Did an Airforce officer just design the holy grail of "cooling suits"?

[Kokanee]

Air Force lieutenant invents a low-tech cooling system for your body armor

The device pumps cold water from the user's Camelbak and circulates it through tubes wrapped beneath their armor plates.

taskandpurpose.com

This looks legit, and should be cheap to produce if the military starts ordering them by the truckload...

 

[lmgill]

There have been so many variations on coolsuit concepts, this one isn't that much different. I have spent a long time thinking about and building coolsuit systems. It all comes down to a solution that is currently a bit of a physics' "dead end". We don't have a material that can absorb or dissipate enough heat, while being compact enough to be portable and lightweight. So these designs just trade one problem variant for another. You either have a cooling loop that is too heavy and or power hungry, that portability suffers, or you have portability, with limited efficiency or duration.

 

[dkaniel]

This Air Force Design looks simple and is focused on removing heat from the Chest Region when the user is wearing Body Armor. It is not a full body suit concept so it might just work. How well the system works if you are running, jumping or diving for cover may be another thing and only time will tell if it has any merit. When I was a Police Officer years ago wearing Body Armor under my shirt, the panels would trap a lot of heat. I remember having to regulary pull the front panel away from my chest to allow the heat escape from my body. What I was wearing is nothing compared to what soldiers have to carry so if it doesn't work or is too cubersome the troops in the field will never use it.

 

[Kokanee]

This Air Force Design looks simple and is focused on removing heat from the Chest Region when the user is wearing Body Armor. It is not a full body suit concept so it might just work. How well the system works if you are running, jumping or diving for cover may be another thing and only time will tell if it has any merit. When I was a Police Officer years ago wearing Body Armor under my shirt, the panels would trap a lot of heat. I remember having to regulary pull the front panel away from my chest to allow the heat escape from my body. What I was wearing is nothing compared to what soldiers have to carry so if it doesn't work or is too cubersome the troops in the field will never use it.

Exactly, this is what I think sets this apart from other efforts in the area. It's being designed with the military in mind, so if it works for them, it should work just fine for your average person in costume hanging around a con.