Triton powered respirator PRA001

[mikm]

Hold the press! Here is my last minute review.

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Product description:
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The Triton powered respirator combines four separate elements of Australian standards approved personal protective equipment (PPE) in a single, self contained wearable device to provide protection against impact to the head and face, excessive noise and particulate ingestion by the lungs.



The product consists of a belt mounted filter attached to protective head gear via a flexible hose, providing a positive pressure environment of clean air to the user. The filter pack contains a washable pre-filter, two replaceable main filter cartridges and a rechargeable battery powered fan. The head gear is based on the typical hard-hat arrangement familiar to most, with a clear face shield, adjustable earmuffs and fabric shroud.


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Specifications:
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As provided by the specifications PDF from Triton website:

BATTERY
6.0V DC Ni-Cd
RUN TIME
More than 4 hrs on full charge
FILTERED AIRFLOW RATE
Approx. 120 litres per minute (5.3cfm)
HELMET SIZE
Adjustable to suit headband sizes 53 - 60cm
WEIGHT
3.6kg (7.9lb) approx.
AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS
• Respiratory Protection - AS/NZS 1716; PAPR 1 with the supplied cartridge Protector filters or PAPR 2 with optional CIGWELD Filters.
• Eye Protection - AS/NZS 1337 "Eye protectors for industrial applications" to "high impact resistance" performance level.
• Hearing Protection - AS/NZS 1270 "Acoustics - Hearing protectors", 23dB rating.
• Head Protection - AS/NZS 1801
CARTRIDGE FILTERS
• Protector RC 64 (supplied as standard)
• CIGWELD 455481
PRE-FILTERS
• Cleanable, Triton part no. PRA009


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Proscribed use:
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The respirator DOES NOT provide adequate protection against the following:
• poisonous dusts, eg. Garden pesticides.
• mists, gases or vapour.
• low oxygen atmospheres.
• flammable gases or explosive dusts (eg spray painting, grain handling facilities,
powder coating etc).

Reduced respiratory protection occurs if used:
• outside the normal operating temperature range from -6°C to 50°C. Power delivery from the battery pack can be expected to be compromised at lower temperatures, reducing effective run-time.
• with an air flow delivery less than the lower limit, as measured with the supplied
flow meter.
• at a high rate of aerobic activity.
• in high winds.


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Included items:
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The box (fig1) contains a pre-assembled filter unit, pre-assembled head gear, flexible hose, flow meter, spare pre-filter and power pack for battery charging (fig2). Packing has been optimised for volumetric efficiency in shipping and storage, so the respirator and associated peripherals don't easily return to the original box for storage.


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Powered filter construction:
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Air is drawn through the pre-filter at the base of the unit (fig3) by a Ni-cad powered centrifugal fan (fig4) in a lower chamber. Partially cleaned air is then directed up through two cartridge filters into a top chamber (figure 5 shows the upper cover, seen in figure 2, removed) and then out the flexible hose to the head gear.


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Head gear construction:
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A three position flip-up face shield (figs 6, 7 and 8) is attached to a hard-hat with integrated ear muffs and drawstring shroud. The ear muffs employ two-position detent action for use as required or not; complete removal is not recommended due to the large uncovered holes that would be left in the shroud. Figure 9 shows the 'open' position of the ear muffs, allowing normal hearing while retaining head, face and lung protection. The ear muffs are intended to slide up (fig10) and down (fig11) their arms to accommodate differing head geometries, although one side of the unit tested was unable to do so as purchased. The circled region seen in figure 12 shows where the problem occurred: the end of the mounting arm should be neatly squared off, but one was shaped more like the raised edge of a cabinet scraper. Careful work with a knife was required to smooth the edge flat to stop it binding at the end of the rectangular slot (circled) and allow free sliding movement.
The shroud is attached to the helmet with a flexible binding across the back of the helmet (fig 10) and to a rigid hoop running under the chin that also seals the bottom of the face shield (fig 13). A draw string pulls the bottom snugly against the neck.


