A few words about plastic zips in dry suits

A few years ago, a plastic lock appeared on the market and most of the diving suit manufacturers included it in their offer. The first was TiZip and its strongest model – MasterSeal 10 with a pressure resistance of up to 0.5 bar. Ti Zip also offers, for diving suits, the weaker version MasterSeal 6, with a pressure resistance of up to 0.2 bar.

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The materials used in production are:

• Zipper components – Polyamide/steel
• straps – Polyester
• Belt coating – Polyurethane

Some time later, the YKK Aquaseal® plastic zipper appeared

• 5 with a pressure resistance of 0.05bar
• 10 with a pressure resistance of 0.3bar

The materials used are the same as in the TiZip locks, while YKK have greatly expanded their range for lock ‘heads’. In my opinion, the best option is an attached cord. The T-bar, or a very similar handle in TiZip is hard to hide under the security lock, it can sometimes get caught on the belt, jacket, harness… and cause it to come undone.

Important! According to the manufacturer, YKK Aquaseal® zips are not suitable for dry suits!

YKK gives us the choice/option, of securing the zipper against tearing by adding a stop at the bottom, top, bottom and top, or none at all. Personally, I prefer the lack of this stop from under which it is sometimes difficult to slide the head of the zipper out.

In TiZip locks the most common problem was delaminating tape, I believe 90% of these problems were due to incorrect installation, which you can read about on the group. YKK has a different technological process of tape welding what you can see on the picture. So far I have not encountered delamination in these locks.

The length of a plastic lock is measured in the same way as metal locks, i.e. the length of the teeth with tips, not the length of the straps. Generally there are no standard lengths, locks are made to measure for each customer. The minimum length of the lock is 15 cm and the maximum is 10 metres. The most common lengths in diving suits are 81 cm, 86 cm, 91 cm, 96 cm.

Regular cleaning with water and use of appropriate lubricant is recommended to avoid damage. Contrary to what you might think, plastic zips are very resistant to damage, as you can see in the picture they are not afraid of sand. Our plastic suits have done well over two thousand dives in such conditions and have never been cleaned regularly as recommended by manufacturers (I do not recommend such treatment). On the other hand, the method of storage is very important. We do it with the zipper fully closed, being careful not to bend it. Storing in the open position for an extended period of time can cause the zipper to bend/deform!

This post was originally published in the group “Shell diving suits”.