picked samples are tested twice a year for bacteria in the credible laboratory. Person must complete training course held by maker,
not held in Japan, and have a valid certificate to perform maintenance on the EBS jacket (actually called “LAP jacket” by maker).
Maintenance on EBS is just one example, behind the scenes, NSTC staffs are thoroughly maintaining our training facilities and equipment, so you could train safe and secure.
That’s all for today, and thank you for reading. We are looking forward to seeing you for training.
(written by Hisahito, Quality Management Section)