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The respirator in use:
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• PPE effectiveness
The 23 dB attenuation offered by the ear muffs is found to be quite adequate for table saw noise and would no doubt be similarly effective for most other mechanically generated noise. The powered respirator appears to be very effective in dusty environments with none of the normal throat or nose irritation during or after use and a lack of the usual evidence in a tissue at the end of a dusty day. Impact protection expected from the face shield and hard hat have not been tested at the time of writing, but Australian Standards compliance suggests these items should behave as expected.
Perhaps the greatest area of concern in terms of projected longevity is the face shield. According to Triton, the face shield is "moulded from a high grade, scratch resistant polycarbonate". In practice however, it is extremely easy to scratch the face shield, with the grade of polycarbonate appearing to have inferior scratch resistance to that used in spectacles, for example. Figure 14 shows the condition of the visor after only six to eight hours use (by a spectacle wearing owner of SLR camera lenses. read: no dill when it comes to the care of optics) over three occasions. Further, the moulding of the curvature results in a mild ripple distortion over the entire surface. The presence of copious levels of static charge also attracts dust to the visor, requiring removal with a soft brush as any form of careful wiping was found to scratch.

• Battery life and charging
The operating current draw of the fan was measured at 1015 mA, so the manufacturers claim of four hours (minimum) run time is reasonable given the use of 5000 mA/hr batteries and the expectation of some inefficiency. Run time in practical use also corroborates this claim.
Charging time is barely, if at all, acceptable at 15 hours, with the cordless power engineering of the PRA001 now (2009) severely dated. The energy density and longevity of competing storage technologies such as lithium-ion is vastly superior, and the semiconductor cost of intelligent charging solutions is now trivial in production run volumes. The unit would also benefit from removable rechargeable batteries to allow continuous use.

• Ergonomics
Some owners on the forum have reported that the head unit becomes heavy after extended use, but this wasn't found to be a problem. Heat does detract from comfort, as does wearing the filter unit at the small of you back after consumption of dietary fibre.

• Flow rate
After approximately six to eight hours use in very dusty (dirt and wood) conditions, the flow rate was found to be diminished even after tapping all three filters to remove surface dust. Figure 15 shows the flow meter with a charged battery pack, indicating that the main cartridges could probably be replaced.

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Conclusion:
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The PRA001 is not the class leading solution one may argue of the Triton routers or superjaws, but it certainly represents a value for money method of protecting your health. A forum search will reveal numerous useful (and otherwise) opinions and modifications to the PRA001, and some functionality and implementation concerns are quite valid, but not enough to detract from the overall suitability to task.
The only potential cause for concern at the time of writing for some may be the questionable warranty and spare parts support until (if) the company resumes trading...

[Superbunny]

As I own one, fair comment.

SB

[BobL]

• PPE effectiveness
The 23 dB attenuation offered by the ear muffs is found to be quite adequate for table saw noise and would no doubt be similarly effective for most other mechanically generated noise.
.
.
.

Perhaps the greatest area of concern in terms of projected longevity is the face shield.

I have a bit of an issue with the first of these. 23dB is not what I would called adequate - I would in fact call that "pretty poor" for a muff. They are virtually ineffective for use with any chainsaw except an electric. Because the triton has a hard hat I occasionally do use it when cutting up dusty wood with a chainsaw, but I find I have to wear ear plugs as well. These days there should be no excuse for using muffs rated to anything less than 30 dB. The Peltor H10A and H10B I have have this and more above 500 Hz which is what we should all be aiming for.

Although there are better around, the face sheild I have not had any problems with after 3 years although I do treat it very carefully and put it back in its box after use.

I use my triton mainly when resawing timber with a TS or BS and some turning. When I mill logs I use peltor H10B muffs and a full face poly shield I bought from Makit hardware for ~$40. The makit shield is pretty tough and although is costs quite a bit more it remains clear for a lot longer than the Bunnings protector equivalent.

[mikm]

Good points, Bob
I've never tried this gear with a chain saw, but I suspect you're on the right track to be mindful of the rated attenuation rather than the "yep, it's quieter in here with these on and my ears don't hurt afterwards so they can't be too bad" format of apprasial I used in the review. While I'm comfortable continuing to use the same setup for the intermittent bursts of exposure to the noise levels I've used the head gear for so far, I'll keep your suggestions in mind if circumstances change.
Thanks,
Mick