Sweden: Trelleborg and Scubapro to Provide Vanilla Flavoured Hoses for Scuba Divers

Scuba divers demand safety and reliability from their equipment. Trelleborg offers both, plus a little sweetener: vanilla-flavored rubber hoses.

The underwater world offers weightlessness, a sense of adventure and a potential for exploration that simply can’t be matched on dry land. But as this world is not man’s natural environment, a considerable amount of gear is required to slip beneath the waves. In particular, the reliability of breathing equipment is of great importance to those who tumble backwards off the side of a boat into the depths of the ocean.

For nearly 50 years Scubapro has been furnishing divers with first-class scuba equipment. One of the company’s core products is the regulator, a device that delivers breathing gas to the diver from an air tank via a meter-long hose. This hose needs to tolerate saltwater, UV light and rough handling aboard dive boats, as well as diving conditions ranging from the warm tropical waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the chill of the North Atlantic.

PVC-based hoses are a solution used by some manufacturers, but they lack flexibility and do not tolerate well the full range of water temperatures of the world’s dive zones.

Rubber has proven to be the ideal material, but it has the drawback of a somewhat unpalatable flavor that can be picked up by the air as it makes its way from the tank on the diver’s back. To counteract this, some 20 years ago Scubapro, working closely with Trelleborg, came up with the cunning solution of flavoring the rubber with vanilla.

“We are No. 1 in regulators and we need the best components for our products,” says Alberto Belloni, General Manager of Scubapro’s manufacturing facility in Casarza Ligure, close to Genoa in northern Italy. He says that the most important haracteristics for regulators overall are reliability and performance.

“For the hoses themselves, it is important to have a consistent geometry inside to give the right air flow,” Belloni explains. “They also need to be flexible at all temperatures. It comes down to a compromise between hardness, softness and the longevity of the material. Trelleborg’s material is a great compromise.”

Naturally based vanillin, which is used in the food and pharmaceutical industries, is added to the rubber used in the inner tube while it is being mixed to give the hoses their pleasant flavor. “It completely eliminates the taste of the rubber,” says Luca Colombo, Trelleborg sales manager for industrial hoses in Italy. “Also we don’t use phthalates, esters of phthalic acid, which are used in plastic products to increase flexibility. So divers do not have to suffer the taste of rubber or breathe in any dangerous materials.”

So why was vanilla chosen rather than strawberry or maybe even chocolate? “This was a marketing decision rather than a technical one,” says Colombo. “Strawberry was popular with female divers but less so with males. Vanilla was more genderneutral – plus it also better matches up with the color of Scubapro’s hoses, some of which are yellow.”

Development of the hoses took place at Trelleborg’s plant in Clermont Ferrand in central France, the company’s largest factory for industrial hoses. Trelleborg and Scubapro have been collaborating closely on the scuba hoses for more than 20 years, with the product undergoing constant evolution. The rubber in today’s hoses, for example, is 0.5 millimeters thinner than it was two decades ago. This has helped Scubapro reduce the total weight of its equipment while contributing to increased flexibility of the hose.

“We are constantly working with the customer to come up with new solutions,” says Colombo. “Having developed this product for more than 20 years we are now close to the point where it is the best it could possibly be.”

Trelleborg’s scuba hoses

The hoses have a three-layer construction: an inner tube containing vanilla flavoring, a textile reinforcement layer and an outer cover. Some 1.5 meters are used within each diving regulator. The hoses, which are phthalate-free, meet U.S. FDA requirements and exceed the ISO EN 250 standard for respiratory equipment. They are micropierced to avoid the formation of bubbles.

Trelleborg is Europe’s largest manufacturer of rubber hoses for use in scuba equipment and the only company to have a continuous presence in the industry.

100 years of suits

Trelleborg’s Viking brand is recognized as a world leader in professional diving suits, and the company is also a major global player within protective suits under the brand Trellchem. But did you know that there is a 100-year history behind the apparel? Trelleborg started production of raincoats in 1910 in the Swedish city that is its namesake. Given the company’s proximity to the port, it was a natural step for Trelleborg to start producing diving suits as well as splash-protective suits for the shipping industry. The oldest known picture of a Trelleborg diving suit was taken in 1914, a time when the suits were adapted to various brands of diving helmets. Today’s Viking dry suits have set the standard for durability, protection and compatibility among divers in all areas of the diving business. Viking products include a full range of accessories from hoods, helmet yokes and gloves to specially made valves and underwater bags.

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Source: Trelleborg, August 1, 2011;