niccolo wrote:
This again! Anyone want to take a cut at how closed-cell, nitrogen-blown rubber is somehow supposed to be permeable to water, yet the nitrogen doesn't leak out? There seems to be a basic confusion between an open cell and a closed-cell sponge here...and can you imagine swimming in a wetsuit made of open-cell sponge that got progressively waterlogged?
As far as I know, wetsuit neoprene is a closed cell foam (I have worked with a bunch of closed cell foams, though not neoprene). For neoprene, my guess is that if pure nitrogen is used to blow the cells, eventually the pure nitrogen does permeate out, but, since the rubber foam has a semi-rigid structure, the outgassing of the pure nitrogen is replaced by the ingassing of ambient air (which, of course, is mostly nitrogen as well).
About 'pre-wetting' wetsuits, in theory at least, the water should not enter the neoprene. But what the water can affect are all of the other permeable suit materials, like the inner fabric liners, maybe the glues, and the threads holding the stitching together. For example, the fabric inner liner protects the neoprene and adds some strength to it, especially when you are stretching the wetsuit and shoving your arms and legs through it. When that liner fabric is wetted, first, it is lubricated. Second, the liner fabric fibers might absorb some water and perhaps that water absorption might affect the fibers' strength, flexibility, and/or brittleness.
Or, at least, that is my take on this ...
Greg @ dsw
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